I went to Belgium. Wow! (Part III)

Part III in the voyage de Belgium starts on Sunday morning as we boarded the train (which is remarkably easy to use) and headed to a little town called St. Niklaas. Why the Zythos beer festival is held there I will never know, but it was a nice little trip and a pretty good festival. IF nothing else, you could get a lot of great beers all in one place. And they served food, some of it traditional Flemish dishes, for just a couple of tokens. We had a great time sampling. Three of the San Diego crew, Julian, Yiga and Noah pose with Matt Brynildson of Firesone Walker between beers.



We were also lucky to have a friend to guide us around a bit, and that was Carl Kins. I met Carl a couple of years ago judging at the GABF. Carl judges at that event and the World Beer Cup. He has visited Flossmoor Station and I was happy to meet up with him both Thursday at the Pre Zythos fest and Sunday at the Zythos fest-Thanks for the ride from Alvinne Carl!!





Finally, I was also fortunate to see Joris Pattyn on both Thurs and Sunday as well. Joris is amazing and his knowlege and palatte with beers is incomprehensible. I had sent him a couple of special beers from my brewery and the moment I walked in he had two beers from his cellar. Wow! what a greeting. One was a very special beer from Westmalle that I can't get. The other was from a closed brewery, and the beer was 20+ years old, I think. It was actually a "mistake" beer that was double cherried. It has been resting in Joris' cellar for quite some time. I can't wait to try it.





Back to Brussels. When you are there, you must see the Mannekin Pis, a statue of a little boy pissing. You have to see it, because, well, that's what you do. Jenni was dissapointed at it's lack of size. I mean HEIGHT you sicko!









The Grand Place, which was just two blocks away from our apartment was beatiful. None of our pictures will do it justice, despite the fact that Jenni takes pretty good pictures. This was one building. The architecture and the grandeur of it all was amazing.



Since our San Diego buddies had full cars as they headed from Brussels to Ghent, we couldn't join them on a couple of brewery tours, so Jenni and I roamed around Brussels a bit. We hit a couple of churches, St. Catherines and St. Michel. St. Cats looked dirty and run down but was bery much a working church. That's the first shot below. And St. Michel is beautiful. While the pics below again won't do it justice, the stained glass and the statues were really cool. It was SO big as well.














We also hoofed it across town to see what the EU building was like. While not impressed (and we assumed that would be the case) it was neat to see where the capitol of Europe is located. And we burned some calories in the meantime.







Finally, after a couple of more beers, Jenni played with her night setting on the camera and tried to get the "lit up" Grand Place. Not bad. Trust me, it was gorgeous!










So, with one day of brewery travel to go and one day of traveling home, the trip is winding down. Tuesday is the tour of Beersel castle, Drie Fontenein, Boon, and dinner with Alex from Palm breweries. This was one of my favorite moments of the trip. Stay tuned for that....

I went to Belgium Wow! (Part II)

If you didn't read in previous versions, we have returned from our trip to the Motherland and you can read about the first two days of our trip below. This will give you a little 411 on the middle part of the voyage. So...we left beautiful and picturesque Brugge (with the oldest bridge in Brugee pictured there-a mere 600 or so years old!) Actually, before we left, we took a little side trip to Kortrijk. Just north of there in Heule, resides the tiny picobrouwerij, Alvinne. At that location can be found the pre-Zythos festival hosted by the aforementioned Alvinne and their friends at Struise and de Molen. Urbain from Struise and Menno from de Molen were there along with Glen from Alvinne hosting a smashing little fest to welcome in ZBF. In addition to that, I was able to hook up with Devon, Beejay, and Garrit who are interning at Struise for three months as they plan their soon to be in Chicago Brewery, Pipeworks. They have been working hard not only on a business plan but also the nuts and bolts of becoming a professional brewer. Their exploits can be found here.












Above is a pic (from the right): Devon, Beejay, Me, Glen/Alvinne, Urbain/Struise, and William? (am I right here??) And then also the bottle shop at Alvinne. Way cool beers for even way cooler prices. Got me some!!

