DLD Eve - "And it begins..."

Jess and I just officially retired from Dark Lord Day Eve. Here's our beer diary from the night...

Crown Brewing

Jess and I were the first of the HBG crew to show up at Crown (around 5) and things were still fairly slow. Bob O's posse was already hanging out on the patio. We inquired about the HBG special and by doing so, helped educate all the wait staff on tonight's special. Turns out it's 20 cent wings and $5 off an extra large pizza. Still not too shabby. We started off with a Celtic Pride Stout and a Crown Town Brown.



The Celtic Pride Stout was opaque black in color with a toffee colored head. The nose contained coffee, roasted malts and chocolate. Fairly characteristic of an Irish Stout. The flavor of the beer was filled with roasted flavors and a touch of caramel. This Irish Stout weighed in at 5.5% ABV.

The Crown Town Brown had toasted hazelnuts, walnuts and coffee in the nose. This beer was surprisingly sweet with a lot of brown sugar notes and sweet malt. The finish was slightly nutty with a hint of herbal hops.



The Smokestack Amber was surprisingly hoppy. The nose was quite odd, with metallic characteristics similar to that of well water in addition to pine hops. The flavor was very prominently dominated with pine and grassy hop notes. Reminiscent of Troegs Nugget Nectar but lower ABV at about 5%.





We're not really Hoosier Wings and Pizza Geek, but if you're curious what was on special tonight, here's a quick rundown of what we ordered. The wings were fried and tossed in a decently spicy traditional buffalo sauce (I'd guess hot sauce and butter). The sauce was pretty good and we managed to consume most of the excess. We had a thin crust Vegetarian pizza with added pepperoncinis (the peppers in the Papa Johns' box). The crust was very cracker like and there was at least twice as much cheese as a regular pizza loaded on this thing. Quite tasty, but very filling with all of the cheese. We took half of it back to the hotel with us... and we're snacking on it now. It's good cold too!

Flossmoor Station



In case you haven't heard, Flossmoor recently turned over brewers. Matt Van Wyk has moved on to the great state of Oregon, leaving Bryan Shimkos at the helm of Flossmoor Station. This is the first time we've been up since Bryan has taken over, and for the most part everything seems to be business as usual. Although in previous years Matt has hosted an amazing Dark Lord Day Eve party (or so we hear), this year things seemed to be fairly casual. The crowd was mostly beer geeks and the bar was very busy, but not over-crowded.



In addition to their typical lineup, the special Flossmoor beers on tap included the Shimko's Simcoes IPA, Farewell Pale, Killer Kapowski, Recession Ale and Belgian Wit. Guest taps were occupied by Two Brothers' Cane and Ebel and Great Lakes' Blackout Stout. We decided to go for a double shot of hops, with Jess trying out the Shimko's Simcoes IPA and I went with the Farewell Pale.



Shimko's Simcoes poured a deep copper with very slight white head. The nose contained hints of juicy fruit gum, citrus, grapefruit and pine. All signs pointed towards Simcoe hops. The mouthfeel was very pillowy with predominantly sweet, sticky hops and a nice caramel balance. This was a sugary sweet IPA with spice notes. For those of you playing along at home, this IPA carries a white wax finish on the bottle.

I wish I could elaborate more on the Farewell Pale, but it honestly was a fairly standard Pale. Good hop balance, but not much stood out. Pine and grassy notes in the nose with a matching pine flavor. Hints of mint, with a creamy milk character and the sweetness of caramel and orange cream rounded out this easy drinking Pale.



I finished out the night with a Great Lakes Blackout Stout, only because I had never seen it on tap. This beer was amazingly sweet compared to the bottled edition. Great Lakes is no longer available in Indiana, but you can still pick it up in Illinois and Indiana. The Blackout Stout is their Imperial Stout, brewed in honor of the big northeast blackout of 2003. On tap, this beer has a nice roasted malt nose with big portions of chocolate, coffee, molasses and cocoa powder. The sweetness of this beer was surprising. Maple syrup came out first, followed by honey, toffee and peanut brittle. Then, as if out of nowhere, chocolate covered bananas came to mind. This was verified by Jess, so it is clear that I am not insane. The alcohol was well hidden in this one and didn't come out until the end of the snifter.

I think we had a pretty great DLD Eve overall. We grabbed a bottle of Shimkos' Simcoes (I have no idea where that apostrophe is supposed to go) to go. Not sure if we'll open it up tomorrow or not. We have the Downtown Indy Rock Bottom's Hacker Schwarz and Fire Chief Red in growlers to share with the Dark Lord crowd tomorrow. If you can find us we'll be glad to share!

New Beer Sunday

This week I've got a beer from a wonderful Brewpub just across the state border in Illinois. I've been to Flossmoor Station on several occasions and it is a nice brewpub with good food and great beer. Several beer geeks went up last year and wrote up a review of a trip that will hit both Three Floyd's and Flossmoor Station. There has been a shakeup at Flossmoor the last few months and head brewer Matt is leaving Flossmoor for Oakshire Brewing in Oregon. Matt is known for his delicious IPA's and this beer is a play on that name. I wish him well, and I've enjoyed just about every beer that I've had from Flossmoor Station.

