Tapping Tomorrow and Next Tuesday

We are on our FOURTH tapping in as many weeks, with another to follow next week. Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 31st, at 8pm we will be tapping our Collaborative Evil for 2010. We will be also be tapping the IRON HORSE stout on Tuesday Sept. 7th at 8pm.

For those unfamiliar with what the Collaborative Evil is, let me explain. Todd Ashman (former Flossmoor brewer), Matt VanWyk (former Flossmoor brewer), and Zac Trimert (not a former Flossmoor brewer) started the CE project with the idea that each beer will have a common theme of a style, with each brewery throwing a twist to the ingredients to make it unique. This year's style was either a Baltic Porter (lager) or an Imperial Porter (ale). We added 5% Breiss cherry wood smoked malt to make this 8.4% imperial porter our own. Here are the stats.

Collaborative Evil – Flossmoor 2010

8.4% ABV, O.G. 19.2, 32 IBU

Style: Smoked Imperial Porter. Made with Breiss cherrywood smoked malt, this higher octane porter is anything but harsh. Smooth smokiness balances with the rich porter character, and this medium brown ale has subtle flavors of chocolate. Part of a countrywide collaboration, check out the special presentation by all the collaborators at the 2010 Great American Beer Fest.

New Label Images

We got some requests to post the #666 label (ABV is actually 9.5%), so here it is along with the CE2010

In Search of: TRAIN THEMED NAMES

Our IPA needs a name! Inner Sanctum is a fine name, but all of our house beers have a train themed name. So all of you that have obscure train trivia and knowledge locked up and put away in the old noggin need to find the key. Be the one to gain a piece (albeit minuscule) of history here at Flossmoor. When submitting, please give us the meaning of the name if it is a train term that is unfamiliar to most. For example - Pinhead IPA, (a pinhead is a brakeman). The best name will be collected from the thousands we get :)

Departures: Great Taste of the Midwest 2010

Well, that certainly was a crazy time!

It's amazing how time flies when you are up in Madison, Wisconsin. The dust has settled, the kegs packed up and brought back to the brewey in one piece, and somehow.. all of us are accounted for.

Thanks to everyone that made it out to the Great Taste this last Saturday. We had a blast pouring for you, sampling our colleagues brews, and sweating constantly in the sweltering heat (Well, maybe not that last one).

We ended up pouring through A LOT of beer. Pretty much everything blew by the end of the day and our record of the day was 12 minutes set by our final keg of Rosie Pom American Sour Ale. The Sourheads made their presence felt.

Have no fear though, the early run of Collaborative Evil '10 was just the beginning of that beer. We'll have a proper tapping in two weeks and bottle release some time down the road! Barrel Aged The Turk Saison will see time on the taps and at more festivals in the future and Magnolia Star Malt Liquor is getting tapped proper in just one week! If all that is too long for you, we've got a new IPA tapping TODAY! Catch Inner Sanctum, our first IPA fermented in our brand new dedicated IPA tank in the brewery addition on tap today at 7 PM!

If you want to get in on the festival slate but missed out in Madison, check us out at The Oak Park Microbrew Review this Satuday. We'll be pouring and debuting our version of this year's ReplicAle project (2010 = American Pale Ale). There should be tons of beer, food and fun, and a whole mess of Illinois Craft Brewers Guild breweries to try.

Tickets can be purchased here

We'll have more updates soon and take a look at our Google Calendar when you get a chance. I'll be trying my best to keep it updated as we go forward so you don't miss a thing.

Cheers,

BloggerA

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It begins! Great Taste of the Midwest 2010.. with new and improved banner!

Representing the Illinois Central and Metra Electric

One of our dynamic husband/wife duos manning the taps

Hot weather, tons of beer, and a big crowd = trainwreck? Never.

Bryan and Arnie looking rather official

Like a beacon in the distance.. for those that know the Great Taste of the Midwest..

Upcoming tappings and bottle releases...

Folks, we are at a point where several of the specialty beers are going away and more need to be welcomed (with a party for each of them). I'm tearing up with excitement and anticipation. We are going to have a tapping each week for a month starting with the Good AdWeiss hefeweizen on the 10th.

Next tapping will be August 17th for "Inner Sanctum" IPA 7pm

Next, next tapping will be August 25th for "Magnolia Star Malt Liquor" at 7pm

Next, next, next tapping will be August 31 for "Collaborative Evil - 2010" at 7pm

We will also have a double bottle release of the Beelzebeer and Collaborative Evil at the same time in mid-September, date TBA right now.

Good AdWeiss - Hefeweizen Tapping Tonight

Please join us tonight at 8pm for our tapping of our GABF Pro-Am entry - Good AdWeiss. Homebrewers Zbig and Sylvia Banach have graciously agreed to replicate their award winning hefe here at Flossmoor for a shot at a national medal this September in Denver. Pronounced “Good Advice” since German W’s sound like V’s, this hefeweizen represents a classic ale style originating from southern Germany (Bavaria.) Hefeweizen literally means yeast (hefe) and wheat (weizen), and derives its predominant banana and clove flavors strictly from the yeast. Made with German pilsner and wheat malts and German hops for that “oh-so-authentic” taste. One drinker comments, “It’s like I was at a Munich beer garden right now!” A perfectly refreshing, summer ending German wheat beer.

