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!

Guest Blogging

If you hop on over to Appellation Beer you will find my guest entry about my fantasy beer dinner. Stan Hieronymus asked me and four others who we would invite to a beer dinner if we could pick four people (living or dead), what beer we would serve, and what we would eat. Check out the results, it's a pretty interesting read.

Surly came to town.

Surly is being distributed in Chicago now, and when they were here on their whirlwind tour, they surprised us by dropping by on their way to the city via Three Floyds. This is us sharing some barrel aged beers in the basement. Thanks to Omar for the photo.

Will we make it through this dilemma unscathed??

The answer is yes. Wait...what's the question?? If you haven't heard, the beer industry has been given a little shakeup with the recent news that malted barley prices and hop prices are on the rise. However, a worse situation is the fact that a shortage is partly to blame for the skyrocketing prices. If you haven't heard the news (it has snuck out of our industry into the mainstream news media) try here or here

Anyway, I tried to avoid spending too much time talking and thinking about it, but since I've been bombarded with questions like, "Hey, have you heard about the hop shortage?", or "Will this problem affect you too?" The answers, shortly are "yes", and "hell yes!"
I won't spend a lot of time talking about the industry as a whole and how this will shake out-that's been covered quite well thus far. Instead, I'll give you a little peak into how it is going to affect my world:
As a 600+bbl brewery, I'm known as a little guy. In fact-a real little guy. Obviously, the prices are bad as I pay what others pay, so that affects me. And as far as sourcing hops during this time of shortage-well, still a little guy. However, the fine folks at Brewers Supply Group (yes that is a picture of my brewhouse on the front page-thanks guys!!) and also MidCountry Brewing supply have been able to contract hops with me for the upcoming year and beyond, which does two things 1) locks me into a price and B) assures that my hop needs are covered. The big breweries have been doing this for years. They deal in futures and are protected to some degree when big fluctuations happen. My suppliers sometimes try to make me feel like a bigger guy (thanks again guys!) like when Chris German came by for some hop selection on some of our contracts. I think Andrew posted some pix at that time. In a nutshell, we got to choose which lots we wanted our hops to come from. They certainly didn't have to do that. Our lack of business isn't going to sink this company, but they have something others don't-good customer service (thanks again guys!) Fortunately, Todd Ashman of Fifty Fifty Brewing company in Truckee CA and formerly of BSG was always good about letting me know what was in small supply and what needed to be contracted. That started my relationship with BSG and their hop contracts and I have always had some of my hops contracted. This year, I just had to expand on that contract and I feel very good about where I'm sitting. I was even told that we are in a better position, hopwise, than some breweries who crank out 10-15000 barrels per year. Yeah baby!
So, what does that mean to you, John Q. Beer drinker-It means we won't have to stop making IPAs and such and we won't be making gruit anytime soon! That may not be true however for all breweries around the country. Some are SCRAMBLING to find any kind of hop to put into their beers-they didn't have a contract set up. And new startup breweries-good luck. They're being put on a list to wait and see what they can get. Like scraps to the little mouse. Not a day goes by that I don't see someone begging for hops. Trades are usually better than cash. It's really nuts. While somethings here at FSBC might change a bit, it should hardly be noticeable to you-I hope :)

What about your prices, Matt? You can't survive when ingredient costs rise 100-1000%! Sure I can. Our pints just raised to $6! Just kidding-relax. For our local readers here, you know that pints at FSBC were $3.75 from 2005 through this past summer-a good deal really. On September 1st we made a little economic adjustment (that was in no way tied to this situation) and pints became $4.00-still on the low side for many craft beers in a major metropolitan area. This should more than cover my increased costs in the brewhouse. So don't fret, we'll have the same high quality beers flowing without breaking the bank.