One last word on these great brewers in Belgium. You have likely heard of the great things coming out of Struise. Black Albert, Pannepot, etc. Well, you've heard of it for good reason. One word Awesome. Not only the beers but the guy behind them. Wow. In my opinion, Urbain is one of a handful of Belgian brewers who aren't afraid to veer from tradition and brew what he wants. IF it's hoppy, he brews it. If it's strong he brews it. Barrel aged, no problem. Out of style, no problem. MAde a mistake? just rename it. Sounds like tradition that we are used to on this side of the pond........ Oh, and did I mention, he's a great guy. My hope is to one day join forces with Urbain and make the beer of all beers (hint: I think he's going to allow it;) stay tuned.)


Ok, now we're headed to Brussels, don't forget to grab a Jupiler in the train station vendo machine!!













In Brussels we got settled into our apartment and raced to another hotel to meet up with my friend Jeff Bagby of Pizza Port fame and his crew, brewers Noah and Yiga, owner/chef Vince, jack of all trades Dave, bottle shop Sean, and brewer at large Julian. Let me just say-what a great bunch of guys to hang out with in a foreign country.
We were fortunate enough to catch a tour bus to Grote Dorst for a special dinner and sour beer tasting. Pix below:











How would you like to drink 20 year old Gueze? Damn tasty folks!

Then, as luck would have it, we ran into Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker, John Mallet of Bell's and Hedwig, the head of production of Duvel. Yeah rollin' with royalty.











Now it's time for Saturday and time to find Jeff and crew to head over to Cantillon for Open brew day, basically an open house where they are brewing for 12 hours and you walk around bugging them and drinking lambic beers. Well, it's quite a long story but we had trouble locating Jeff because he finished Friday night with a secret cellar tasting at Meoder Lambic, pub crawlin' through Brussels where the doors were locked and the shades were pulled, hit Cantillon once for mash in, taxied to Hannsens for a tour he had set up and then hit Cantillon again for the start of the boil. Quite a 20 hour session and sorry Jenni and I missed it:( Below are some scenes from Open brewday a VERY cool experience.

The very old mash tun with the mash mixer that was powered by large pulleys. The lambic style of brewing involves a turbid mash, so it starts out very dry and thick and eventually gets loose and thin. They need a little more than an assistant with strong shoulders.




To clean out the mash tun, you have to take your shirt off. I think I plan to do that next week. It get's hot in that brewhouse!









Jean Van Roy is the 4th generation brewmaster. Fantastic host despite the fact that he was brewing about 100 hl of beer that day.












This is the coolship where lambic beers lay in wait overnight, cooling by the crisp evening air and being innoculated by the wild yeasts in the air.



This little number strains the whole leaf hop flowers out of the wort prior to going to the coolship.
The most wonderful part of a lambic brewer is that they don't have stainless steel fermentors. All fermentation happens spontaneously in wooden casks. Many of them are wine barrels but some are specially built barrels called foeders. At Cantillon, they had rows and rows of barrels. A few still had the funky yeast goo gurgling up from the bunghole. Cool!


Since we lost much of the Pizza Port crew due to the "Friday Night explots" Jenni and I were on our own. We grabbed a kilo of mussels from the fish market and had a little night in....well til we went out late to Delirium Cafe, Beer Circus, and Mort Subite....I love Belgium!

Tomorrow, Zythos Beer festival and a day of churches and the EU in Brussels.
stay tuned...

I went to Belgium. Wow! (Part 1)

So my wife Jenni and I wrapped up my tenure here at FSBC with a whizzbang tour of Belgium. In a few posts, I'd like to let you know some of the things we experienced along the way. Know that we merely scratched the surface on all the things we could have done and experienced as a brewer wandering Belgium.
So we set of on 3 March (that's the European way ;) ) and flew all night to Brussels. This picture shows what it looks like when you arrive:

I guess Jenni is looking a little more excited about the week ahead!

First stop, Brugge. This was an old medieval city which has kept it's "oldness" and charm. We liked this city much more that Brussels.

The fist think we noticed were the hundereds upon hundereds of bicycles at the train sation. Wow! that's a good way to commute.










