For Immediate Release: Flossmoor Station Acquires Tom Sheehan Before Trade Deadline

Bartender added to active roster and will start immediately

Flossmoor -- Flossmoor Station Restaraunt and Brewery announced today the acquisition of bartender, idea man, and jack of all trades, Tom Sheehan from the free agent market. As per league policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"A former farm hand, engineer, and experienced bar tender, Tom brings a lot to the table," says brewmaster Matt Van Wyk. "We had an opening and the pieces just fell into place. We are excited that things worked out the way they did."

The central Illinois native is hitting .304 in 1,140 games during his major league career with Champaign. Sheehan is 14th among all active major league players with his .304 batting average and has finished in the top 10 in hitting in the National League three times during his career. He has collected 271 doubles, 121 home runs and 634 RBI during his career.

At Flossmoor, Sheehan will spearhead Brewery plans to open a craft beer store, also in downtown Flossmoor with an opening date to be determined in the future. He has opened other bars and retail outlets in the past and has a solid feel for the pulse of the craft beer scene in the U.S.

In addition to the acquisition of Sheehan and plans of future shop openings, Flossmoor Station announced yet to be determined plans for bottling their award winning beer. More details were not available at press time.

Flossmoor Station was also awarded with the title of 2006 Small Brewpub of the Year, and Small Brewpub Brewer of the year for brewmaster Matt Van Wyk at the 2006 Great American Beer Festival. Flossmoor Station is a 500-600 barrel brewpub located in Flossmoor, Illinois, USA that specializes in American Heartland Cuisine and hand-crafted, flavor forward ales and lagers.

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Tap List 7/24/07

Rot Geist (6% a.b.v.)
We set out to create a deliciously hoppy American wheat beer that wasn't as burly as our normal I.P.A.s but still satiated the hophead inside of us. What came out was Rot Geist (Red Ghost) American Red Wheat. It's a reddish hued American Wheat made with Summit, Centennial, and Amarillo hops with an additional dry hopping of 1lb/bbl Amarillo for aroma.

X-IPA (7.5% abv)
Our doubly delicious double I.P.A. made with 100% Amarillo hops. Dry hopped at a generous pound/bbl, X-IPA is a citrus bomb that will send you to grapefruit heaven.

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.

Replicale Red (5.5% abv)
This year's Illinois Craft Brewer's Guild replicale project, where all participating breweries make the same beer, using the same recipe, same ingredients, and all end up tasting different. This year's beer is a west coast amber ale that is hoppy and crisp but well balanced against caramel malts to create a very quaffable reddish pale ale.

Ever had American Red Wheat Beer?

...me either. But next Tuesday night we are tapping Rot Geist (red ghost for all you non-Germans). This is something Andrew wanted to try and we gave it a go(this is the reason we can't get to all those favorites you guys keep asking us to brew-we keep chasing the golden snitch (guess you gotta go see the Potter movie) of perfection.)
Anyway we used just shy of 50% wheat malt, added a bit of caramel malt for color without adding too much flavor and then loaded it up with American hops. It is also dryhopped. Crisp, refreshing, and hopped up. A session beer for hopheads?? Will it taste like a summer wheat ale? maybe. Will it taste like an American pale ale with all those hops? Maybe.
Will it be good? Absolutely. And you'll just have to come by Tuesday night to find the answer to the other questions. Mug Club Tapping as at 7PM. Everyone else will enjoy it at 8PM.



Beyond that we have a new lager fermenting away. During the last week of August, we'll tap Black Wolf Schwarzbier, our gold medal winning beer from last year's Great American Beer Festival. We'll be entering it again and you get to judge fro yourself whether it is worty of gold.

INSPIRED BY BELGIUM - An awesome recap

Well, the CBS event this past weekend was pretty cool. A lot of really great beers and a ton of awesome cheeses and other food stuffs too. I probably ate too much but it's hard to say no to belgian dark chocolate, super rich cheesecake, and glorious glorious cheese. I didn't have any mussels but Matt insists that they were delish as always.

The Session #5 - Atmosphere

-Hop Talk picked this month's topic-

"So, we want to know about the “Atmosphere” in which you enjoy beer. Where is your favorite place to have a beer? When? With whom? Most importantly: Why?"

This is a really tough one, and I'm not going to be able to do justice to such a broad topic on this blog. I think I'll dig through my photo archives and find places that I have had some great drinking experiences and talk a little about them.

-Belgium-


Belgium, just about any cafe will do that has a lengthy beer list. The whole country is amazing. This was in Bruges in 2000 when I was traveling with my family. One day we had a Chimay lunch, which was Chimay cheese and a few different bottles of Chimay in a park with some crackers. The simplicity was perfect.


-Munich -Augustiner Brauhall-



To me, this is the quintessential beer hall in Munich. Long maple tables, incredible German lagers, and full of local Muncheners. The pork knuckle is to die for. I had thanksgiving dinner in this beer hall one year. Maximator dopplebock, from the source... I'm drooling right now.