However, you probably could see a number of increases throughout the industry. Hopefully, these increases are just to cover this new situation and not a reaction to the panic.(but remember that stainless costs, transportation costs, and energy costs continue to climb-it ain't pretty) But do be ready to shell out more in certain instances. All I ask is that you continue to support craft beer. We've spent a long time getting craft beers into the national public's attention and building this craft beer movement and I would certainly hate to see this be a step back in our progress of educating people what real beer is. A couple of dimes increase per beer shouldn't send you to the poor house. Drink it and Drink responsibly! The only way that we can continue to have the variety and quality of craft beers on the market today is to continue to support and drink and also tell our friends about the wonders of craft beer. Ok, so I need to step off the soap box for a moment, but what I do want to say is that without great support from our fans, and often at a grass roots level, craft beer couldn't survive. I just read an article about how AB will be spending lots o' millions on a revamped ad campaign. Not many of us have lots o' millions. But what we do have is a dedicated group of adults who enjoy flavor and diversity in their beer. So don't panic. Take it all in with a grain of salt. Great beer will keep flowing.

drink better beer,
Matt

Happy Thanksgiving

We have two barrel aged beers on right now, Killer Wood (Barrel aged Killer Kowalski), and Man Skirt Wood (Barrel aged Man Skirt Wee Heavy). We should have Barrel Aged beers on full time now until the end of the Barrel Aged season.




(p.s. this is an outtake from our recent photo shoot. We are working on a new ad)

Tap List 11/14/07

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.

Hoppy Little O (10% a.b.v.)
Last time we made a Chouffe houblon dobbelen IPA triple cone it was Hoppy Little Gnome. This time our marriage of an American Double IPA and a Beglian Tripel was made with all organic pale ale malts (hence the O) and a slightly different hopping schedule. It comes in at 10% so watch out!

Black Moon Rye-sin (5.5% abv)
An American Stout with the addition of Rye. Roasty and chocolaty aroma with a slightly hoppy background. It's a full bodied stout that has coffee and roast flavors in all the right places with a lingering bitter finish from the hops.

Coming Soon....

Look for these treats in the near future:

*Any of the following barrel aged beers through Feb.:
Killer Wood (Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter in a bourbon barrel)
Man Skirt Wood (Man Skirt Wee Heavy in a bourbon barrel)
10 (10th anniversary beer-blend of 10 in a bourbon)
11(milk stout plus raspberries in a bourbon)
Pullman reserve (Pullman Brown ale in a bourbon)
Sarge (Imperial Chocolate coffee stout in bourbon)
Wooden Lubricator (social Lubricator dopplebck in bourbon)
Wooden Hell (Sheol Barleywine in a bourbon)
De Zuidentrein frambozenbier

*KindAle IPA-early Dec.
*A Holiday type stout-early Dec.
*Sheol Barleywine-Christmas-ish time
*Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter and Black Wolf Schwarzbier-late winter

Happy Holidays!

Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beers runner up 2 years in a row!

Always a bridesmaid and never the bride is how it's starting to feel regarding Flossmoor Station and the Barrel Aged fest. We won third place in the experimental category with Sarge which I am extremely proud of not only because it's a great beer, but because of the personal and emotional connection of dedicating that beer to my brother. And then we won Gold in the Barleywine category two years in a row with Wooden Hell. It was also strong enough to garner us Runner up Best in Show which is very flattering considering that every year the beers are getting better and we are getting more and more entries. This year we had 85 beers in competition!

A first for me this year was Judging. Very interesting experience especially since I was judging the wild beer categories.





They weren't all easy decisions to make and the back and forth between judges and opinions at the table really forces you to think about what you are tasting and what the festival and specific category is all about. It isn't necessarily pick the best beer or the beer that you like the most on the table and it's important to remember that the Barrel aged fest is all about using wood to make your beer better or impart that unique characteristic to your beer. Not really an easy thing to do when you have three or four beers in front of you that are simply outstanding.