Then of course, you notice the canals.












In Brugge we visited De Halve Maan(the half moon), the only brewery still operating in Brugge. They make a beer called Brugse Zot. Light and Dark. Oh and they have started making the Tripel again.
Included in this place is a the modern brewery and also a brewery museum with a lot of old equipment from days gone by.

The best part is walking through the coolship to the top of the brewery with a fantastic view of the city. Our only regret is that we did not try the Flemish stew, Carbonnade, that came highly recommended.


You like Chocolate? They have it all over Belgium!











We also hit the canal tour. Chased some Geese, ya know.










While in Bruge you have to hit t'Brugs Beertje, the little Brugge Bear, but it's full of a lot of tourists.









For a little more local flair, try to find De Garre. It's down a VERY little alley that is very hard to find. If you know you are on the right street, just stop and ask someone. the alley is so narrow, it looks like a doorway. What a great little, old building that is hard to find. We went back the next day to take pictures of this little place we wer so happy to find.




Finally, ya better have some Mussels. Or Moules frites if you will. Good stuff!










Next Stop, Alvinne Picobrouwerij and then off to Brussels!

X-IPA tapping March 17th!!

What's better than a beer dyed green for St. Patrick's Day? A beer that has so many hops in it that it is green already. Ok, our X-IPA may not be green, but it has a ridiculous amount of Amarillo hops. This was the IPA that began the "Brewer's Whim" series so it is only approperiate that brewmaster Matt VanWyk concludes his amazing time here with this IPA again. This rotating IPA will live on as the next recipe is being conjured up now. Join myself, Matt VW, and the rest of the staff here at Flossmoor Station for this special release.

HELLO ALL FLOSSMOOR BEER BLOGGERS!!

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome to Flossmoor Station. I look forward to meeting everyone at the events around the area or here at Flossmoor, so don't hesitate to say "hello" anytime.

I have finally made the transition back to the area and can concentrate on keeping the great beer tradition alive and well here. I can assure anyone with raised eyebrows that all the great beers in the regular line-up will definitely live on. I am also eager to make fun and exciting seasonal beers that will have my own touches.

Well, the beer doesn't get moved with me at the computer! Talk to you later.

Keeping tabs on the 'Shire...

So it's hard to squeeze in time for this bit of important information as I make plans to jet off to Belgium for a little R&R in a brewer's land of milk and honey (pix hopefully to follow in 1.5 weeks), but I wanted to let you know that I'll be blogging in Oregon at Oakshire Brewing. You can bookmark this now if you'd like:
http://oakbrew.com/blog/
but I'll see if I can sweet talk Bryan into adding a link on the left hand side (I know, I know-get out of town wouldja Matt??) Anyway, as you can probably guess the Flossmoor Blog will live on-just let Bryan get up to speed with the beer and the www communication will follow. For now, keep a lookout for a whole new world at Oakshire.

Matt

PS Don't be sad if I don't return from Belgium!

Farewell Matt/Welcome Bryan Party 3/21 5-9PM

The owners of Flossmoor Station have decided to throw a little going away party for my family and me. While honored deeply, in an effort to stay humble, I've decided this need to be just as much a welcome Bryan the new brewmaster party as it does a going away party for me. So, that's what it is.
Join us Saturday night March 21st from about 5-9PM. There will be a food buffet during those hours and a cash bar available to enjoy all that is Flossmoor Station craft beer. We'll also be debuting Farewell Pale Ale that night, an American Pale. Of course stay as late as you'd like, but I have a 2200 mile journey to begin the next morning :) I hope you can join us!

Presenting.....Bryan Shimkos of Flossmoor Station Brewing Company!

Please join me in welcoming the new brewmaster at Flossmoor Station, Bryan Shimkos. Bryan has an extensive background in brewing and science and is currently finishing his responsibilities in Cleveland. Starting Saturday Feb. 28th, please come in and welcome him aboard. You can give suggestions, he 'might' listen :)
cheers!







Could a guy that cool looking lead you astray???

