Rogue Brewery has announced the release of a new line of three beers starting in January of 2010. The concept behind the John John Ales is to start with one of Rogue Brewmaster, John Maier’s classic brews and age it in the Rogue spirit barrels of Rogue Spirits Master Distiller John Couchot, hence the name John John Ales.

The first of the John John series is John John Dead Guy Ale, Rogue’s award winning Dead Guy Ale matured in Rogue’s award winning Dead Guy Whiskey barrels. The cross collaboration of these two products starts with the distilling of Dead Guy Ale wort to create the Dead Guy Whiskey. The Whiskey is aged in Oak Barrels and bottled, then the Oak Barrels are taken from the distillery, by forklift, across the parking lot to the Brewery where they are filled with Dead Guy Ale and matured for three months.

The John John Dead Guy is slated for release, both on tap and in 22 oz bottles, in January of 2010. Later this year it will be followed by John John Juniper Ale, aged in Rogue Spruce Gin barrels. The Johns are also working on some John John Hazelnut Brown Nectar which will be matured in Rogue’s Hazelnut Spiced Rum barrels. Although we are all excited about this news from Rogue, these beers could be hard to find around Montana: A 3,100 gallon batch of John John will only produce around 1,350 cases of beer.