5th Annual Festival of Barrel Aged Beer

So about 84 wood and barrel aged beers will be tapped Saturday afternoon at Goose Island Wrigleyvile. the event is officially sold out, but I know of some people dumping tix at the door if you still want to try go down. Once again, the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers will be awesome! Here's what we are entering:

Killer Wood (Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter in a bourbon barrel)
Man Skirt Wood (Man Skirt Wee Heavy in a bourbon barrel)
10 (10th anniversary beer-blend of 10 in a bourbon)
11(milk stout plus raspberries in a bourbon)
Pullman reserve (Pullman Brown ale in a bourbon)
Sarge (Imperial Chocolate coffee stout in bourbon)
Wooden Lubricator (social Lubricator dopplebck in bourbon)
Wooden Hell (Sheol Barleywine in a bourbon)

We'll post pix and results next week.

And for all those concerned, Andrew has made it through the first four days at the Siebel Institute of Technology and hasn't flunked out yet!!

Flossmoor Night at Maproom a success!

Thanks to everyone that came out and thanks especially to Jay and Laura who have been great supporters of our beer.

Checking Out

If the updates are sparse in the next two weeks, it's because I'm not at work. I'll be at Siebel Institute of Technology catching up on some well overdue secondary education.

Morning Mess

Normally if you walked into work in the morning and you had a mess like this one to clean up first think you might be a little mad. On the contrary, I was thrilled to see the brewhouse floor covered in krauesen and other various yeasty messes. It means that yesterday's batch of Sheol (barleywine) is fermenting away vigorously and is hopefully well on it's way to boozy goodness.

Maproom Reminder

Tonight, around 7ish, Matt, Tom, and I will be at Maproom to hang out and celebrate our Gold medal at GABF. Black Wolf Schwarz (something happened and it won't be available after all), Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter, and Hoppy Little "O" on cask will be there. I'll have my camera. Ask to have your picture taken. Some of them will probably end up on here.

I told you Denmark loved us

Mikkel(ler)'s blog update mentioning their stop here.

Tap List 10/22/07

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.

Hoppy Little O (10% a.b.v.)
Last time we made a Chouffe houblon dobbelen IPA triple cone it was Hoppy Little Gnome. This time our marriage of an American Double IPA and a Beglian Tripel was made with all organic pale ale malts (hence the O) and a slightly different hopping schedule. It comes in at 10% so watch out!

Oktoberfest (6.3% a.b.v.) [Almost Gone!]
The malty German lager that you love to drink this time of the year. Really good this time around! This is one of the best Oktoberfests that we have ever made!

Black Wolf Schwarz bier (5.0% a.b.v.)
The best schwarz bier in the U.S. according to the 2006 Great American Beer Festival. Lager body and finish with a touch of roasty aroma and body. A distinct but not overpowering black beer that just may change your idea about what a "dark beer" is.

Black Moon Rye-sin (5.5% abv) [Almost Gone!]
An American Stout with the addition of Rye. Roasty and chocolaty aroma with a slightly hoppy background. It's a full bodied stout that has coffee and roast flavors in all the right places with a lingering bitter finish from the hops.

ZikadeWeiss (4.5% abv) [Almost Gone!]
No Cicadas were harmed in the making of this beer, but we did have to fight them off while brewing this. Crisp, light, citrusy, and very refreshing. Except for pulling cicadas out of your lady's hair, nothing says summer like a Hefeweizen.

Trip to Left Hand

I had been to Left Hand once a few years ago on one of our GABF forays but this time we got a tour from one of the owners so I thought I would share the photos with you.



They have a very cool tasting room/bar attached to the front of the brewery and a lot of really good beer to go with it. My drink of choice while I was there was a Rauch Doppelbock called Smoked Goosinator. It was outstanding.



The ladies (my wife and Matt's) and I were going through a sampler tray as more and more people were trickling into the tasting room. I think during GABF week Longmont, Ft. Collins, and Boulder get a huge influx of traffic from the fest and all of the brewers in town. As the crown swelled there was an announcement that a tour was going to start. Yay! a Tour! I almost never say no to a brewery tour, no matter how many of them I've seen.




brewhouse


Proof that someone is doing work.


Old fermentation room (now small batch room)



It looked like they did all of their barrel aging in this Fermentation room (which was cold) and they also said they almost exclusively use wine barrels for their barrel aging.




Kegs!



