This is no ordinary barn. With a focus on having a fun, interesting, unique atmosphere, Jessup Farm Barrel House has renovated the 130-year-old barn on the old Jessup Farm in Fort Collins. 

The brew house is being opened by the owners of Funkwerks, Brad Lincoln and Gordon Schuck, and will bring in a main producer of the beer, Jeff Albarella. It will open in November. 

“I first met (Brad and Gordon) in Chicago at brewing school and have stayed in touch,” Albarella said. “We’re all partners, but this is completely separate from Funkwerks. We won’t be stepping on each other’s toes.”

The barn that the brew house is located in had been renovated, but they tried to keep as much of the original as possible. A lot of the panels on the siding are original, as well as the ceiling and roof inside. They did build another roof on top of the old for insulation reasons.

“The niche we want to focus on is producing barrel-aged beer,” Albarella said. “For us to get started, we will be looking at barrel aging and beers that are fermented with an ale-yeast. We want to produce barrel-aged beers that aren’t huge high-alcohol beers. Since we are a kind of neighborhood brewery here, something we want is for people to be able to come in, have a beer or two, take a growler home and come back the next day.”

The brew house will be mainly focused on beer. Though they are hoping to open a small restaurant eventually and be able to serve some small appetizers, this will mainly be experimental beer brewing and blending.

“We have a mix of Colorado whiskey barrels, Breckenridge bourbon barrels, some tequila barrels from Mexico and Nicaraguan rum barrels that we are hoping to use for the blending,” Albarella said.

Many locals seem to like the idea as well — especially what they did to preserve the history.

“I think it’s great to preserve the historical buildings,” said Janet Taggart, a local of Fort Collins.  “I think it will bring more local businesses to the area. But I also think it’ll take more than just the neighborhood here to succeed.”

Ken Albright, a local who used to live in the area, is also excited.

“We used to live right down the road,” Albright said. “When we first moved here, it was still a farmhouse with horses. We’ve been watching it since and were hoping that they would do something with the buildings. I think it’s a good idea because the area is still developing and I think it will do well.”

The Jessup Farm Barrel House is planning on opening in mid-November of this year.

Collegian Reporter Dallas Head can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @water4rams.