Cheers!

Brewery Updates and New Beer Info

Just wanted to update everyone as to what is going on at the Station and what can be expected from the taps. We have just finished filling our new 30BBL fermenter with our Inner Sanctum IPA. This will be a new year round "house" beer that will be available. We are not completely eliminating the wax-topped, one off IPAs, as these will be coming out as four seasonal IPAs throughout the year.

We will be announcing a tapping date soon for the Good AdWeiss hefeweizen that our homebrew duo, Zbig and Sylvia Banach, have graciously helped brew as part of our Pro-Am beer. For those unfamiliar to the Pro-Am competition, it is a separate category of the Great American Beer Festival that pairs award winning homebrewers with a professional counterpart, who compete together against other "Pro-Am" teams. The recipe is one that the homebrewer must have won a best of category (at least) in an AHA sanctioned homebrew competition. Zbig and Sylvia won Best in Show for their Good AdWeiss and we were happy to brew it with them.

Also in the tanks is our Collaborative Evil 2010. Todd Ashman constructed a nice release for the collaboration, http://beernews.org/2010/07/collaborative-evil-2010-revealed/ , and the beer should prove an interesting one for each brewery to add a unique spin. Our Collaborative Evil this year is a Smoked Imperial Porter. Our unique spin on the style was to add Breiss cherry wood smoked malt which imparts a noticeable smoke character and a very subtle cherry tart coming from the malt. A very mild smoke, we used a little over 5% smoke malt by weight. If the GABF is in your travel plans this year be sure to stop by the pavilion when all os the brewers will talk about their beer and pass out samples. Not going to Denver? Be sure to have the Evil on tap here and sold in bottles (dates yet to be determined.)

Not to be overshadowed by the tappings, releases, etc., our batch #666, Beelzebeer, is seething and fermenting away, ready for release in bottles sometime in early fall. A loosely defined, higher gravity, rich dark ale.

MAGNOLIA STAR, the newly named craft malt liquor, is lagering away and clearing as we speak. Look for it before the end of summer.

Whew! Is that it?? No! We can hardly wait to see everyone at The Great Taste of the Midwest which takes place August 14th is Madison, WI. Per usual, we will have a special tapping list which will include many of the beers which have not been tapped yet such as the Magnolia Star and the CE2010. Come out, support your local brewers, and even try a few you've never heard of for a magnificent craft brewing experience.

Thanks

Bryan

Weekend Service Update: July 9-11

The weekend is almost here!

Vishnu is manning the taps this weekend and bottles are out now (Darker Green Wax)! The tapping was a busy affair with lots of folks stopping by to experience the return of the hop karma at the brewpub and pick up some bottles for the road.

Sadly, we also have to let everyone know that the Rosie Pom, our Pomegranate American Sour Ale, is off the taps. We may have a small amount available in the not-so-distant future, but the remainder of this beer will likely be festival bound for you Sourheads out there.

If you've got a little time this afternoon, check out our friends at the HopCast's recent trip to the Beer Hoptacular at the Aragon. While they were there, Bryan got some face time in and talked about our more sessionable side here at the Station. Catch them all (Zephyr Golden Ale, Slumpbuster Dark Mild, Gandy Dancer Honey Rye Ale, and Rx Bohemian Unfiltered Pils) at the brewpub this weekend!

Hop Cast - Episode 103: Hoptacular from Hop Cast on Vimeo.

If you've got time to spare or nothing going on this weekend, Flossmoor will be out and about this weekend at two different events:

First, we'll be pouring some beer at the 7th Annual Barrington Brew Fest from 3 to 7 PM on Saturday the 10th. The fest is pretty easy to get to as it's right next to the Metra Station in Barrington. Stop on by and talk to/worship Bryan.

More details here

Also, we'll be pouring and pairing a keg of the new Vishnu's Vice at Rock Bottom: Warrenville's Pop Malt Brewing Explosion from 1 to 5 PM on Saturday. Come experience your old friend beer paired with gourmet popcorn! I'll be there for awhile, so don't be a stranger.

More details here

In the meantime, everyone have a great weekend and we'll have more info for you soon on some changes to the IPA releases, Batch 666, and our August Festival slate!

Cheers,

BloggerA

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names in the lead so far

Just a quick update... MoPac started strong, but Magnolia Star has surged ahead in the past day. Is this the name you want?? Maybe, maybe not. VOTE!!

Top 10 Malt Liquor Names

After reviewing all of the entries we received for the Malt Liquor Naming Contest (100+!), we have painstakingly trimmed the list to 10. If you see your name congratulations, if not, we probably laughed hysterically because it was so non-politically correct. All the submissions were definitely entertaining. The voting on this will be this week only! Please vote by responding to this post, either by giving the name or the number of your favorite.