Fermenters (of which they said they are going to add more, Left Hand is growing by leaps and bounds)





Their beers are available in IL now, so seek them out because they make some good ones. If you're near Longmont, stop by because it's worth the trip.

The "Joe Borter-I can't wait for the next seasonal" update

So one of the reasons that we started this blog about a year and a half ago was to do a better job at letting people know what our current taplist is AND generate some excitement about what is to come (Luckily, it has turned into something a little more exciting than that with photos and tales of our travels and a smattering of opinionated rants.) Quite some time ago (too lazy to find it and link here), one of those rants involved my pet peeve of putting on new seasonals and then get bombarded with the, "What's next?" question. Sure, I know, you love the seasonals so much, you want to get prepared for your next trip to the pub. And I did say that I wanted to keep you interested in what we are planning. so.. while it is a burr on my butt when I hear it, I will admit that we haven't done a good job of teasing our future.(but please excuse me, we are busy buying a bottling line and all the infrastructure that goes with that AND trying to open a several hundred brand craft beer store/homebrew supply store. Kinda busy!)
So, Joe and everyone else who cares, here's what's coming down the pipeline:

Zwickel 500-10/22/07-our 500th batch at FSBC. an unfiltered pilsner

Pumpkin 3.14-10/31/07-cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, maple syrup, vanilla-PIE!

Some kinda holiday beer thing-December. TBA

I have 9 different barrel aged beers waiting downstairs. we'll dedicate a tap to them from Nov-next year. Yummy!

Sheol Barleywine-making it this Tues. Due around Christmas time-ish
We were gonna make a small bier off of this, but as you can see we are kinda full. If you don't know what a small beer is, you should.

Some kinda new IPA- December TBA

2008-Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter and Black Wolf Schwarzbier-lagerin' em up for World Beer Cup in the spring.

Beyond that, you'll just have to patiently wait on pins and needles.
Cheers!

I need a vacation from my vacation: Reflections on GABF 2007

Wow! What a long, rewarding, educational, exciting, exhausting, and action packed week. As I sit and reflect on my journey to Denver(expect to see a little wrap up with pictures from Andrew later in the week) I can't help but be amazed at the wide range of emotions we went through this week.



