3 Floyds & Firestone Walker to Release Collaboration Ol’ Leghorn Barleywine This Weekend

From Firestone Walker Brewing & 3 Floyds:

Here comes Ol’ Leghorn, a swaggering rooster of a beer made by Nick Floyd of 3 Floyds Brewing Co. and Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker Brewing Company, old friends of nearly 20 years who both cut their brewing teeth in the mid 1990s Chicago craft beer scene.

Ol’ Leghorn was initially brewed by Floyd and Brynildson during last year’s Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest. In a shout-out to Firestone Walker’s and Nick Floyd’s mutual English heritage, this blonde barleywine was brewed with traditional English ale malting varieties—Golden Promise and Optic base malts—with no specialty malt added. 

The beer was then racked to a combination of retired bourbon barrels and new American oak wine barrels for aging at Firestone Walker Brewing Company.  In fearless 3 Floyds fashion, another batch of dry-hopped Ol’ Leghorn was recently brewed for blending into the aged beer, to add a fresh, hoppy layer to the more intense spirits barrel and oaky character of the initial batch.

The result is a staggeringly hoppy blonde barleywine that will first be unveiled at the 2014 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Fest in Paso Robles on Saturday, May 31. Additionally, 22-ounce bottles will be available for purchase (six bottle limit per customer) at Firestone Walker’s Brewery Store on Sunday, June 1 starting at 10 a.m., with very limited market release later in the month. Ol’ Leghorn is meant to be consumed fresh in its youth, and vigilantly cold stored in the meantime.

The name Ol’ Leghorn is a nod to Old Foghorn, the original iconic American barleywine made by Anchor Brewing, by way of Foghorn Leghorn, the wisecracking Looney Toons rooster.

UPDATE 10 Sep 2014:  The label above was just approved and the beer will now come in at 14% ABV instead of the original 10.5% ABV.

About MyBeer Buzz

Founder, owner, author, graphic designer, CEO, CFO, webmaster, president, mechanic and janitor for mybeerbuzz.com. Producer and Co-host of the WILK Friday BeerBuzz live weekly craft beer radio show. Small craft-brewer of the craft beer news sites and one-man-band with way too many instruments to play........Copyright 2007-2024 mybeerbuzz.com All Rights Reserved: Use of this content on ANY site without written permission is not allowed.