Next Tapping

We're tapping into our Imperial Schwartz Bier just before the holidays, which will be on Thursday the 22nd, at the bar at 5pm. The Schwartz came in at 9.5%abv with 56IBU's, and is just the smooth, mellow dark beer we need at a time like this! The very subtle roast compliments the malt very well, and finishes nice, smooth and dry.

Cheers!

Toys for Tots and a Winter Warmer!

On Tuesday, the 13th, we'll be tapping our Spoonless Winter Warmer, and in celebration in junction with the Toys for Tots drive, if you donate a toy you'll receive a free pint!

Enjoy!

Revision to the Beers of Christmas

Just wanted to note that we are going to change the time of the tapping of the 12 beers of Christmas to 11:30am (opening time), so they will be available all day long

Cheers!

Next Tappings

We're incorporating the next tappings into our 12 days of Christmas and will release them at the bar at 5pm (same time for all the 12 beers). All mug clubbers will receive their first pint free!

The Spoonless Winter Warmer - 7.1%abv, OG 19.5 IBU 37
A nice, rich, mahogany colored ale, that we spiced with cinnamon, orange peel and elderflowers.

Belgian Abbey Ale - 7.9%abv, OG 17.2 IBU 22
Reddish in color, finishes quite dry slightly sweet, this belgian ale is full of fruity aromas mixed with spices.

Cheers!

Beers of Christmas

We're doing our 12 beers of Christmas again this year, starting next Monday on the 12th! Everyday we'll be tapping at 5pm a "one-off" beer to celebrate the days prior to our favorite corporate holiday.....oh wait, I mean "favorite holiday."

A couple of the releases with an ( * ) beside it are actual new releases, and will be of course be available after that day. Because of the holiday spirits (meant to be plural) the tappings will be held at the bar and Mug Clubbers will receive their first pint free.

Anywho, here's the line up

1 Coffee Stout
2 Spoonless Winter Warmer*
3 Belgian Abbey Ale*
4 Ginger Red Ale
5 Wassail Wheat
6 Spruce Red Ale
7 Chocolate Vanilla Porter
8 Blueberry Kellehers
9 Cardamom Raspberry
10 Anise Stout
11 Juniper Pale Ale
12 Apricot IPA

And then to celebrate the Ebenezer in all of us, we're releasing a "13th" day of Christmas Ale which will be the Barrel Aged Beelzebeer! It'll be available on the 26th of December (black monday?.....no wait, that's "black boxing day")

Cheers!

No Show ESB

We are tapping into our "No Show" Extra Special Beer on November 30th, Wednesday at 5:30pm. It's a lovely take on the British Bitter and features a nice, rich caramel body with a kick of British hops to round it out; 5.9%abv.

Cheers!

Next Tapping adjustment

Just wanted to post that we are changing the date of the next tapping, the Belgian Single, to Tuesday, November 22nd, starting at 5:30pm.

Hope to see everyone there!
Cheers!

New Tappings

Hi all, we are going to have back to back tappings coming up, starting with our TwoTime Double IPA (8.8%abv), which will be tapped on Monday, November the 14th at 7pm for Mug Clubbers, and 8pm behind the bar.

Next in line is the beginning of our Belgian series, starting with the Restless Wind Belgian Single (5.0%abv), which will be tapped on Monday, November 21st at 7pm for Mug Clu....yadayadayada

Cheers!

Collaborative Evil 2010 Barrel Aged Smoked Porter

I think the title pretty much sums it up, we have the Collaborative Evil from 2010, which was a Smoked Porter with the smoked malt being driven by Cherry Wood, which has a nice, subdued smokiness. Barrel Aging it brings out the vanillin and oak, as well as hints of bourbon and finishes dry and slightly spicy.

Cheers!

English Style Brown Ale Collaborated with an Irish Pub

We are going to tap our "Derailed" Kelleher's Brown Ale this Thursday, the 27th, at 7pm for Mug Clubbers and at 8pm for the rest of the you folk.

We did the beer as a collaboration with Kelleher's Pub in Peoria, as part of their "Beer of the Month," which will be featured thru November. It's an English Sytle Brown Ale, a little lighter in color than our Pullman, and a bit less chocolately. It has a really nice, very sessionable, malty body with tones of toast riddled through it, and finishes crisp with just a touch of hops mixed with roasted nuts. 5.9%abv

Hope you can make it!
Cheers!

Brewmaster'ish kinda Dinner

We are having our Brewer's Dinner on Thursday, October 20th at 6pm. We will have a splendid paring with the food prepared by our Chef Eduardo, and will be entertaining the "harvest" theme in which most of our food will embrace the lovely fall weather we're having!

