The Unlikely Origins of Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks.
Late in 2016, Jim Crooks, master blender at Firestone Walker’s Barrel works, brought something wild to Liefmans in Belgium. Founded in 1697, the storied brewery in Oudenaarde is best known for Goudenband, the iconic Oud Bruin. In 2008, another Belgian brewing family, the Moortgats, makers of Duvel, had plucked Liefmans out of bankruptcy.
Crooks says that as he helped fine-tune the new program at the 300-year-old company, he stopped and thought: “Pinch me.” But maybe he should have expected the assignment. Crooks is connected to the brewers at Liefmans through his employer, the latest beneficiary of the Moortgat family’s investments in interesting breweries. His astonishment persisted, however, because he was helping Olav Blancquaert and Marc Coesens shape an experimental sour barrel project by drawing on knowledge gained from a covert program that had nearly ended his career five years earlier.
Starting early last summer, Crooks shipped two containers of barrels and specialized equipment from Barrel works on the rural Central California Coast to the medieval city on the banks of the Schelde River. One hundred American- and French-oak California wine barrels were filled with vintage Liefmans beers, 100 bourbon barrels with a custom brew from Duvel. Something new was on the horizon: an experiment that brings innovative American wild beer techniques to Belgium, the very country that inspired their invention.
This story is from the #122 (March 2017) edition of BeerAdvocate magazine.
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This story is from the #122 (March 2017) edition of BeerAdvocate magazine.
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The Unlikely Origins of Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks.
