Firestone Walker Brewing's Venice Hub Delayed Until Possibly 2016

It’s been a busy year for Firestone Walker, what with their long-announced Venice brewery/taproom finally starting to take shape. Heavy construction has been ongoing for many months, with the brand showing photos of the work in progress back in April.

Since then it’s been relatively slow going, at least on the city approval and permitting side. Firestone says now that their projected early fall arrival was made through rose-colored glasses; an end-of-year debut is much more likely, though a 2016 arrival is certainly within the realm of possibility at this point.

On the upside, the team did share some full-color renderings of the forthcoming space, showing off the restaurant portion and several exteriors of the multi-functional plot. Mostly the place is primed to retain the sort of rustic casual appeal that has made the company’s Buellton and Paso Robles locations so popular — that means corrugated steel, exposed beams, and lots of brown and silver touches.

Buried in the comments section is something else quite interesting, too: Firestone Walker will be adding in a smaller lounge area exclusively for their Barrelworks line, which are barrel-aged wild yeast fermentation beers. It’s the backbone of their operation in Buellton, and one that has beer geeks seriously nerding out.

Of course, Firestone Walker has also been busy managing the details of their massive summer sale to Duvel, rumored to be somewhere in the quarter-billion dollar range. The sudden announcement arrived in July, and now positions Duvel as an overall company holding two of the U.S.’s highest-performing craft beer brands (alongside Boulevard Brewing).

Hopefully with such an infusion of cash, Firestone Walker Venice Beach can come to life sometime before 2016.