Booze, Beers & Barrels

At Firestone, we encourage our brewers to pursue what they are most passionate about. Jordan Ziegler, Barrel Master for our Vintage program, is a self-made brewer who worked his way up from the canning line to the title of head brewer at a leading Los Angeles craft brewery, where he also spearheaded the sour beer program. This role ignited his fascination with oak barrels. Jordan then joined Firestone Walker in 2019 and was tasked with overseeing our spirits barrel ageing program starting in 2023.

Part of the success of our Vintage program has to do with the relationships we have built with distilleries and barrel brokers. This allows us to ensure the barrel quality meets our standards and acquire premium spirit barrels of all types.

Another aspect that ensures we are making only the best barrel-aged beers is understanding the different types of styles within one particular spirit. Understanding the differences is crucial, especially when it comes to a spirit like, oh, whiskey. If Jordan wants to create a beer with a pronounced peaty, campfire smoke characteristic, then he will look to Scotland. If he wants a beer with some spice notes, then he will look to get high Rye Whiskey barrels. Even the location of the barrels changes the effect a barrel might have. Rum barrels from Jamaica will have different sensory characteristics from those from a distillery in Barbados.

Are we looking for an example from the field, however? We got you. Let’s take a look at PaRyebola, a featured beer from our recent “Bridge” collection courtesy of our Brewmaster’s Collective. PaRyebola is what happens when you take our iconic Parabola barrel-aged stout and crank up the volume by maturing it in straight rye whiskey barrels and raising the ABV to 15.2%. In short, it’s straight magic. 

The journey of this particular beer began when we inherited a coveted selection of small 30-gallon Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey barrels from FEW Spirits. In a stroke of good fortune, these barrels landed with more than a few shots of residual spirits still sloshing around inside. We immediately loaded them full of our classic Parabola base beer and let them work their magic for an extended maturation period of 18 months.  

Still following us? Good, because it’s time to introduce you to Oakpocalypse Now. Do you think this beer features some barrel work? If the “Oak” in the name wasn’t a solid giveaway, we even have some more solid info for you to crack into right here.

Also featured in our Bridge collection, Oakpocalypse Now may not be the end of the world, but it’s definitely earth-shattering.

Conceived in collaboration with the strong ale savants at Revolution Brewing in Chicago, Oakpocalypse Now is a Triple-Oaked Barleywine initially aged for nine months in Estate Oak Rye barrels inherited from WhistlePig Whiskey. We later racked half of the beer to Herman Story red wine barrels while adding new single-forest French oak staves to the remainder of the WhistlePig casks. The beer then spent an additional three months soaking up all of this oaky goodness. 

The result is an insanely complex barleywine with shades of rye whiskey and red wine, all interwoven with notes of vanilla, toffee, licorice and dark fruits. And most of those tastes are courtesy of the barrels we set it in for just the right amount of time. Pretty neat, right? 

But that’s only two of so many barrel-aged offerings we have on hand. We’re sure you’re already intrigued though, so you can fill up your cup of knowledge (and also your empty glass) and hear about how there’s so much more to be enjoyed with all our aged wonders on our Brewmaster’s Collective website.