Updates are Coming

I promise....

Schlafly Weekender

So we went to St. Louis and froze our asses off.

Well, there was quite a bit more than that, but for about a full day it certainly seemed like that. We actually had a really great time, and the folks at Schlafly were amazing hosts. We got invited down to St. Louis to represent Chicagoland beer at their annual Repeal of Prohibition Festival. The drive down was quick, and you know that you are in a different town when you hit downtown on a Friday, at 5:30, and there is absolutely no traffic. It was a pleasant surprise.

Schlafly didn't let us pay for anything the whole weekend despite our best efforts. Once we unloaded our beers, they handed us a pint of theirs and gave us a tour of The Bottleworks, their newer brewpub/production facility.





We socialized with the staff, had a great dinner, and turned in for the night all praying that it might get a little bit warmer the next day. The next morning, it was still horrendously cold. But people still showed up! It was a great turn out. Everyone had great compliments for our Chicago beers, especially the Schlafly brewers, which always makes you feel good.




(Tap room head brewer, Stephen and his wife, Sarah enjoy warm food on a cold day)

After the fest, we swung by this little hole in the wall BBQ place called Smokin' Al's. In my experience, the worse a BBQ place looks on the outside, the better the food is on the inside. Smokin' Al's did not disappoint. They make one of the best burnt ends sandwiches I have ever had. If you are around St. Louis, and you love real BBQ it should not be missed.

We checked out the Taproom downtown, their original location, and got a very cool tour of the facilities there too. More good beer, more good food, more good times. From the Taproom we headed over to Square One, a newer brewpub in St. Louis that is celebrating its first anniversary. We unfortunately didn't have much time to spend there because it was already getting late, but the grand cru I had was tasting good. It's good to see more beer outlets popping up in St. Louis.

But the whole weekend was a very good time, and I hope that some of the Schlafly crew come up to Chicago sometime soon so that we can repay the gracious hospitality.

Tap List 4/11/07

Hoppy Little Gnome (10% a.b.v.)
A beautiful marriage between American and Belgian beer, Hoppy Little Gnome is our nod to Belgian brewers that are nodding right back at us. Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Trippel and Urthel's Hop It are two belgian beers that are big on American hops. Ours leans closer to Chouffe with it's abbey trippel style dry body but is full of Amarillo, Saaz, and Columbus hops. This is IPA Experiment #2 this year.

Blanche DuBois (5.5% abv)
A painfully delicious Belgian-style wit spiced with coriander and two types of orange peel. Citrusy, crisp, and very thirst quenching, this beer is slightly hazy and perfect for the beginning of spring.

X-IPA (8.0% abv)
You know it, you love it, you ask us for it every time we don't have it on. It's X-IPA, our 100% Amarillo hop bomb. It's not subtle, it's not weak, and if it's at all like our last IPA it won't be on tap for long.

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.

Social Lubricator Dopplebock (7.2% abv) [almost gone]
A malty, caramel colored German lager with a medium body and a crisp lager finish. Subtle roast and caramel malt aroma that remind you of fresh baked bread or toffee. Loosen up and get out of the cold with a tall glass of this special treat.

House Character Pt. Drei

Some more responses to post:

Stan Hieronymus said...

Shame on me. I came to this topic late, was slow to add a comment and now it is wrapped up.

I hope to see the discussion continued (here and elsewhere). It might be something to talk about as you introduce your beers.

I would argue that the issues of house character and how many beers you can brew well (which is a question I've heard European brewers ask) are different.

Why can't you have a house character and brew a bunch of different beers over the course of a year? You just wouldn't expect them all to show that character.