First, relief that we had meticulously brewed AND bottled 8 of our beers as best we could, hoping that they would arrive in Denver safely. To say it is a large task for a small brewpub with no bottling system to successfully enter this competition is an understatement. It's a lot of work and effort.
Secondly, I was judging for the first time. I didn't tell anyone, but I was a little nervous. This was a big task and responsibility. What if I messed it up? Well, I knew at the very least it was going to be a great networking opportunity, and it was. I met a lot of great craft beer industry folk. I'm also happy to say that I did not mess it up. Every winner I helped choose was very deserving! I know-it sounds a little cocky, but it was fun to see myself picking the same beers as other judges with far more experience than me. Maybe I was more suited for this than I thought.
Next comes the hecticness. Everyone tries to pack as many events as they can into those few days. From special tappings at the Falling Rock (Denver's premier beer bar), to open house events at places like Great Divide and Sandlot, to trying to meet up with Illinois brewers, other brewer friends from across the country, and my friend Trevor who lives in Denver-it made for a busy week. Add into the mix the judging and the fact that my wife, Jenni, got to come out on Thursday night made it seem like I was always running, and certainly not sleeping.Well, we got through the evening GABF sessions, which were kinda weird because I didn't really feel like trying many beers the first two nights due to the rigorous judging schedule. I was all full up I guess. I made it a point to go by the booths that I didn't want to miss and the beers that were buzzing. Meanwhile I manned the booth a bit and it's a funny thing how a little fame makes a whole lot more people want to talk your ear off. I guess it comes with the territory.
Saturday afternoon was the awards ceremony. Nervousness was the understatement of the century here. Ask, my wife, I couldn't stand still. We cruised to the brewers breakfast at Breckenridge to get the base on. Great food and bloodies guys! Then we went to the Sports column to take in My Iowa Hawkeyes against the rival Fighting Illini. We won. Iowa's back. Bring on the Aloha Bowl! :) From there we headed to the fest and tried to stop thinking about the awards. As always I try to tell myself I will get shut out of the medals. Kind of like breaking the fall I suppose. As an aside, I really don't believe this because I know I have good beers and with the winning of last year, I just don't want to consider not being able to make a great beer. BUT the competion is huge and I really got a better perspective from judging this year. It takes a LOT to win even one award, let alone 8 that I have been fortunate enough to garner.Anyway, 8 beers-5 of which were in the first 18 categories. After some technical difficulties with the visuals, we were off:
Category 2-American Wheat Ales-Station Master-too cloudy I guess.
Category 4-Fruit beers-DeZuidentrein Frambozenbier-to tart I guess (Berry Weiss. WTF?)
Category 7-Specialty-Pullman-Ahhhhhh-we have consistency here, but no-I guess we were too complacent. Time to retool that beer.
Ok, Zero for 3. Bad start. More good beers to come.
Category 15-Strong Barrel-Wooden Hell, last years bronze-too many great beers I guess (71)Category 18-Zwickel-new one for us. Lots o good comments on the floor. Buzzzzzz-loser. So an ale took silver and bronze in the Zwickle/Kellar category. Bummer.
Ok, zero for 5. Not a good start. We feel good about the next two.
Category 33-Schwarzbier- Last years Gold. What!? no Bronze awarded. You're kidding me?Ok, are we going to get skunked here. A pain rang out in the pit of my stomach. All that work for naught. Why did we bother? I give up. The pessimism swelled.
Category 36 Baltic Porter. We made this beer in January. It can't win. Bronze-not us Silver-not us Gold......when the "K" of Killer Kowalski cracked his lips Andrew and I let out a howl for we knew we hadn't been shut out.
I slapped him on the back and we nearly shoved the wall of people out of our way. Nope, we're not getting Small Brewpbub of the year this year, but we are going home with Hardware. And a gold no less! It almost (almost) felt better than last year.Finally Category 60-Belgian Sour-nope, not enough I guess.So that's it. One gold this year. Time to celebrate with my friends from Illinois. And we did great. 12 medals in all. Only California, Colorado, and Wisconsin had more. Brew on Illinois!



So, that's the quick, yet lengthy rundown of my week in Denver. Slogging home Sunday through the rain and cold (and the Denver Marathon and the busy airport, etc. etc.) was a mixed bag. You don't want it to end (b/c work awaits you Monday), but I hadn't seen my two kids since they groggily dropped me at the airport Tues. at 6 AM, waving at me the whole time the train departed for the city. It's funny that no matter how many medals I win, no matter how many colleagues I meet or made anew, no matter what I did wrong this weekend, Nick and Ella sprinted to me shouting "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy". I love that gold medal I won this weekend, but I'd surely trade it for that experience coming home Sunday afternoon. (I told you it was a roller coaster of emotions-now go ahead and cry, you big tough guy!)

GABF 07.

We won a gold for Killer Kowalski. It was great. I said :

Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter (8.3% abv)
Our deep, dark, full-bodied lager. A slightly bittersweet chocolate aroma with a malty body that hints at dark fruits. It's complex and very enjoyable with a touch of roast finish. This may be the best beer we make all year long.

Clearly it was.

When we get a chance to digest what last week was like, we'll let you know. Right now, I have a lot of kegs to get clean.

Matt Van Wyk: More entertaining than Mancow

Right before we went to Denver, Matt recorded an episode on Waukegan radio for "The Joan Hammel and Friends" show.

Sept 28, 2007. We're Here for the Beer! Join Joan and her guests: Matt Van Wyk, Brewmaster at the Flossmoor Station Restaurant and Brewery, and on the phone from Denver Colorado, Julia Herz, Director of Craft Beer Marketing for the Brewers Association. They discuss the history of beer and the growth of the craft brewing industry and it's expanding future. Matt tells us of his journey from Teacher to award winning Brewmaster at the Flossmoor Station Restaurant and Brewery. Julia gives her take on the national scope of the craft brewing industry as well as those of home brewers. She also tells us about the upcoming Great American Beer Festival, to be held October 11-13 in Denver, Colorado. Check out the links to learn more about Matt and Flossmoor Station, the Great American Beer Festival, and the Illinois beer link for Chicagoland events.