Also, in celebrating the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a portion of our proceeds will be donated to saving the boobs!

Kellehers Collaboration brew

We just had a great day brewing with Bill from Kellehers Pub down in Peoria and Pat from Specialty Importers. I should more accurately say that they brewed for us, and we micro-managed...

We brewed a nice, toasty nut brown ale, more adkin to Samuel Smith's Nut Brown than to our Pullman, which should be perfect for the fall season to come.

The next tapping is set for the 10th of October, Monday, starting at 7pm for Mug Clubbers and then 8pm behind the bar. We'll be getting into the Bear Claw Wheat Wine, which is a fruity, velvety and boozy wheat wine at 9.7%abv, fermented with the Weihenstephan Hefeweizen yeast strain. Should be fun!

Also, hope to see everyone out for our Oktoberfest, in which we're tapping our Bier Leichen, Vienna Lager ein mas! Festivities start at 2pm and go thru 10pm, Saturday the 8th

Cheers!

Oktoberfest!

Just wanted to give a heads up about our upcoming Oktoberfest on Saturday, October 8th. We'll be trying our best to re-create a biergarten on our Caboose patio, with long rows of bench tables, Bier ein Mass mit Bier Leichen Vienna Lager, lots of good food via buffet style, music, etc etc. (byo leder hosen)

**we had to change the price on the buffet to $15/person, sorry!!

Here comes that cool autumn breeze

You can feel it in the air, the cool, dry windy days, crisp evenings perfect for a fire, and the best season for beer drinking of the year! We're excited about fall coming, and making some great beers to line up for the Fall, as well as bringing back our bourbon barrel aged beers.

With the "summer of sours" ending at the end of this month, we'll be busting out some barrelled goodies. First on will be the barrel aged Collaborative Evil from 2010, which was a Smoked Porter. We'll also be bouncing between a few different barrel aged beers to keep the varietals flowing, so after the first keg of CE 2010 blows, we'll follow up with a keg of the barrel aged Beelzebeer, and then most likely the barrel aged Pullman, and so forth!

Also coming online for the Fall is our Vienna Lager, which will be our Festbier for the Oktober season. We should be tapping that toward the end of the month as well.

Also coming up is a double IPA, an Imperial Schwarzbier, and some other yumminess.

We also recently brewed a Scotch Ale, the Jar of Heads, which will be put entirely into bourbon barrels, and won't be tapped until it's reached its proper level of sophistication.

That's about all the new news i got, thanks for checking in and hope to see you all soon!
Cheers!

New sours

We just tapped into our new sour, the Rate and Pillage, which is a secret blend and you'll have to come out yourself to try and taste, and then of course, rate and/or pillage it! Let us know what you think!

Coming up in the near future is some fun projects. This week we'll be brewing the Jar of Heads Scottish Ale, that will be put entirely into bourbon barrels and stowed away for the duration of this beer siege our patrons are exercizing! We'll have a bottle release of it on the onset of spring next year, and it'll hopefully route us through a more spring like spring next spring (did i mention I'm not looking forward to winter?)

Coming along this fall we're looking at putting forth an Imperial Scharwtzbier for the zombie ghoul day of halloween. Also in line is a nice Vienna Lager for Oktober Fest, possibly a Pumpkin Ale, a Double IPA and maybe even a Harvest Fest to try and cling onto the lovely fall weather before old man winter settles in.

Lots to come, but really little to say about them, check back soon once we have more of our ducks in a row!

Cheers!

Triple tappings

No, not that kind of Triple Tappings, but 3 tappings in a row! We're all set to have the next 3 seasonals/specialties lined up for a sequential tapping party.

We'll be tapping the HopfenWeizen, which is a Hefeweizens but hopped like an IPA, including a healthy dry hopping. We used a nice, equal blend of Galena, Casacade and Palisade for each addition. It's debut will be Monday, the 15th, starting at 7pm for mug clubbers and 8pm behind the bar.

Next is a collaboration we did with City Provisions which is a Dunkel Weiss that we added 100 lbs of fresh Michigan Cherries to the mash. Cleetus, the head chef/proprietor of City Provisions dubbed it the Kirsch and Blucher DunkelWeiss, (Kirsch meaning German for Charity, and Blucher....well, just watch Young Frankenstein). That tapping will be Monday, the 22nd, again at 7pm for mug clubbers and 8 pm for behind the bar.