So you might choose to leave your brewing water unmodified (or less modified), use the same yeast, etc. for some beers. And if you wanted to emulate beer from a particular region then you'd mess with the water, change the yeast and so on.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Greg Furgason
I don't think having a house flavor is as important as having a reputation for producing well crafted beers, which the two of you obviously have; and rightfully should have. There definitely is a different culture in Europe surrounding beer, ie how it is priced, what is available at which pub, etc. I enjoy a great deal of European beers, but I have the luxury of having the variety of choice at a good liquor store. For a brewery I would say maybe it would be better to not have a house character but a flagship beer. Something that is available all the time that is recognized as a great brew, like the Pullman has been recently. In the past I would say the Iron Horse was the most popular.
Personally I would like to see more specials rotated through. Right now is great because you have 4 on tap. When there are only 2 available it gets tough to choose which beer I want. If you were to analyze sales of the house beers and see which ones were not as popular, I would not be offended to see one or two of them disappear or become specials in favor of a larger rotation of the special/seasonal brews.
Regardless, you both do an excellent job and give me plenty of reason to stop in for a pint and bite to eat.
Cheers!
-----------------------------------------------------
I agree with Rich's posting. I think the House Character of Flossmoor Station Brewery is having your 6 or 7 wonderful standards and two or three others to try. It is a bit like Christmas each time we come in and see what is new on the board. We try a sample of each one and decide what we want. When we find something we're nuts about it is a challenge to see how many times we can come back and have another pint or two before it is gone. But when it is gone there are always a couple wonderful new choices from which to choose. There is something for every taste. We've never left disappointed. Keep up the good work!
- Jen
------------------------------------------------------

So in conslusion, there is no conclusion. I heard about a place in St. Louis that uses Kölsch yeast for all for all of their beers. I don't know who the brewery is or why they chose to do that, but that would certainly be a distinct house character. I like doing a little bit of everything and I think we do it pretty well. And we have a few medals that say we do a pretty good job too. If more comments or opinions trickle in, I'll be happy to post them.

House Character pt 2

Okay so I have received some responses from you faithful readers. I'm still holding out for more but here is what we have so far.

Just a couple of comments on your "House Character" question.

I tend to agree with you that a wide variety of styles is better. I can't imagine that the brewers at Orval continue to find their profession exciting. They only do one beer. They certainly have perfected that recipe and made a great brew, but my God, how boring it must be to do that every day! A brewery like Three Floyds has their regular lineup that they do all the time, but what makes them interesting for me is the small batch experiments that they do for the pub. Just looking at the variety that they had on tap last week, you had your pick of a coffee stout, an ESB and some kind of weird belgian pale ale experiment. They may never brew those beers again, but that's why I keep going back there. That is also why I keep going back to Flossmoor. Your regular brews are all great, but I've had them all so many times that they've lost my interest. It's the seasonals and the one-offs that draw me in.

Personally I haven't noticed a particular quality that runs throughout all of your beers, which I think is good. I think the only times when a house character is noticeable is when it's not all that pleasant. There is a small brewery here in Indiana that I think has a problem with that. It just makes all the beers taste too similar, and not in a good way.

Just my 2 cents.

Jeff

---------------------------------------

Anonymous
Both sides of the debate have valid points I think. In older countries the people would identify more with tradition whereas in the U.S. this is all new. Better to challenge beer drinkers since they come to your brewpub looking to taste new creations. There's always a sad macrobrew that can be spectacularly countered by a far more intense style of craft beer. In Europe the beer drinking culture never collapsed as it did in the late 20th century here in the U.S. until by the force of entropy craft brewing arose.

-----------------------

Andrew & Matt, Isn't the problem of a brewery developing a house flavor more like crating your own boring little flavor world? Maybe if you are catering to a small market. But we here in America love diversity. Where would Starbucks be without it? Keep on brewing the fantastic beers you're making now. They're great. Stop worrying and go have a beer.
Jerry S.

-----------------------

I like it when you have three to four special beers along with your standards. I always like to try the new ones. When I’m with people who may not be as daring or who don’t appreciate other styles of beers, they like your standards.

