Where's the beer?

On our aforementioned trip to Roanoke VA, I knew that the brewery/brewpub/beer bar scene was going to thin out through West Virginia and into southwest VA(and that's why I packed plenty of bottles of our beer). So we hammered on. However, in neighboring Salem, I found a store called Cork and Keg. What drew my attention was:

THE GREEN EGG
These were awesome! A smoker, a grill or an oven. but at 400 bucks up to 1000, I guess I had to pass. It is on my Christmas list though, know that.

Anyway, there was a great selection at this store and I picked up some Insanity and Black Hole from Weyerbacher in Easton PA and Festina Peche from Dogfishhead in Milton DE.


The Black hole was pretty good. Jenni (my wife) loves the festina(as did I actually) and I'm saving the Insanity to drink with Andrew.

And continuing the random post: Ever have a camel stick their head in your driver's side window? My father-in-law did at Virginia Safari Park. Kinda cool, but kinda wrong in some ways as well.
Then just down the road you can find Natural Bridge. A really cool natural formation in an area that is really starting to build up the cheese factor. And by that I mean wax museum/dinosaur land/really bad gift shop crap. Just let people enjoy nature and keep the rest of it out of sight. (ok, you'd understand more if I had taken the picture of the cowboy riding a dinosaur outside of the natural bridge gift shop-weird!)

They let me stop for beer!

As previously mentioned I "got" to travel to the east coast (just about-Roanoke VA) with my wife, kids and mother-in-law. The destination was a family wedding, but the journey was much more fun. Since I "had" to chase my kids around the Indianpolis Children's museum (which was fun), I "got" to stop at Brugge Brasserie for lunch.

This would be Nick, jumping for joy that we are about to engage in moules frites:


"I can eat these suckers with my fingers AND they give us four dipping sauce with the fries?!"

We had a great visit to Brugge Brasserie.Thanks Shannon! On tap were the Tripel, Black, and Red. All very good. The tables with holes cut in them for the frites cones were worth the trip in itself. My mom in law still can't stop talking about the fresh mussels in the middle of the country. A great stop!

Next up, it was on towards Louisville area and the New Albanian Brewing Company. The NABC provides beer for Rich O's public house, a cozy little pub with a great house selection and a equally great guest tap selection, and Sportstime Pizza. We were set up with a sampler, pints and a logo pint glass. Thanks Roger! We ate a pizza and were on our way.I guess he's just as happy getting to Rich O's as we are!

On to the Blue Ridge Mountains...

Two jewels in Michigan

No pictures yet, but not only was the rafting trip a success(great weather, great friends, and good beer in cans-well the Wittkirke was, but the Sclitz was well...the beer that made Milwaukee famous, right?), I found two awesome places in Grand Rapids. the aforemention Hopcat is a fantastic beer bar with great people, food and of course beer. I had two Shorts Beers and tastes of several others The sandwiches and mussels were awesome. I also ran into John Haggerty of New Holland Brewing who is helpng them install their tiny brew system for guest brewers and I think the local homebrew club. He began giving me some consultation on our bottling project. Thanks John! I also met Brett who will head up the brewing system there.
From there we headed over to Founders new brewery and had a Red's Rye and a stout out on the patio. What a great way to waste a Friday afternoon! We then got a backstage tour from Alec. He is the production manager? I think. Founders has a lot of room to grow and I think they have quite a bit of growth planned.
the rest of the weekend was spent with good friends over beer in a lodge in the woods. Good times!
Time for a quick recovery and we head south to Roanoke tomorrow. More to come....

Tap List 6/20/08

Vishnu's Vice IPA (7.7% a.b.v.)
Nobody can pass up a good IPA, even the great Preserver.This orange/gold ale gives off a pungent floral, grassy, citrus-like, aroma that invites you to take a sip.The blast of four American hops (Amarillo, Summit, Centennial, and Simcoe) is balanced by the full-bodied sweetness of the malt and the higher than normal alcohol.