Finally, our last tapping this month is the Intercontinental Pale Lager, which we're doing again, and for those who don't remember or didn't get a chance to try it, it is a IPA style, but with a lager yeast and a blend of hops, predominately from continental Europe, with American hops. That'll be toasted on Monday the 29th, once again at 7pm for mug clubbers and 8pm behind the bar.

Whew, with all that going on, we also have a new sour on, which is the Candor*2. It's a blend of the peach sour with our station master wheat, but in a 70-30 blend, which makes it quite tart, but in a pleasing way!

Cheers!!

Sophomoric Sour

We just tapped into our new sour blend, which is 33% Hefeweizen and 66% sour, which complements each other quite well. Come on out and try it!

Next in line

Many thanks to those who were able to make it to the anniversary party and bottle release last Friday, it made for a great night! We do still have bottles of the 15th Anniversary Tripel available, and they'd be great for laying down for a while as well as enjoyment right now!

We have a new sour on for the moment, Decadence, which is a peach sour, blended with our Wit and also an addition of fresh mangoes, pureed and added directly to the serving barrel.

Also, next tapping is the Half Day Hefeweizen, which is on Monday July 18th, 7pm for the Mug Club and 8pm for the bar. It's a traditional Hefe made with 70% wheat, 13% of which was unmalted, which made for a rather interesting, and exhausting, brewday (just imagine trying to churn 900 lbs of cement.....) It turned out great though, with lots of bready rich flavors and a big nose of cloves and banana!

Next on the horizon will be a Hoppenweizen, which will be the same base as the Half Day, but hopped like our IPA, including a dry hopping addition (a healthy one at that!) Also coming up is a Dunkel Weiss, which we'll be doing a collaboration with City Provisions, made with real cherries added to the mash.

We're also doing a collaboration with Ken, brewmaster at Limestone Brewery, which we're still in talks of at the moment, but it's leaning towards a nice English Dark Mild. We're also planning to do a beer dinner pairing with Limestone as well later in August, but the specifics haven't been finalized, so check back for more details on that later!

Cheers!

Playground Savior and the Half Day Hefeweizen

We'll be having our next tapping for the Half Day Hefeweizen on Monday, July 18th, at 7pm for mug clubbers, and at 8pm behind the bar. Hope to see you all there!

Also just out is our Playground Savior, which is our new sour that just went on tap today. It's a blend of a sour from long ago (and don't really know its history), mixed with our .357 Imperial Pils, and a small addition of Apple Juice, which brings together a really nice, tart and refreshing beer. There's only a 1/4bbl of it, so come out and try it while it lasts!

Cheers!

Half Day Hefeweizens and Big Belgians

With the Summer Solstice behind us and in full summer mode, we've been creating some tasty beers to soothe our dry, thirsty palates! We have a tasty little Belgian Wit on tap now, which has a nice balance between being uncomplicated enough to be sessionable, and complicated enough to be interesting and full of flavor. Next along is another wheat beer, a bit south of Belgium. We brewed a traditional German Hefeweizen yesterday, with 70% wheat (13% unmalted), and it's already fermenting along very happily and filling our brewhouse with the aromas of clove and bananas! That should be ready for thirst quenching in a few weeks.

Also, for our less than hydrating beers, we have our Belgian Triple 15th Anniversary Ale coming along very nicely. It's approaching the end of its fermentation, and (by the best of our abilities and calculations) has come to its full 15% abv. Surprizingly, the flavors are smooth and rounded without much heat or hit of the high alcohol levels. It'll be released on July 8th, both on tap here at the Station and in bottles. Additionally to celebrate the day (which is the actual 15th Anniversary) we'll be tapping into a few specialties of barrel aged beer and sours; but more on that is to come.

Next in line for fermentation of funness will be a Hopfinweizen. We'll be brewing another Hefeweizen, but this time be hopping it heavily with a regime more adkin to an IPA, as well as dry hopping it. The balance in flavors from the citrusy, piney hops works really well with the fruity esters of the Hefe.

Other than that we'll keep you posted on the sours as they rotate and any other special tappings!
Cheers!

Candor Sour

We have a new sour on now, which is our Candor American Sour blend. It's about 50/50 of a sour, that I have no clue as to what it was originally, but I do know that it was put away to sour back in 2009 (or at least I think I do). To balance out its tartness, I added 50% Station Master Wheat, which helps to make a more palatable beverage.

Next in our line up of sours is the Playground Savior, which Mark put together (and also named). It's the same base sour as the Candor, but blended with the .357 Pilz and an addition of Apple juice, which creates a very interesting, and highly alcoholic sour, which is really tasty! The Savior will be coming along after Candor kicks!

Cheers!