Without further ado, here are the finalists in no particular order (with any explanation of name in parenthesis):

1. Sweet Sticky Thing (An Ohio Players Song reference)

2. 26th & Cali (Chicago's main jail)

3. Magnolia Star Malt Liquor (The coach service on the Illinois Central line as opposed to the Panama Limited premier service car)

4. Hobo Gravy

5. Curb Tripper

6. Drunchenschtooper

7. Locomaltive

8. MoPac (the moniker for the Missouri Pacific RR)

9. Bullschlitz

10.Old Flossmoor 800

Malt Liquor Naming Contest

We are going to stop accepting name suggestions for our malt liquor this Sunday at 11:59:59pm. We have been happily overwhelmed by the number of responses that we have received, and will par the list down to 10. Voting will take place from the beginning of next week (Monday, June 28th) and proceed for a week ending Sunday, July 4th at midnight. You are welcome to vote here at the Station, or on the blog. The winner (provided he/she is 21+) will receive a keggie (3.3 gallons) of the newly named beer on the night of the tapping, and if not already in the Mug Club, will be invited to that night's event also. I can honestly say that I am impressed by the thought and imagination that went into some of the name suggestions -- kudos!

New beer release Wednesday, July 7th

We are appropriately reincarnating a previous IPA here at the Station, Vishnu's Vice. This hugely hopped IPA just missed the most hops we've ever used by a few ounces! Grapefruit and citrus aromas and flavors explode from this 8% brew making this IPA one of a kind. So grab as many beers as you hands can grab and join us Wednesday evening at 8pm.

Malt Liquor Naming Heating Up

The Malt liquor is being made as I type this, and the naming contest is heating up. So far we have 10 up for election which will happen a week before its release! Get the suggestions in and win some free beer!

No Name beer in need of help

We are looking for suggestions for the next specialty beer! We are making a malt liquor on Friday and think that this beer could inspire a load of great names. We have a few names in the running for top place but the more ideas we get the better the name will be. Winner gets a keggie(3.3gal) of the beer free! Good luck.

Get some Rosie Pom at the Station

We have just put on tap our latest sour to come straight from the barrel. Rosie Pom is a deep red American sour aged on pomegranates. Get a snifter today!

Departures: Chicago Craft Beer Week

And with that, the dust has settled and we have put a bow on the whirlwind that was the First Chicago Craft Beer Week!

If you joined us, you know what a wild and crazy ride it was. With Flossmoor participating in several events, a few new beer debuts, and plenty of fun it certainly was a great if not labor intensive week.

Whether you stopped out and tried the ".357" Imperial Pilsner at Beer Mapping and HopCast's Rare Beer Event, indulged in Chef Eduardo's culinary art at our Beer-B-Que Beer Dinner, enjoyed a great day out at the Illiana Mayfest in Crown Point (And man, what a great turnout for a first year festival), or even just stopped in at the brewpub to try the new Slump Buster Mild or the 1492 IPA, we're happy to have had you as our guest or out supporting Flossmoor.

But, we certainly aren't going to rest now. We just tapped the new Diesel Rellik IPA last week and we're already working on new beers on the horizon, some visits from some old friends on tap, and more events out and around town with the Chicago Beer Hoptacular this weekend at the Aragon Ballroom hosting some of our beers. Keep following the blog and twitter so you know what's getting tapped and what events and releases are going down.

Cheers,

BloggerA

Beer-B-Que Dinner Menu

First Course - Applewood Smoked Bacon Wrapped Fiery Shrimp on Asian Slaw

.357 Imperial Pils sees tap time at The Beer Mapping / HopCast Rare Beer Night at Smallbar Fullerton

Weapons of choice at the first Illiana MayFest in Crown Point, Indiana

More action with Bryan and Arnie manning the taps

Richard works his magic pouring some "Rosie Pom", the newest treat from the barrel room. Get one soon!

Beer rumors at the Station

There have been rumors (all true) that there is going to be a beer reincarnation. A beer named after a Hindu deity will be making an appearance here at the Station in a month or two.

Last of .357 going on tap this weekend

The very last 5 gal keg of .357 Magnum will be tapped this weekend. This is fair warning to all of you who have not had a chance to get in and try it. We do have some bottles left though. Cheers

IPA Bottles at Flossmoor and on shelves soon...

Our most recent IPA, Diesel Rellik, is now on shelves here at Flossmoor Station and will be at your favorite Flossmoor beer vendor soon. It will have a light gray wax color. Cheers!

New IPA Tapping Tuesday, May 25th

We will be tapping our Diesel Rellik on Tuesday, May 25th at 8pm (7pm for Mug Club). This beer is coming along nicely and will be dry hopped today with more than 20# of hops! Designed to be a piney, resinous, IPA with a decent malt backing. This IPA will probably be around 7.5% abv as it is still bubbling just a little today. Please join us for a pint!