Rich

I'm still not sure that I have the answer I'm looking for but I appreciate the comments and I will continue to post whatever else comes in. My personal conviction is that while I certainly appreciate house character, I seek it out when I can in the right context, I have experienced it in Belgium, Germany, and other countries, I lean heavily towards diversity when it's up to me to make beer. Unless your house character is "making totally awesome beers," in which case I'm all for that.

I'm just about out the door to St. Louis as I type this. We are serving up our wares from Mickey Finn's, Piece, and Flossmoor down at Schlafly this weekend at their repeal of prohibition festival. I just hope we stay warm.....


Keep the comments coming and maybe I can reach a satisfying conclusion.

Jenlain Beer Supper at HopLeaf / Do American Breweries Need a "House Character"

This Sunday I got a cool chance to meet and talk to a French brewer named Jean-Jacques Giard, of Brasserie Duyck. My girlfriend and I had responded to a message sent out from Shelton Bros. distributor, Ron Extract, inviting us to sup' with Jean-Jacques, (and whomever else answered the invitation), and drink three of the very enjoyable beers that his small Northern French brewery produces. The venue was the Hopleaf, in the Northside's Andersonville neighborhood, long known as one of the best beer bars in Chicago.


(sorry about the darkness of the photos, the French are afraid of flash photography as a people)

Jean-Jacques spoke a little about his family owned, 4th generation brewery, and a little about the beers, two biere-de-gardes, an amber and a blonde, and an abbey ale known as St. Druon French Abbey Ale. They were all solid beers and we certainly enjoyed more than the $20 entrance fee we paid.



When I quizzed Jean-Jacques about why he was in the States, he said that it wasn't really to promote his beer, although the dinner did serve that function to some degree, it was more to try to understand the current American beer culture, especially craft beer culture. I was rather surprised because it seemed like a very ambitious goal, and I'm not sure how long he plans on traveling for.

While we drinking and discussing the large diversity of American beers, Ron brought up that one of his pet peeves, or complaints, or wishes, or something to that effect, is that most American brewers, (re: craft brewers), try to do a little of everything rather than focus on a few different beers and really make them specific to the region or the establishment. In Europe where one brewery might have been brewing for hundreds of years their beers tend to be very specific and have either a local flavor or a very specific house flavor. Bamberg, Germany is known for having "Rauch" or smoked beers. Schlenkerla is on of my favorites and in fact they make a helles that has no rauch malt in it but still has a house flavor of smoke. Ron's example of an American brewery that makes an effort to have a house character was Jolly Pumpkin in Michigan. (They are also the only American brewery that Shelton Brothers distributes.) Pretty much all of their beers are sour beers and the reuse of their wooden barrels and wild belgian yeasts lend to a very specific character.

So why don't most American craft brewers have this kind of house character? I personally think there are a lot of reasons. I also think that here at Flossmoor we do have a house character in our house beers. We use the same yeast strain that we have used since day one for all of our house beers, but we don't really have the facilities to store the yeast in house and use generation after generation of it like some breweries. It's a commercially available yeast strain that any brewer could buy and use so it doesn't really make us that unique.

But, 1) having a specific house character is a bit of a risk. If people don't like it they tend to group all of your beers together into a category of "beers they aren't interested in drinking."

2) We have only been around for 11 years. Most breweries that have distinguished flavors that Ron is looking for have been around for decades or centuries.

3) It's boring to always make the same beers the same ways or to have a handful of beers that all taste similar. Right now on tap we have a belgian wit, an american double IPA, a Baltic Porter, a German Dopplebock, a milk-stout, and all of our house beers. Variety is the spice of life. (I also think that we do a pretty good job with these styles whereas I think some might argue that a lot of brewpubs try to do a little of everything and get nothing right. Jack of all trades master of none kind of thing)

So what does everyone else out there think? I'll be happy to post some of your responses if you e-mail them to us using the "E-mail the brewstaff" link on the right side. I'm interested to hear what yous peoples out there think.