Tap List 2/20/09

Killer Kapowski (8%)
The renamed and award winning Baltic Porter. We made two whole batches. Drink it in the pub and take a bottle or two home.

RecessionAle (3%)
For Hopheads. I can drink 6. can you?
special pricing for those of you getting socked by the crappy economy.

Ore-Gone IPA (7.5% a.b.v.)
It's very good and it's almost gone (like me)

Obama-Brau (5%)
Our politically correct Brown Ale

Guest Tap: Old Foghorn Barleywine-almost gone.
Next: Old Stock Ale
Guest Stout:Youngs Double Chocolate Stout

This, you have to see!

Anyone who is a fan of beer, and I assume that you are, must see "BEER" the play performed by the Neo-Futurists and written by my friends Steve Mosqueda and Sean Benjamin. It runs through March 7th at the new Metropolitan Brewery in Chicago (yes, the play is set in a brewery and is performed in a brewery-how cool). My wife and I were fortunate enough to catch the show Saturday night (yes, Valentine's day and my wife was thrilled to be taken there for V-day-I love her!). After a great beer paired dinner at the Hopleaf, we walked 4 blocks over to the show. Fortunately we were in good company with my friends Pete Crowley and his assistant Davin of Rock Bottom Chicago and Wil Turner of Goose Island (and wives!). Anyway, this show will not only teach you how beer is made in a side splitting laugh a minute manner, but many of your fav breweries from around Chicagoland are featured in prominent roles. Puppets, music (awesome original music), and puke will keep you rolling for 90 minutes. A must see!

Coming soon: who's gonna replace me at FSBC...

Thanks for Last Saturday!

Well we had a tremendous day last Saturday at the Killer Kapowski release party. thanks all for coming out on such a great weather day and supporting us. Sorry if I didn't get a chance to chat with you. We DO still have it left at the pub. Please come on down and grab a couple of bottles before it is all gone.



Dave Really enjoyed the KK. Sorry you missed SF beer week.



Where the magic happens


If that goes up on e-bay, I'm gonna be pissed!



cheers!
MAtt

Killer Kapowski to be released Saturday at 1PM

For those of you coming down Saturday for the release, I thought I would give you a few details on the logistics of the day.
-First, we will be bottling roughly 1440 bottles for your enjoyment.
-Currently there has not been a limit set, but it will be determined when the crowd shows up (I assume it could be a 1 case limit)
-Each bottle is $10. Case is $120.

-CASH IS NOT REQUIRED, BUT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. IT COULD EXPEDIATE YOUR TIME HERE. THERE IS A HARRIS BANK ATM 1/2 BLOCK DOWN THE STREET!!! also, having close to the correct change makes for a less stressful day for me ;)

-We will have StationMaster Wheat, Pullman Brown, Celebration IPA, and Ore-Gone IPA for sale as well. Transactions for those beers will be seperate from the KK and Wooden Hell Sales and can easily be purchased with credit card or cash at anytime during the day.

-We will have Woden Hell Labels AND Collaborative Evil Labels for sale for $2. Downstairs only!



















-There will be a mug club tapping for those members starting at noon. they will be showing their mug club cards, so don't try to infiltrate the club. But do get signed up on the waiting list while you are here.

-Numbered tickets will be handed out as you arrive. THERE IS NO LINE. IT IS TOO COLD! Hold onto your ticket until 1PM. We will start calling numbers to head downstairs (via the front of the building) where sales will be happening. I assume 10-20 people at a time. While you are waiting feel free to have lunch or drink some beers. At the bar, Expect to either pay for your purchase or leave a credit card for your tab. With the number of people here and several people getting up to go purchase KK, it will be very hard for the bartenders and pub servers. Help 'em out if you can.

-As you wait in the short line at the basement door, you will be asked to write your name on your numbered ticket (if you choose) and put it into a drawing for the chance to purchase more Wooden Hell. If any is left. MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN.

-If you have NOT picked up your Wooden Hell, you will do it downstairs when you buy (if you choose) your KK.

-Once everyone has satisfyed their need for KK, we will draw for the leftover Wooden Hell.

Make sense?
Eat drink and be merry!
Matt