More Sours and a Little Wit

We are finally going to be tapping our Belgian Wit, the Le Chien Blanc (which just means "the little white dog" in French....just sounds better in francais). That'll be happening on Monday, June 20th at 7pm for Mug Clubbers, and at 8pm behind the bar.

Also coming along is our Summer of Sours. Mark pulled together a nice blend this afternoon, featuring a sour with over 55 lbs of peaches that has soured away for over 2 years, blended with just a touch of apricot. The sweetness of the fruit helps to balance the tartness, but is mellow enough not to be at all dominating. That'll be on tap once our Bare Brett kicks, so please come out and tell us what you think!

Cheers!

.357 and a little Wit

Well we finally got the .357 Imperial Pilz to finish fermenting....whew! It took a long while, but it still came out tasting great! The starting gravity was about 25 P, and finished about 5.5 P, giving it a healthy dose of alcohol to a warming 11.0% abv! It seems fitting for the schizo-weather that we're having to have such a light colored beer, more suting to warm weather, but at 11.0%, which lends more toward cold weather; that somehow seems to work right now!

We'll be tapping the .357 Pilz on May 31th, a Tuesday, at 7pm for Mug Clubbers and at 8pm behind the bar. Hope to see you there!

Also coming up is our Le Chien Blanc Wit, which will be a nice contrast at a much more sane 5% range. It's got some great notes of Corriander and Chamomile, with a nice orange zest in the flavor of it. We additionally have used this beer to propagate enough healthy yeast cells to adequately ferment our 15th Anniversary Ale, which we'll be brewing next week!

We have also started with our "Summer of Sours," though the phrase seems ironic right now. We just tapped our Saison & FUNKale, which is a blend of our Saison and the Bare Brett, which is a 100% Brettanomyces fermented beer. It was first tapped into at the Pre-Dark Lord Day, and is on tap behind the bar now, and has actually gotten more tart and even more Brett character into it now.

Cheers!

Illiana Mayfest Tickets

I'm not sure if everyone knows about this event, the Illiana Mayfest, put together by our friends at Crown Brewing.

We're selling tickets to the event, which is May 21st, here at the Station for $30 cash only. We only have 10 tickets, so grab 'em while you can!

Our new brewer, Mark, will be at the event, so come on out and meet him!
Cheers!

Next on Deck

Even with all the events going on around the Station lately, we managed to introduce another beer; our Impromptu Pale Ale. This assertively hopped, yet refined pale ale will be a great session beer with a nice straw color, malty backbone and clocking about 5.4% abv. We'll be tapping into it next Monday, the 16th, at 7pm for Mug Clubbers in the back party room, and at 8pm for the bar and everyone else. Hope this time it'll be greeted with nice, warm weather!
We additionally have hired another brewer, Mark Weinert, who interned with us earlier this year and has just finished the Siebel international course. I'll let him introduce himself more properly, but we're really happy to have hime on board (excuse the silly train pun).

Our .357 Magnum Imperial Pilsnalebeerwhatchamacallit has been a painful fermentation, but it seems to be chugging along and might yet still make its debut in a few weeks. We had to press the emergency button and bring back up, which came in the form of some super yeast that's able to revive stuck fermentation (our protagonist stalled in the 3rd act). We're going to continue to monitor the flavor and condition of the beer, and if it meets our expectations then we'll unleash it in all of its uncouth, irreverent tenacity...just like Dirty Harry...

Coming up next on the agenda we'll be playing with some new yeast strains and venturing into very high abv territory. We'll be brewing a nice light Wit, Le Chein Blanc, brewed with unmalted wheat and spices to create a rich, mysterious concoction. Other than just a tasty brew, we'll be using that Wit to grow up a healthy amount of yeast to pitch from the barracks into battle; our 15th Anniversary Belgian Tripple 15%abv! We'll be brewing that in a couple of weeks and be releasing it on July 8th, our 15th Anniversary for Flossmoor Station R&B. It'll be released both on tap and in bottles, but as usual with our limited space, the bottles will be limited. We'll have some more information on that release as the date comes closer.

Behind the bar, we'll be making our transition to summer (weather allowing....will this week bring us the long awaited spring we've hoped for??). We're going to blend some of our very tart, acidic sour beers downstairs still in the barrels, with some of our house beers to create a "Summer of Sours." They'll provide some crisp tartness to refresh ourselves from the warm summer days. To kick off our summer, soon we'll have a very small amount of our Saison & FUNKale back on, which is a blend about 50% Saison and Garfunkel and 50% Bare Brett. Our Bare Brett, which we'll have on tap following the FUNK, is 100% fermented with Brettanomyces, a wild yeast strain that gives a pleasant acidity and earthy flavors on a nice light colored beer!