The Galway Tribes Beer Dinner....

FEATURING FLOSSMOOR STATION BREWING COMPANY'S FINE HANDCRAFTED ALES.

TUESDAY APRIL 24th

6:30PM

5 COURSE DINNER PAIRED WITH 5-7 BEERS

$45 +TAX/TIP

CALL 815-464-9881 or go to www.thegalwaytribes.com to make reservations.

The Galway Tribes

9680 Lincoln Way Lane

Frankfort, IL

I'll post the dinner menu as soon as I can. Don't worry, it's gonna be great!! And it may sell out-so hurry and make reservations!

Tap List 3/27/07

Blanche DuBois (5.5% abv)
A painfully delicious Belgian-style wit spiced with coriander and two types of orange peel. Citrusy, crisp, and very thirst quenching, this beer is slightly hazy and perfect for the beginning of spring.

X-IPA (8.0% abv)

You know it, you love it, you ask us for it every time we don't have it on. It's X-IPA, our 100% Amarillo hop bomb. It's not subtle, it's not weak, and if it's at all like our last IPA it won't be on tap for long.

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.

Social Lubricator Dopplebock (7.2% abv)
A malty, caramel colored German lager with a medium body and a crisp lager finish. Subtle roast and caramel malt aroma that remind you of fresh baked bread or toffee. Loosen up and get out of the cold with a tall glass of this special treat.

1st Annual Chicago AleFest

We'll be there along with other Chicagoland breweries and some distributors who will be pouring things like Dogfish Head, Founders, New Holland, Allagash, Westmalle, Youngs, and Many more!

Saturday April 14th 1PM-6PM

Arlington Park RaceTrack

Music, food, raffles, silent auction.

$15 gets you in plus six samples. $5 for every three samples beyond that.

We are selling tickets. Stop by to get yours.

Come Celebrate Brew Year's Eve

On April 7th, 1933 President Roosevelt signed the legislation for the repeal of the Volstead Act which ended prohibition(at least for beer up to 3.2% by weight-spirits and wine came in December). Because of this, we can enjoy fresh brewed pints of our favorite drink-BEER! So, come and join us on Saturday April 7th as we celebrate this very important event in American History. We'll have:

*$3.00 pints of beer all day

*Great special menu

*Live Music starting at 9:30 PM

*A possible showing of the documentary produced by Ken Burns and Roger Sherman called “The American Brew: The Rich and Surprising History of Beer in America”

See you there!

Cut Up the Barrel Polka

Yesterday while Matt and I were hauling out two used bourbon barrels, two of the hoops came off of one of them on it's trip upstairs. My interest was piqued and I decided to tear it apart to see what they look like on the inside. Here are the results.









I kept a few staves with the intention of chipping them up later this year and using for woodchips in our smoker.

First Day of Spring (Con't)

I just got back from Germany and Italy. It was a fantastic trip. Nothing was bad. I even saw John Mayer walking down the street in Venice. I've decided to post a link to my vacation photos rather than throw a ton of them up here on the blog. Flickr Set




The wit we made is coming along nicely and should marry well with the upcoming warmer weather. Our Hoppy Little Gnomish beer we made is also maturing well and should be a very interesting Experiment #2 for the year. It's looking like a 10% belgiany hoppy I.P.A. Trippelish kind of thing.

April is coming up fast and should be a blast with the amount of things we having going on.

Tap List 3/20/07 First Day of Spring

Milky Way Stout (5.5% abv)

A milk stout that we have brought back from almost two years ago. Creamy, chocolaty, and a little sweetness makes for a very drinkable sweet stout.

X-IPA (8.0% abv)

You know it, you love it, you ask us for it every time we don't have it on. It's X-IPA, our 100% Amarillo hop bomb. It's not subtle, it's not weak, and if it's at all like our last IPA it won't be on tap for long.

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.

