E-Malt.com News article: USA, FL: Wolf Branch Brewing Co. officially opens in Leesburg

Wolf Branch Brewing Co. has officially opened in Leesburg, marking its third location in Lake County. This is the largest location to date, with the others located in downtown Mount Dora and downtown Eustis, the Daily Commercial reported on May 17.

“It’s kinda cool because I worked with the City of Leesburg 17 years ago and now, I’m back,” owner Jose Villafana said. “We’re so excited to be here.”

Jose runs the breweries with his wife, Whitney, and his parents, Jose Sr. and Dailie. He also boasts about his great team of bartenders and staff.

The new location is larger than the other two combined, which allows for a five-barrel brewing system with up to six different beers brewing at a time.

Jose is an Army veteran who enlisted for the adventure. He was deployed to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq, earning the Bronze Star, jump wings and Pathfinder designation. Between tours, he graduated from the University of Florida.

After he got his fill of adventure, he returned home and wanted to open his own brewery. After talking it over with his family, they were all in with him.

“We all started doing the research and started experimenting,” Jose said. “I went to brewing school and then opened the first location in Eustis.”

That was nearly five years ago. The popularity of his craft beer on tap took off and Jose opened a second location in the Mount Dora Marketplace a few years later. The rest is history.

Wolf Branch prides itself on a balanced menu with choices of IPAs, brown ales, pale ales, blonde ale, stouts and fruit beer. They often have what they call “one-offs,” which are their experimental specials.

The menu rotates to keep it fresh. Some popular options are the Bobber blonde ale, Central 28 UnderDuck, Irish dry stout, Whitney’s peach sangria, Pina colada seltzer, yuengling traditional lager, behind bars IPA, Bold City Duke’s Cold Nose Brown, Wicked Weed pernicious IPA, Golden Road Mango Cart, Bold Rock Pineapple and the Moscow Mule seltzer.

They also expect to be rolling out their Michelada (Mexican Bloody Mary).

Wolf Branch Brewing Co., 707 W. Main St., Leesburg, is open 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays.


17 May, 2023