That's about all there is on the agenda, but continue to check back for updates on other barrel aging projects and other goofy, fun stuff that makes a brewer happy! Thanks again for all the support and hope to see you all soon!

Cheers!

Some changes rolling thru the Station

As many of you have already caught wind of the recent departure, Bryan has stepped down as head brewer here at Flossmoor. I think he simply is ready for a change of pace. He'll still be here (much to my comfort) as I'll be getting trained up to take over as the head brewer. I know there's been a lot of talent to come through here, and Bryan certainly is no exception. I've had the pleasure to work with him here and learn a lot along the way. I'm excited to try and continue the reputation of Flossmoor, both in innovation and quality, and hope my attempts will meet the scrupulous expectations of our well ventured palates out there!

To get onto our little party (it happens to precede a certain "sinister day" at an Indiana brewery), we'll be tapping into some pretty cool beers dug up from our cellars. We'll have 9 taps flowing from our jockey boxes, all of which won't be found behind the bar, starting at 2pm and running until they kick or the village ordinance kicks us out. We'll also be firing up the grill at 4pm, and the live band will start around 5pm. Everything will be outside (so pray for sunshine!) on our back patio, and for those interested in beer swapping, there'll be a nice area to do so by the caboose.

We'll also have our Saison & Garfunkel in bottles and available for purchase. Additionally, we'll have a raffle for our last 12 bottles of the HiFi Rye, with the raffle tickets going for $5.

Alright, here's our list of brews:
Barrel Aged Beelzebeer
Raspberry infused Barrel Aged Beelzebeer
Magnolia Star Malt-Bourbon Liquor (also barrel aged)
Barrel Aged Panama Red
Brett Saison Funkel
Dean's Beans (coffee stout)
Bare Brett (100% brett. fermented)
Rosie Pom (our gold medal for sours from last year's FoBaB)
Colaborative Evil 2010 (Smoked Porter)

I hope to see you there!
Cheers!

Stammtisch Alt

We have the perfect bier for these windy spring days, and it's our Stammtisch Alt! We're tapping the German ale next Tuesday, the 19th. It gets its name, stammtisch, from the German word to describe the "regulars" table. Found at many pubs, the stammtisch table is set aside for the regular diners/pubbers, and is generally set aside and marked off so that not just anyone can sit down at it. Not to worry, this Alt won't be just for our mug club members, but they will be the first to taste it next Tuesday, in our pseudo-stammtisch room! Cheers!

On the horizon

It's been a little while since I've posted here, must be seasonal affect disorder...
I'm probably sure you're like me and very ready for this winter to quit dragging its butt and move on, especially with the forecast for more snow.

Anywho, with that out of my system, we have some nice things coming up on our horizon that we're really looking forward to. We had a great tapping last night of our Saison & Garfunkel, which I really like as a nice transition into warmer weather.

We're admist fermentation of our .357 Magnum Imperial Pilsner, which is making a second debut. It's a big beer, hitting around 12% abv, and it's chugging along right now chewing thru all those sugars and should be finished up in time for our Pre-Dark Lord day party on April 29th. The rumor I've heard is that the party will be outside on our back porch with a live band. We also have some really great beers that we'll be releasing for that day only, so come on out!

Also in our fermenters is another batch of the HiFi Rye, which we will be putting directly and totally into barrels, so we'll have to be patient and wait until this fall to enjoy it (which might actually be rather difficult...)

And the last beer-horizon that we have coming is our Alt bier, that we're brewing next week and should be ready toward the end of April. With the glimmers of sunshine that have peaked out, I'm getting excited about drinking this beer on our back porch with warm winds and sunny skies, birds and budding trees........I'm really ready for this winter to be over....

Cheers!

Saison and Garfunkle Tapping March 22nd

We are having a tapping on March 22nd, at 8pm for our Saison & Garfunkle Belgian saison. This saison was a small collaboration with an eatery in the Wicker Park area of Chicago, so we wanted this beer to be easily paired with food.

The initial idea was a saison with citrus flavors, so we took notes and went to work on a test batch. Pleased with the test batch, we moved to the large system. The amounts of spices translated to 3#s of peppercorns, 1.5#s of fresh rosemary, and the peels from 20#s of clementines on the 15bbl system. This beer also did all of its fermentation above 80F, peaking at around 88F. What we have as a result is a very aromatic, freshly citrus beer with all the great characteristics of a Belgian farmhouse ale. The ABV on this brew is a hefty 8.3% so don't let the delicacy fool you.

