What started as a friendly visit to a local brewery turned into a heartfelt tribute to a firefighter’s legacy, and a beer that disappeared from taps almost as quickly as it arrived.
Chris Ciulla, owner of Voodoo Brewing Co., was not looking for a business partner or a new product when he stopped by Bootleggers Brewing Co. one afternoon. He was simply visiting. However, during a casual conversation, Bootlegger’s owner, Shaun Goeckner, suggested something personal: brewing a specialty beer in honor of Chris’ recently retired firefighter father, James Thomas Ciulla.
Goeckner was immediately interested in working with Chris.
“I brought it up,” Goeckner said. “I told him, ‘Hey, we ought to brew a beer for your dad.’ That is what clinched my participation, having worked for the Conservation Corp as a youth fighting brush fires. Structure firefighters have it bad. Tough job, with many injuries from chemical and physical hazards on the job.”
The name took some thought.
“Fire Engine Red, Firehouse Red,” Goeckner remembered. “And the discussion turned to, well, that might not be the right image. You know, driving a fire engine, drinking beer, so Chris came up with Jimmy T’s Firehouse Red in honor of his father, a retired New York City firefighter.”
Once the idea took hold, Goeckner and Chris sat down with Bootlegger’s head brewer, John Santaniello, known around these parts simply as ‘John the Brewer.’ Chris and Goeckner sampled about a half-dozen Irish reds to find the right flavor profile. Santaniello nailed the recipe on the first try.
“John put it together in the first batch,” Goeckner said, “and Chris didn’t want us to tweak it at all. He loved it the way it was. So that’s how Jimmy T’s Firehouse Red was born. And it came out great!”
They brewed a small, one-barrel test batch to see how it would be received. The result? Instant success.
“When we tapped it for him, Chris was excited. It’s just fantastic,” Goeckner said. “Customers told me they happened to be there the first day it was on tap over at Voodoo, but it went so fast. It was gone by the weekend.”
Because of that response, Goeckner promised to brew Jimmy T’s again, but only for Chris.
“We don’t brew it unless he asks for it — it’s his beer,” he laughed, pointing out he would be “more than happy to brew a specialty beer for anyone with interest.”
For both men, it was about more than beer.
“Beer is a social lubricant. You can print that,” Goeckner said with a grin. “It’s the end-of-the-day, grassroot meetup, the meeting where everybody talks about what they got through and what they want to do.”
The experience of brewing Jimmy T’s Firehouse Red left an impression on Chris too.
“I had so much fun going down there and brewing beer,” Chris shared. “Selecting the hops and measuring out the ingredients, … that part of the experience was something that will last with me forever.”
For more information about Voodoo Brewing Co., located at 3432 S.R. 60 in Valrico, visit https://valrico.voodoobrewery.com. For more information about Bootleggers Brewing Co., located at 10256 Causeway Blvd. in Tampa, visit www.bootleggersbrewingco.com. Find them both on Facebook, where you can keep up with weekly events happening at both establishments.
