Horse Thief Hollow Brewing Co. in Beverly took home gold at the U.S. Open Beer Championships in Ohio last month for its Wrenly Rose Belgian-style beer.
"Wrenly Rose is our barrel-aged Belgian Tripel, which is a stronger style, but it's a pale beer," said head brewer Jake Nelson. "We age it in wine barrels. They previously held pinot noir from a place called Wren Hop Vineyards in California."
He said the beer previously won a gold medal at the Festival of Barrel Aged Beer but that this batch was even better.
"It rested in barrels for 26 months, which is the longest we've ever done it," he said. "That really gave us the opportunity to to do some blending with fresh beer."
Horse Thief has been selling the beer since 2019. Nelson said he was confident this batch would perform well at the competition.
"It's kind of intensely flavored because it's higher in alcohol, 10%," he said. "The fermentation characteristics give off nice pear notes, a little bit of spice, some orange peel and then the French oak just gives a really nice oaky layer on top of that."
He said since taking home gold, the beer has grown in popularity.
"We've gotten a huge uptick in the amount of people that that are ordering the beer coming in looking for bottles," he said. "It's been fantastic."
He said while the Chicago beer scene is great and large, it's mostly focused on the North Side, so he hopes this recognition will highlight other great beer spots in the city.
"It's always good that we can prove ourselves and and remind people that there's amazing beer all over the city, but come down to the South Side, and we certainly have some of the best beer, too," Nelson said.