Hi-Fi and BA Hi-Fi Release this Saturday, February 26th at NOON

The release of our 2011 rye barleywine, Hi-Fi, and the 2010 bourbon barrel aged Hi-Fi, will begin at NOON on Saturday, February 26th. Here are the details:

- We will begin to hand out numbered tickets beginning at 11am. These tickets are to help the release go more smoothly, as we will call groups of 20 people at a time according to these numbered tickets.

- When your number is called, please line up down the hallway that leads to the Metra parking lot. We are doing the bottle release out of the brewhouse so that no one has to wait in the cold (and so your friendly brewers don't have to either!)

- There is a 6 bottle limit on each variety for a total of 12 max possible. The price will be $10/btl for the 2011 Hi-Fi, and $15/btl for the 2010 BA Hi-Fi.

We are looking forward to this one!

Tapping into the Black Magic at the Station

We are happy to announce the return of Black Magic IPA at the Station and you are all invited! In addition to the year round Rail Hopper, we will tap one of these seasonal IPAs every now and again.

Black Magic IPA (or IBA, India Black Ale if you are going to be sticklers) is going to be tapped on Wednesday, March 9th at 8pm. This is the same recipe as last year's Black Magic and will also be available in 22oz bottles with a black wax.

Kapowski tapped out

Well, we have already finished the last of our Killer Kapowski on draft. He sadly tapped out just yesterday, but luckily, he tapped out to our Dark Matter Imperial Stout, which will be officially tapped in tomorrow, Wednesday the 9th at 8pm. Okay, enough of the tapping references...

We do still have a lot of the Kapowski in bottles, selling for $10 each

Cheers!

Environmentally Conscious?

We're hosting an event here at Flossmoor Station called Green Drinks, which is "an informal networking event where innovative people meet at a bar or coffee shop to share ideas and make new connections."

We're having the innovative session on Thursday, March 3rd, starting at 6pm.

For more on Green Drinks, click here

Cheers!

Wooden Horse, pins and firkens and a new Saison

In continuation of our barrel aged beers on tap, we are finally moving along to our next selection. We finished the Grandma's Sleigh Ride, and she's rode on over hills and is gone for the year. We now have our Wooden Horse on tap, it's our house stout, the Iron Horse (note it is "our house"....not "out") aged in Buffalo Trace barrels for 5 months. We're really happy with the way it came out! It picked up some nice notes of the oak and vanillins, and the bourbon is more of a background note. It was really well received at the Brewpub Shootout, so come on out and try a snifter of it! We'll also be rotating these next selections of barrel aged beers more quickly, so come on out now as it'll be gone pretty fast!

In preparation for the Day of the Living Ales (formerly the Night of the Living Ales, which completes the reference much better) we are preparing our firkin's for the event. We already have one filled and is conditioning. We used our Zephyr as the base and put Cactus Pears in, with a nice Lacto culture to expand the flavors. We did one similar to this one, which reportedly turned out very well (we didn't get a chance to try our own creation!). So we're really excited about trying this one again. We're also doing our Ghost of the Iron Horse again, which is our stout spiced with Ghost peppers to give it a nice hot zing; note that ghost peppers are the world's hottest pepper.

We also are playing with another real ale. It's not really for anything in particular, but it'll be really fun to see how this turns out. We put in a pin part of a test batch Saison (more on that in a moment) and pitched a Roselare culture into it. The Roselare blend culture is supposed to replicate the ambient micro flora of the West Flanders region, best known for its spontaneously fermented Lambics and Geuzes. It contains two saccharomyces cultures, a belgian and a sherry, two brettanomyces cultures, a lactobaccilus and a pediococcus cultures. It'll be quite interesting how this project turns out!

Now on to that Saison. We're doing a seasonal batch in conjunction with The Bristol Eatery and Bar in the Bucktown area. It's a lighter colored Saison, brewed with Clementine peels, Rosemary, and peppercorns, and fermented with a traditional Belgian Saison yeast which complements the spices really well. We're brewing that this Thursday, so it should be presented in about 6-8 weeks.

Cheers!

Bottles, Barrels, and Horses (?)

We are happy to announce a few things going on in the near future and hope to see you there..........

* The next tapping will be held Wednesday, February 9th at 8pm in the pub and restaurant. We are tapping the Dark Matter Imperial Stout, which has finished up nicely at a winter warming 8.1%.

* We are pleased to announce that the Iron Horse oatmeal stout will be on tap starting Tuesday evening February 1st, and will be on permanently as our house stout.