-Bamberg- Brauerei-Spezial


There are a lot of really great places to drink in Bamberg but this one was the first I went to so it has a special place in my heart. Whenever you are in Bamberg, the "rauch" seems to permeate your entire being. Some people never develop the taste for Rauch beer but I fell head over heals for it. The smoky bite balanced with that crisp lager finish makes me want to have one after another. I remember at Spezial, they had a little probe that they would put in your beer before serving it to slightly warm it up. This was another place where we were the only tourists. Everyone else was just a local having lunch or enjoying a smoky marzen.

-Flossmoor IL- Flossmoor Station Brewing Co.-


More than just a shameless plug, there is a special feeling about drinking a beer that you made that tastes really good, at the place that you made it. It's very hard to explain unless you have done it yourself, maybe only fellow brewers can fully appreciate it. But there is a lot to be said about drinking beer in its "home."

Why Blog?

If you have done any searching on the ol' net these days, you're sure to come across a blog. People have documented everything on-line from food lovers to brewery planners and from wine enthusiast to star-gazers. Everyone's got a spot on the www. (make sure you check out our links on the side-there are some great beer blogs-and many more we haven't yet linked too.)

Why did WE start ours?(Andrew, asst. brewer at Flossmoor Station, to be exact) Well, those of you who are new to the site may not have seen early posts where we told you that like most company's websites, ours was not really up to date, and we weren't/aren't using it as a good marketing tool. We wanted a place where we could not only tell you what was on tap, but what was coming up. We wanted to make it a window into the brewhouse. Along the way we have added pix and documents on our trips, competition, and other misc. meat eating adventures!

I think we(and by we I mean Andrew) have done an adequate job of keeping a taplist on here and trying to post various pieces of info so you can see what is going on. However, I have dropped the ball on keeping you updated on what is coming down the road. As much as I try get on-line and put something on this blog, time always seems to slip away. I struggle to carve out that quiet moment to sit down and do this. In fact right now I'm trying to get my kids to settle into an afternoon nap before their mom gets home so I can get into work (real glamorous life of a brewer, right?). Well, instead of continuing to tell you how pathetic I am, let me look into the brewing telescope and let you know what to look for as we head through the second half of 07:

First the current:
-We put on XIPA Tuesday night. This will go FAST. Don't wait b/c we don't have another IPA available til well into the fall.
-Our newest stout is an American Rye Stout. Black and hoppy. Yum!
-FRIDAY, FRIDAY, FRIDAY-11th Anniversary Beer called, 11, will be on tap. Milk Stout on raspberries in a bourbon barrel. $6.00 snifters. Beauty. Limited supply.

Now for the rest of the sumemr:
-We made an American Red Wheat two days ago. Is it a style? I don't think so-but we don't mind making one up. Maybe we can be the pioneers the way Vinnie Cilurzo is to the Double IPA?? meh...maybe not. So it's a hoppy wheat beer with a red tint. Should be good.
-Next Wed. we will be making Black Wolf Schwarzbier in an attempt to repeat as champions at GABF this Oct. This beer will be on tap in late August.
-We will be making an Oktoberfest and a Zwickelbier(unfiltered helles/pilsner type beer) from this yeast, but you won't see those until Sept. or Oct.

Pushing on to the fall:
-OCTOBER is the month Andrew decided to get married. CONGRATS to he and Meg. We will try to brew a Bride-Ale type beer. More info on that later.
-I would like to get a Barleywine or an Imp. stout in the tank, but that surely won't be ready until late fall to early winter. If I get a chance we'll make a small beer off of the second runnings if we can.
-I will try hard to make a pumpkin ale as many of you clamored for it last year. However, Andrew's wedding beer takes priority and we'll see how it falls. It also depends on how fast the lagers turn.I can't serve the pumpkin ale in Dec. It usually doesn't work.
-I'd like to make a wet hop beer as well, but I don't think there will be room in production. For those who don't know, a wet hop beer is when the hops are pulled directly out of the field and overnighted to the brewery before they are allowed to be dried. Fresh and aromatic, it's a wonderful fall beer.

So, that should keep you interested for a bit. We've got tons of barrel aged beers hanging in the cellar as well, so when the snow flies, we'll crack those out too.
If you are reading this, I have to assume that our posts have been entertaining or at least of interest to you that you keep checking back. I hope you will continue.
As much as I can make time, I'll keep you up to date on where we're going. I hope!
If you have any suggestions on how we can serve you better through this blog(don't say, make more xyz beer), please leave a comment and let us know.
Cheers,
Matt

Tap List 7/3/07

X-IPA (7.5% abv)
Our doubly delicious double I.P.A. made with 100% Amarillo hops. Dry hopped at a generous pound/bbl, X-IPA is a citrus bomb that will send you to grapefruit heaven.

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.

Replicale Red (5.5% abv)
This year's Illinois Craft Brewer's Guild replicale project, where all participating breweries make the same beer, using the same recipe, same ingredients, and all end up tasting different. This year's beer is a west coast amber ale that is hoppy and crisp but well balanced against caramel malts to create a very quaffable reddish pale ale.