(Direct link to MP3)

Mark your calenders...

October 24th at the Maproom in Chicago: Flossmoor Night!

Featuring:

• Matt and Andrew talking to you, our fans
• Flossmoor Station beers!
• A special Cask of a very special beer
• Other cool things

So come celebrate with us.

More specifics to follow.

We're huge in Denmark right now.

You don't even know.

We got a surprise visit from the Mikkeller boys today. They were in Munster yesterday working on a top secret project that I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about.

We found some time to try some beers, and showed them the progress on the store across the street. All of us are heading to denver tomorrow so I'll hopefully have some updates next week. Wish us luck.

Tap List 10/9/07

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.

Hoppy Little O (10% a.b.v.)
Last time we made a Chouffe houblon dobbelen IPA triple cone it was Hoppy Little Gnome. This time our marriage of an American Double IPA and a Beglian Tripel was made with all organic pale ale malts (hence the O) and a slightly different hopping schedule. It comes in at 10% so watch out!

Oktoberfest (6.3% a.b.v.) [Almost Gone!]
The malty German lager that you love to drink this time of the year. Really good this time around! This is one of the best Oktoberfests that we have ever made!

Black Wolf Schwarz bier (5.0% a.b.v.)
The best schwarz bier in the U.S. according to the 2006 Great American Beer Festival. Lager body and finish with a touch of roasty aroma and body. A distinct but not overpowering black beer that just may change your idea about what a "dark beer" is.

Black Moon Rye-sin (5.5% abv)
An American Stout with the addition of Rye. Roasty and chocolaty aroma with a slightly hoppy background. It's a full bodied stout that has coffee and roast flavors in all the right places with a lingering bitter finish from the hops.

ZikadeWeiss (4.5% abv) [Almost Gone!]
No Cicadas were harmed in the making of this beer, but we did have to fight them off while brewing this. Crisp, light, citrusy, and very refreshing. Except for pulling cicadas out of your lady's hair, nothing says summer like a Hefeweizen.

Pumpkin 3.14 in the tank

Tap List 9/26/07

Hoppy Little O (10% a.b.v.)
Last time we made a Chouffe houblon dobbelen IPA triple cone it was Hoppy Little Gnome. This time our marriage of an American Double IPA and a Beglian Tripel was made with all organic pale ale malts (hence the O) and a slightly different hopping schedule. It comes in at 10% so watch out!

Oktoberfest (6.3% a.b.v.)
The malty German lager that you love to drink this time of the year. Really good this time around! This is one of the best Oktoberfests that we have ever made!

Black Wolf Schwarz bier (5.0% a.b.v.)
The best schwarz bier in the U.S. according to the 2006 Great American Beer Festival. Lager body and finish with a touch of roasty aroma and body. A distinct but not overpowering black beer that just may change your idea about what a "dark beer" is.

Black Moon Rye-sin (5.5% abv)
An American Stout with the addition of Rye. Roasty and chocolaty aroma with a slightly hoppy background. It's a full bodied stout that has coffee and roast flavors in all the right places with a lingering bitter finish from the hops.

ZikadeWeiss (4.5% abv)
No Cicadas were harmed in the making of this beer, but we did have to fight them off while brewing this. Crisp, light, citrusy, and very refreshing. Except for pulling cicadas out of your lady's hair, nothing says summer like a Hefeweizen.

It's time for a big O!

Organic that is! We made an Organic Belgian/American IPA (Organic Pale Ale malt, Belgian yeast, and lots o' hops). It's called Hoppy Little O and is a new version of Hoppy Little Gnome-which was quite successful for us. Why Organic? Why not? Just doing our part on this blue dot we call home :)

After 8PM on Tuesday September 25th, it's yours. $4.50/tulip glass. Oh yeah 10% abv-drink responsibly!