* The bottle release for the Hi-Fi Rye Barleywine (2011) and the Barrel-Aged Hi-Fi Rye Barleywine (2010) will be released in tandem on February 26th at Noon. Bottles of the Hi-Fi will be $10 and bottles of the Barrel Aged Hi-Fi will be $15. There will be a 6 bottle limit for each.

* Finally, the last of the Grandma's Sleigh Ride is on and for the remaining months of cold weather and big beers we are going to be rotating the bourbon barrels so one style isn't on too long. The first will be the Wooden Horse, the barrel aged version of the Iron Horse.

Brewer's Dinner tomorrow night!

Just wanted to put up a quick reminder that we're doing our Brewer's Dinner tomorrow, Thursday the 27th, here at Flossmoor Station. We got a great line up of beers and food pairings, and Bryan and I will be pouring beer for the event. So come on out for a great 4 course dinner with us! The price is $35 for mug clubbers (and significant others of those mug clubbers will be at the same price) and for everyone else it's $39.

Hope to see you there
cheers!

Brewpub Shootout 2011

We had a great time at the Brewpub Shootout this year, they really put on a great show and all the breweries that attended brought out some truly great dishes and tasty brews! We got to walk away with some accolades as well, which is always a terrific feeling.

We were granted 2nd place for best beer, and we're not totally sure which beer fetched the title, but we're very proud our beers were well received

Additionally, we got 1st place for our food, which Chef Eduardo pulled together an amazing dish of beef tenderloin served over sweet potato mash. He seared the beef on the spot, which may have helped draw extra attention to our table. In fact, almost everytime he flared the burner up, a large group would gravitate toward us, drifting with the smell of beef.

This was my first time attending the Shootout, and it was an absolute fantastic event. It's really nice to have food being a focal point of a beer fest, especially after tasting so many great beers. Some of my favorites from the day were the potato dumplings from Rock Bottom and the Nutella bread pudding from Half Acre. Also, the other group of Rock Bottom'ers (east and south? or north and west? I can't remember how they split that up) brought out the liquid nitrogen to flash freeze raspberries over ice cream, which was really cool to see! I wanted to steal some of the liquid N2 to play with...

Revolution walked away with the best food and beer pairing, and I can't remember exactly what they brought, but it was a great dessert pairing with a Citra hopped IPA. The newly established Haymarket also received some awards, I think one in each catagory (beer, food, and pairing), and took first in the best beer.

We have pictures to come soon

cheers!

Bottling a Station Master

Seems like a difficult task, especially when contracting Phil Conners, but we managed to bottle 60 cases of the Station Master Wheat, so it is available today again in bottles behind the bar.

Additionally, in having a little fun with our bottle caps, we found the world infamous Gringo Extra cap

If you happen to be the lucky Gringo, then you get an Extra! Find the Gringo bottle cap and you get a 2 for 1 deal of the same beer, which this time happens to be the Station Master.

This might become a more regular tradition, but for now this is a first

Cheers!

Upcoming events

Just wanted to extend our upcoming events onto our beer blog. Thursday night we're doing a fundraising event with the Save-a-Pet no kill animal shelter. Their funds are rapidly running out and are in desparate need. They currently only have enough funds for the next 6 months. Bryan and I are going to be there, doing some tastings of our IPA, Pullman Brown, and Station Master Wheat. Appetizers will also be available. Tickets are $25, and space is limited, so call ahead for a reservation. Hope to see you there!

Also coming up, if you haven't heard already, the Bears are supposed to play on Sunday. I'm not gonna say whom I'm rooting for, as to not be ousted by this intense rivalry. But here at Flossmoor, we're doing a "Brown Down" day for the Bears! We'll have a few beer and food specials:

$1 Tacos

$5 BBQ Chipotle Wings

$3 Pullman Brown Ale pints

And as always, we'll have a free half-time buffet. So come on out and cheer on the team!

Cheers!

Anti-matter, stouts, food and gas

We had a nice turnout on Saturday for our Killer Kapowski bottle release, which was a pleasant surprise given how freaking cold it was (Bryan and I had to call it off a little early due to the lack of feeling in our fingers and toes, and faces for that matter). Thanks to everyone who made it out, hope those bottles are treating you warmly!

We decided to brew our Imperial Stout, the Dark Matter, again a week back. It's about done fermenting and tasting great, with a big starting gravity of about 23*P. We dry hopped it today with some Centennial and Chinook hops to round the nose out with a big dose of pine and grapefruit, and we additionally spiced it with just a hint of Star Anise, to add an extra depth of flavor. We're really excited about how this one will turn out, and we should release it next month for our next tapping party.