Leftorium (5.1% a.b.v.)
A brown ale with shades of red and auburn, Leftorium has been brewed in the style of a Flemish sour brown. Notes of sour fruit should dance around on the pallet as you enjoy the slightly malty body, offset by a unique sour and tart finish.

Hattentot Hefeweizen (5.1% a.b.v.)
Hattentot is a pale and hazy yellowish beer with a large fluffy head.The fruity aroma begins with a whiff of banana and citrus fruits. The body is medium with a fruity middle and a slightly spicy character reminiscent of cloves. It finishes clean and is very thirst quenching.

Milky Way Stout (4.1% a.b.v.)
A sweet stout made with lactose that stays behind in the beer because yeast can't ferment it. Creamy with lots of caramel and stouty flavors. And at only 4.1% it's an easy drinker.

Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter (8.0% a.b.v.)
The reigning best Baltic Porter in the country. 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.

Guest tap: Surly Furious

Brewer's "work" trips will be exhausting!

Ok, so I'm not really taking any work trips, but I am stopping at a few breweries and beer bars in the next ten days, so let's just call it research! I'll give you the lowdown either during the trip or upon returning, but here is the itinerary:
Friday, Saturday And Sunday, I'll be headed to Walhalla MI and Barothy lodge (check this place out-it is awesome. Overlooks the river, in house hot tub, enormous log cabins-simply awesome) for a little R&R with my wife and about 12 other friends. A lazy day on the Pere Marquette River is in store. However, on the way up, we'll detour through Grand Rapids and try to hit the new Founders brewery and have lunch at the recently opened Hopcat. This place is a great beer bar that is installing a 3 bbl brew system for guest brewers to craft some little specialties. Hope I get a crack at it sometime.
If I don't drown in the floodwaters, we'll race back Suday to repack and time to load the family truckster for a trip to Roanoke Virginia and a family wedding. Yahoo!. Monday at 6AM we'll point ol' blue south towards Indy where we'll be waiting at the Indianapolis Children's museum when it opens at 10AM. Next is a late lunch at Brugge Brasserie. Would you believe my kids (4 and 3) love mussels and crepes-oh yeah, they'll probably have great beers available too. Then it's back on the road to try hit New Albanian Brewing Co. for dinner. Rich O's Public House and Sportstime Pizza and NABC have been on my list of things to do for quite some time, and I'm glad to get to drop by.
At that point the craft beer sites get fewer and farther between, so we'll probably use day two for motoring through the Blue Ridge Mountains and hang in the splendor of Roanoke VA for a few days. There is a new brewery starting up, Roanoke Railhouse Brewing that will make Blacksburg beer, but I think they are just getting started. I know that there well traveled brewmaster, John Bryce just returned home from Germany where he earned his diploma. Congrats John! (aw c'mon, you know he's reading this!) I hope to run into him and more importantly hope some test batches are in the fermentors. Wait, I don't think I mentioned my mother-in-law will be riding co-pilot along with my two wonderful kids and equally wonderful wife. But there had better be A LOT of beer in those tanks. I hope I survive..... more to come.

Tap List 6/12/08

Vishnu's Vice IPA (7.7% a.b.v.)
Nobody can pass up a good IPA, even the great Preserver.This orange/gold ale gives off a pungent floral, grassy, citrus-like, aroma that invites you to take a sip.The blast of four American hops (Amarillo, Summit, Centennial, and Simcoe) is balanced by the full-bodied sweetness of the malt and the higher than normal alcohol.

Leftorium (5.1% a.b.v.)
A brown ale with shades of red and auburn, Leftorium has been brewed in the style of a Flemish sour brown. Notes of sour fruit should dance around on the pallet as you enjoy the slightly malty body, offset by a unique sour and tart finish.

Hattentot Hefeweizen (5.1% a.b.v.)
Hattentot is a pale and hazy yellowish beer with a large fluffy head.The fruity aroma begins with a whiff of banana and citrus fruits. The body is medium with a fruity middle and a slightly spicy character reminiscent of cloves. It finishes clean and is very thirst quenching.

