FSBC wishes you a Merry Christmas And Happy New Year!

From all of us to all of you, Have a very Merry Christmas and A Blessed New Year!

In the spirit of family this holiday season (and I know this is not beer related-but deal with it!) I want to link you to our photographer friend's blog and website. If you click on the blog site you'll find about 7 pictures of my beautiful daughter Ella. Thanks Todd!
If you are in the Chicagoland area and need a great guy to capture the unforgettable moments of your children, let me know or Contact Todd Pierson.

Here's a couple of them if you couldn't link it ;)
And, in the event you want to see Matt's whole family, here is our Christmas card picture this year. (I don't think Andrew and his wife are sending out photos of their "family yet!)


Here's to a great 2008!
Jenni, Nick, Ella, and Matt Van Wyk

Tap List 12/18/07

Sheol (8.5% a.b.v.)
Sheol is a deep mahogany colored Barleywine. Sheol is the Hebrew word denoting the "abode of the dead"; the "underworld", "grave" or "pit".

Naughty Elf Stout (5.0% a.b.v.)
We made an oatmeal stout and one of Santa's little minions dumped in tart cherries before we could serve it.

Kind Ale IPA (7.6% a.b.v.)
Peace, Love, and IPA. We added just a touch of Lemon grass and Wheat Grass along with buckets full of Amarillo, Centennial, and Summit hops to create a really good American IPA.

Pumpkin 3.14 (5% a.b.v.)
Our Fall special spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger, maple syrup, and vanilla. Not to mention 78 lbs of whole roasted pumpkin in the mash and 60lbs of prepared pumpkin in the kettle. Pumpkin Pie in drinkable beer form.

Meg's Bride-Ale (4.0% a.b.v.)
Andrew got married! To celebrate, have a glass of Meg's Bride-ale, a light and crisp Belgian-style wit. Spiced with coriander, and flavored with blood orange juice, this is a very light wit beer that is dry, fruity, and easy to drink.

Tap List 12/11/07

Naughty Elf Stout (5.0% a.b.v.)
We made an oatmeal stout and one of Santa's little minions dumped in tart cherries before we could serve it.

Kind Ale IPA (7.6% a.b.v.)
Peace, Love, and IPA. We added just a touch of Lemon grass and Wheat Grass along with buckets full of Amarillo, Centennial, and Summit hops to create a really good American IPA.

Pumpkin 3.14 (5% a.b.v.)
Our Fall special spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger, maple syrup, and vanilla. Not to mention 78 lbs of whole roasted pumpkin in the mash and 60lbs of prepared pumpkin in the kettle. Pumpkin Pie in drinkable beer form.

Meg's Bride-Ale (4.0% a.b.v.)
Andrew got married! To celebrate, have a glass of Meg's Bride-ale, a light and crisp belgian-style wit. Spiced with corriander, and flavored with blood orange juice, this is a very light wit beer that is dry, fruity, and easy to drink.

(Pullman Reserve is the current barrel aged selection Wooden Lubricator next)

Flossmoor Station: The Place to Visit! Great Deals Now only $3.90 (one way - must be purchased at the station)

So we have been getting a lot of visitors in the last few months. This past week all of the Chicagoland RockBottom brewers swung by on a "team building" trip that took them to our doorstep and to Three Floyds. Check with your local travel agent to find the best way to visit Flossmoor. Hurry before we get to be too popular and you can't find a seat.

Tap List 12/5/07

Kind Ale IPA (7.6% a.b.v.)
Peace, Love, and IPA. We added just a touch of Lemon grass and Wheat Grass along with buckets full of Amarillo, Centennial, and Summit hops to create a really good American IPA.

Pumpkin 3.14 (5% a.b.v.)
Our Fall special spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger, maple syrup, and vanilla. Not to mention 78 lbs of whole roasted pumpkin in the mash and 60lbs of prepared pumpkin in the kettle. Pumpkin Pie in drinkable beer form.

Zwickel 500 (5% a.b.v.)
Our 500th batch of beer! Instead of making a huge wild fermented double I.P.A. blended Imperial Stout, we made a lesser known style of German lager. Zwickel 500 is an unfiltered German Pils that will challenge you to learn about a unique style of beer that you may not know about.

Meg's Bride-Ale (4.0% a.b.v.)
Andrew got married! To celebrate, have a glass of Meg's Bride-ale, a light and crisp belgian-style wit. Spiced with corriander, and flavored with blood orange juice, this is a very light wit beer that is dry, fruity, and easy to drink.

Flushed!

The Beer Depot is no more.

For most of you this is old news, but I've recently gotten a slew of requests and realized y'all don't know. For those who don't, click here for some pics on the starting construction on what could of been the most fantabulous craft beer store/homebrew supply shop this side of Gary Indiana. We were pretty far into planning having built halfway through the store and talking to various distributors. However, the owners of both Flossmoor Station and the now defunct Beer Depot (read: the investor) decided that the small mark-up on retail beer plus other cost factors resulted in an about face of plans and the store stopped in it's tracks(perhaps you heard of the recent Amtrak crash with a freight train in Chicago-well, it wasn't really like that, but I thought it had some relevance here). So, no matter what you have heard, it was really just a buisness descision on the part of the principal and only money person. Since they are still the owners of the building in which it was to open, it will now be rented out to another tenant. If you need any ideas on that craft beer store you are planning, let us know-we had some good things planned.

The good news.. the brewery lives on and the bottling project is now the focus of our hordes of free time!

cheers!