Another return for our cellars is the Iron Horse Stout, which we brewed last Friday. We are planning to release part of it on nitrogen, and then carbonating it for the remainder. It'll be a fun experimentation on the effects the gas has on the beer itself. Bryan and I call the carbonation of a beer the fifth ingredient, because of how much it impacts beer's flavor. With beer served on nitrogen, the flavor comes through much smoother, more mellow and more creamy. Plus, the head of a nitro beer has the classic Guinness ever-lasting pillow effect. This is all due to the insolubility of nitrogen in beer, and once it breaks out of solution, it does so in very fine bubbles, which create that creamy ever-lasting head. Additionally, with stouts, the nitrogen doesn't pull as much of the roasted flavors out of the beer, creating a smoother, more mellow stout. Serving a beer on nitrogen is a way to emulate serving a beer "real ale" fashion, with the low carbonation and the creamy effect of the nitrogen. In fact, most real ale beer engines have sparklers attached to the end of the faucet, to whip up more nitrogen into the beer upon serving to give it a creamy head. In contrast, the solubility of CO2 gives a very coarse mouth feel to the beer and, with stouts, pulls the roasted flavors out, lending to a drier, more roasty stout. Additionally, the acidity of CO2 gives a sharper bite to the beer, giving it a more crisp taste.

This of course isn't anything new, many breweries have been playing with nitrogen draft systems for a while now. In fact, many breweries are trying nitrogen on many different beer styles other than stouts, such as Pales, IPA's and so forth. It's fun to taste the difference the gas can give a beer, and we'll get to taste that change with our Iron Horse!

Alright, enough of that ramble, on to our big event this weekend. We finally have decided on our dish for the Brewpub Shootout. We're pairing our HiFi-Ryewine, non barrel aged, with Chef Eduardo's green peppercorn encrusted beef tenderloin, sitting atop a mashed sweet potato with pasilla peppers whipped with a housemade HiFi butter sauce. It tastes great (from what I've heard, I'm a vegetarian and haven't tried it), and everyone here is really digging it. So hopefully it'll show well come Saturday. Additionally, we're entering our Intercontinental IPL (6.7%) and our Wooden Horse Barrel Aged Stout (5.6%).

Cheers!

Some year end closings and upcoming events

Hello all craft beer enthusiasts, I just wanted to give some brief updates around the brewhouse. We were excited to end this past year ('10) with 816 barrels, which is up 91 barrels from last year, closing with 725. We're excited to have pushed out this much beer, and you are to thank! A good portion of our growth has come in bottles, and Glunz beer distributors have been working hard to deliver our great brew around the Chicagoland area. You can find our brews at most of the Binny's around the area, as well as Wholefoods. We're working with them to bring our beer into new craft beer markets, so keep a look out!

The new year is also bringing us some delicious beer and food pairings! We have a delectable Mardi Gras Brewer's Dinner lined up on Thursday the 27th, starting at 6pm, with tickets going for $35 for mug clubbers, and $39 for non-clubbers. Here's our menu line up, featuring a great collaboration with us in the brewery and our Chef Eduardo:

6pm Welcome with our ReplicAle Pale

Dinner Menu, starting at 630pm

Appetizer
Shrimp Etouffee over Cajun Rice w/ Andouille Sausage
Beer: Panama Red Ale

Soup
Chicken Gumbo
Beer: Intercontinental Pale Lager

Entree
Beef Tenderloin Medallion Ratatouille
Beer: Killer Kapowski Baltic Porter

Dessert
Bourbon Rice Pudding Broule
Beer: Bourbon Spiced Red Ale

And in upcoming events, we will continue our food and beer pairings with the 13th annual Chicagoland Brewpub Shootout, on January 22nd at the Irish American Heritage Center, from 1-5pm. We've got some great ideas flowing for our food pairings, as well as some creative beers using some special barrel reserves, but I won't spoil the surprise just yet! Brewpub Shootout

There's also some rumors passing around about an early March visit with the alive.....a day spent with the living ales.....but more to come on that



Cheers!

Killer Kapowski Bottle Release

With the new year comes a new beginning for an old great here at Flossmoor. After a year off, the Killer Kapowski Baltic porter will be available again in bottles. We are going to release the Kapowski on Saturday, January 15th, and this delicious beer will be available starting at 12 noon. We will be selling this beer out of the rolling door south of the main entrance on Sterling Ave., and each bottle will be $10. We expect to have enough KK bottled so that everyone has a chance for a bottle, however there will be a one case, 12 bottle, limit.

We look forward to seeing everyone and have a wonderful new year.

Cheers,

Bryan