Firestone Walker Brewery - Heavy Things

Heavy Things is a barleywine made in collaboration with The Bruery and aged for a year in eight to 10-year-old brandy barrels inherited from a distillery in Napa Valley. This is a beer that lives up to its name with a whopping ABV of 16.5% while still managing to maintain poise and balance. The secret behind it is a brewing trick that we borrowed from The Bruery – adding premium maple syrup to the fermentation process, providing more fermentable sugars while imparting a hint of sweet caramelly quality to the beer. “It’s a practice we’d never done before at Firestone Walker,” said Barrel Program Manager Eric Ponce. “The great thing about collaborations is that you get to try new practices that another brewery has perfected.”