Social Lubricator Dopplebock (7.2% abv)
A malty, caramel colored German lager with a medium body and a crisp lager finish. Subtle roast and caramel malt aroma that remind you of fresh baked bread or toffee. Loosen up and get out of the cold with a tall glass of this special treat.

Replicale Saison (6.3% abv)[Almost Gone]
This year's installment of the Illinois Craft Brewer's Guild's Replicale project is a belgian-style farmhouse saison. Ours ended up very fruity and spicy from the saison yeast that we let go wild. Look for a pale to yellow beer that has a complex, tart, and refreshing flavor to it.

SHAMROCK STOUT

Sorry all you St. Paddy's day revelers. Flossmoor Station will NOT have green beer on Saturday. We will however have plenty of corned beef and cabbage and a keg of Shamrock stout(starting Friday at 5PM). This is our Iron Horse Stout aged on fresh mint leaves. (Hey McDonalds can do it to ice cream-why not beer?)

Join us for live music and great food and few pints o' gold!

Night of the Living Ales

Congrats to Three Floyds, this year's winner of NOTLA. They won first place with their Admiral Lord Nelson.
We were lucky enough to eeek out a second place vote for X-IPA, last year's winner, over Bear Republic's Racer X. Bear Republic is the reigning 2006 Small Brewery of the year from GABF.

Updated Calender of Events

March 10th: Mug Club Morning Breakfast Stout Tapping, @ the Station 10am
Don't miss the chance to have your breakfast and drink it too. $10.95 gets you a mug of Milky Way and a full breakfast buffet.

April 7th: Repeal of Prohibition Fest, Schlafly Brewing St. Louis Mo. 1:00-6:00 p.m.
We have been invited along with Piece and Mickey Finn's to represent Chicago at this annual celebration of the best piece of legislation congress has ever passed. ROADTRIP!

April 14th: Alefest @ Arlington Park, Arlington Heights Il
Alefest has been put on in Dayton OH for many years and is now coming to Chicagoland. More details to follow.

April 18th-21st: Craft Brewer's Conference, Austin Tx.
BBQ, music, and beer learning. Last year it was in Seattle, this year we head south to Texas.

April 24th: Beer dinner @ Galway Tribes in Frankfort Il 6pm-10pm
We haven't had a beer dinner in a while but look forward to this one at one of our favorite Irish Pubs.

April 27th: Night Before Dark Lord Day, Flossmoor Station
Those guys across the border that make those "not normal" beers are releasing 2007's Dark Lord upon the masses the next day. If you're going to drive all the way in from Florida, Kentucky, Arizona, Connecticut, Arkansas, Texas, and God knows where else; then why not come down the road a bit and say "Hi" to us? We'll make it worth your while. We are the Best Small Brewpub in the U.S.

The Session

I felt like I should jump on the beer blogging bandwagon and join in the first installment of The Session. Here was the original idea from Appelation Beer:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time for a beer blogging day

All the best ideas end up with beer.

Food bloggers have their own cooking day once a month. Wine bloggers have Wine Blogging Wednesday.

It seems that beer bloggers around the world should have something similar. So let’s start one, an event that will occur on the first Friday of every month. It doesn’t have to have a name (yet) or a logo (like wine), just participants who want to have a little fun and don’t mind learning a little along the way.

Appellation Beer will host the first tasting March 2 (giving us time to get out the word), and the theme will be “Not your father’s Irish stout.”

There aren’t many rules. Simply pour yourself a stout (or stouts) and post on the topic March 2, looking ahead to St. Patrick’s Day or not and writing about any stout that isn’t Guinness, Murphy’s or Beamish (the Irish old guard - good beers but we’re writing about others). Should you worry about style? About getting the opinion of friends, about writing an official tasting note, about food? About the history of the beer or how its made? All optional.

After we do this a couple of months different bloggers will likely find different approaches we are comfortable with.