Milky Way Stout (4.1% a.b.v.)
A sweet stout made with lactose that stays behind in the beer because yeast can't ferment it. Creamy with lots of caramel and stouty flavors. And at only 4.1% it's an easy drinker.

Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter (8.0% a.b.v.)
The reigning best Baltic Porter in the country. 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.

De Zuidentrein Kreik (6.8% a.b.v.)
Leftorium aged in a wine barrel with sour cherries. We had room on the bar so you make room in your gullet.

Guest tap: Dark Horse Rod!

What's on Tap for Summer?

A local newspaper article that we get a mention in.

Flossmoor Station

Traveling southeast to Flossmoor you'll find the Flossmoor Station Restaurant and Brewery. Matt Van Wyk is one of the restaurant's two brewers and says customers looking for a lime-flavored beer are going to be disappointed.

"That's really not something we're ever going to do," he said. "We take a lot of effort to get all the different flavors in a beer. We feel like we shouldn't mask any of those flavors that we've painstakingly tried to do, with lime." While he says lime-flavored drinks have their place, he prefers just drinking a lemonade to quench his thirst.

For a summer ale, Van Wyk recommends the traditional German wheat beer, Hefeweizen. "It's one of our summer seasonal, lighter beers. It's unfiltered, lighter on alcohol and has a lot of fruity flavors like banana, and spicy flavors like clove," he said.

Flossmoor Featured in article about Craft beers

Well kind of featured. There's a big picture of me bottling.

Craft brewers: Want better beer? Size matters

Guest Brewer at Flossmoor Station

What happens when you win Best of Show at the The Chicago Cup held by local homebrewing club, Brewers of South Suburbia? Well, you get to brew your beer at Flossmoor Station, of course. A week ago, Brian Richards from Marquette Michigan drove down for a Sunday of brewing his Belgian Golden Strong Ale recipe. It was a Duvel-ish clone and while he didn't have any of the batch for sampling, we did share a Duvel just to coordinate the palate and mind before really getting into it. We shot a little high on the gravity, which was targeted at 1.083, but we like to turn some beers up to 11 here at FSBC anyway, so no harm done. The yeast took off and then slowed down, but is still chugging away and we are nearing terminal gravity. Look for the beer to be on tap at the pub in mid-july, near our 12th anniversary.
We had a great time brewing and I surely appreciated the help. Brian had a great trip hitting Three Floyds and the Maproom among other places. Brian ha a lot of knowledge about beer, homebrewing, and all things Belgian. It seems to me that not all those from the great white north are busch light fans!(just kidding Brian) In fact, check out Brian's blog here.So get your recipes dialed in for next year's B.O.S.S. Chicago Cup Challenge where you too could be cleaning out my mash tun!

Reminder: Brew-ha-ha at Balmoral Park

5pm doors open at Balmoral Park Race Track. We will be pouring beers and betting on the ponies. Make sure to leave us some tips so that we can hit that big exacta in the 7th.

Only $25. Click the poster for more details.

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Tap List 6/2/08

Hattentot Hefeweizen (5.1% a.b.v.)

Hattentot is a pale and hazy yellowish beer with a large fluffy head.The fruity aroma begins with a whiff of banana and citrus fruits. The body is medium with a fruity middle and a slightly spicy character reminiscent of cloves. It finishes clean and is very thirst quenching.

Milky Way Stout (4.1% a.b.v.)
A sweet stout made with lactose that stays behind in the beer because yeast can't ferment it. Creamy with lots of caramel and stouty flavors. And at only 4.1% it's an easy drinker.

Killer Kowalski Baltic Porter (8.0% a.b.v.)
The reigning best Baltic Porter in the country. 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.

Black Wolf Schwarz bier (4.8% 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.

De Zuidentrein Kreik (6.8% a.b.v.)
Leftorium aged in a wine barrel with sour cherries. We had room on the bar so you make room in your gullet.

Guest tap: Dark Horse Rod!