If you think you might participate please leave a comment or drop me an e-mail. Then invite a friend to participate too. After you post on March 2 send me the URL and I’ll write a wrap up with links to all the posts.

Alan McLeod of A Good Beer Blog will host the April gathering, announcing the theme shortly after March 2. If you have an idea for a monthly tasting, and particularly if you want to volunteer to be a host, send me an e-mail.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So Flossmoor's is going to be dedicated to our Milk Stout, debuting Saturday, March 10th at 10 in the a.m. in conjuction with a breakfast buffet. Mug Clubber's will be able to pay $10.95 for the food and a mug of our new stout.

Milky Way is a sweet stout or milk stout, made with lactose (milk sugar), which is unfermentable to yeast. Consequently the beer has a creamy and sweet flavor that is a fine contrast to the roasty stout body. It also means that if you are lactose intolerant, you might consider staying away or bringing your Lactaid® with you. It's a stout that is easy to drink, lighter on the alcohol that our other current seasonals, and a beer that reminds you of coffee, chocolate, and candy. I will be in Germany for the tapping, so please make sure that there is some left for me when I get back.

p.s. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this Sunday is Goose Island Stoutfest.

Goose Island StoutFest 2007 to Benefit ICBG

So Night of the Living Ales wasn't enough for you? Then join us at Goose Island Clybourn (1800 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago) for StoutFest 2007 and enjoy more than 30 different stouts from 20 local breweries! Doors open to Goose Island MBA members at noon and to the general public at 1:00 p.m. Tickets (limited quantities!) are $30 and are available by calling Goose Island Clybourn at 312-915-0071. Proceeds benefit the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild.

Tap List 2/27/07

X-IPA (8.0% abv)

You know it, you love it, you ask us for it every time we don't have it on. It's X-IPA, our 100% Amarillo hop bomb. It's not subtle, it's not weak, and if it's at all like our last IPA it won't be on tap for long.

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.

Social Lubricator Dopplebock (7.2% abv)
A malty, caramel colored German lager with a medium body and a crisp lager finish. Subtle roast and caramel malt aroma that remind you of fresh baked bread or toffee. Loosen up and get out of the cold with a tall glass of this special treat.

Replicale Saison (6.3% abv)[Almost Gone]
This year's installment of the Illinois Craft Brewer's Guild's Replicale project is a belgian-style farmhouse saison. Ours ended up very fruity and spicy from the saison yeast that we let go wild. Look for a pale to yellow beer that has a complex, tart, and refreshing flavor to it.

A Good Beer Blog

Alan over at A Good Beer Blog asked me to write a little something for his site after I thanked him for mentioning our blog in the latest issue of Great Lakes Brewing News.

Go read it and thank him for extending the internet emprire of Flossmoor Station.

Beautiful Weather.

These past few days have been so nice outside I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the weather. For me, getting up early and heading to work is dramatically different when it's nice outside. It feels like a weight is off your chest and when bad things happen during the day, they seem less bad. Some people get "cabin fever" in the winter when they can't get out for long periods of time. It makes them crazy. Like Max Madsen crazy. We aren't mad or bad, but we do feel like celebrating so....
----------------------------------
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY
GRAVE DIGGER
ROSEMONT HORIZON
----------------------------------
no wait, that's not it.

Flossmoor Station, it's just like a mini-mall


Ok, that's not it either.

Maybe we can SLASH PRICES! BARGAIN BASEMENT DEALS AT FLOSSMOOR STATION.




I guess we don't really do that either. How about instead we stick to what we know, beer. On Tuesday night we will tap X-IPA, our popular double IPA made with 100% Amarillo hops. It's 8% a.b.v., citrusy, and ready for this great weather that we are having.

Also, X-IPA, Killer Kowalski, and Social Lubricator are all getting shoved in their own respective bourbon barrels. X-IPA will beget Ol' Woody and we will be anxiously awaiting how the other two turn out.

over and out.