Beer: Ore-Gone IPA
Brewer: Flossmoor Station
Beer Style: IPA
Price: around 10 bucks
Availability: Limited/Brewed Once, but according to the beer boards still available at the brewpub

Appearance: This beer pours a cloudy golden color with a fingers worth of bone white head that left great lacing for the entire beer.
Smell: I could smell this beer as I poured it and I am greeted with a nose full of hops that ranged from grapefruit, orange peel, and sticky pine. The bready malt is very apparent as well and supports the hops beautifully.
Taste: A continuation of the smell with the citrus and pine flavors very bold upon first sip, but the malt comes in about halfway complimenting the hops and giving the beer a nice complexity that I think many IPA's are missing, and is much more than just hops in your face, but rather a well balanced and well crafted IPA.
Mouthfeel: My only complaint here is that the beer could have benefited from a bit more carbonation I think, but it was medium bodied and rather sticky in the mouth.
Drinkability: If you are an IPA fan this beer if for you, and I would love to be able to drink this with regularity.

Overall: This is another great beer from Flossmoor Station. This beer had some of the attributes of a West coast IPA, but was still very balanced with plenty of bitterness. I wish Matt the very best in his new endeavors in Oregon, and look forward to more great beer coming out of Flossmoor.

Other IPA's worth your time: Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, Stone IPA, Three Floyd's Alpha King, Founder's Centennial IPA, Victory's Hop Devil, and DogFish Head 60 Minute IPA are all available here in Indiana.

Cheers!
Matt

Illiana Beer Trail (Introducing Jess)

Since this is my first post, I feel I need to introduce myself. I'm one of the smoked beer riffraff and I was on the injured reserve list for the Microbrewer's Festival this year, and a word to the wise - stomach flu and drinking doesn't go well together.

Not so long ago, at the last Rock Bottom Brewer's Dinner downtown, Iain Wilson of the Orland Park Rock Bottom told us of a magical journey starting in Northwest Indiana and ending in Chicago. This journey would take us through a brewery adventure that we hadn't anticipated. It would appear that Three Floyds, Flossmoor Station and the Orland Park Rock Bottom are all conveniently about a 15 minute trip apart, and all along a route to Chicago. Now I won't lie to you, it's a very confusing trip that got us lost multiple times thanks to road names being different in person than they are on Google Maps, but ignore that, you'll want to make this pilgrimige again and again.

We started out at Three Floyds early in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we were immediately met with bad news, Fantabulous Resplendence was not currently on tap. We held back tears (mostly until we saw that we could purchase bombers of Fantabulous Resplendence to go) and Rod ordered a sampler of the standard 4 Three Floyds beers; Pride & Joy, Alpha King, Robert the Bruce and Dreadnaught. All of them were pretty typical except for the Robert the Bruce, which was much more malty (and delicious) at the source.

The beautiful bar area at Three Floyds, more bars need chalkboards with their tap listing!

The Osti Helles was described as a smoked helles.
Jess: I immediately picked out a significant smoked nose, reminiscent of hot dogs. The flavor, however, did not carry as dominant of a smoked flavor. A delicate kolsch-like fruitiness emerged that balanced well against the light smoked flavor. This was a very refreshing summer beer!
Rod: I found a layer of pears underneath the mesquite smoke aroma. The pears carried through into the flavor of the beer that was gradually followed by a fatty smoked meat flavor. At the swallow the smoked flavor almost completely disappeared providing a crisp, clean finish. The first taste proved to be the smokiest, as later drinks became more sweet and developed a German lager level of hoppiness.

The Osti Helles, quite delicious, quite light in appearance

Thanks to Indiana Beer Week, Three Floyds still had on the New Albanian Conesmoker and Brugge Tripel de Ripple. Since we've had the Tripel numerous times, we naturally moved to the Conesmoker. Are you noticing a pattern here?
Jess: This beer had a very faint nose containing traces of roasted malts. The flavor was more hopped than smoked and would prove a good starting point for someone unfamiliar with smoked beers.
Rod: I picked out the trademark Schlenkerla smoked nose. The flavor was a balanced combination of ruby red grapefruit, grapes, cherries, citrus hops and smoke. The finish was quite hoppy for a smoked beer.

Conesmoker on the left, Alpha Naught on the Right

Rod picked out the Alpha Naught as our final beer of the visit since neither of us had tried it.
Rod: The nose was full of evergreen and citrus. The flavor of this beer can only be described as hops. Every kind of hop flavor you can imagine. Citrus, evergreen, herbs, honey, butter and bitterness, all brought out by the hops. If a beer can be complex purely on hop flavor, this is it. Quite well balanced, despite the hop insanity going on.
Jess: A very chardonnay-like nose. The flavor is tart, spicy and hoppy with grapefruit pine notes. Very inviting for the Imperial IPA style while still retaining the hop "bite."

We then proceeded to get lost looking for Flossmoor Station, but after driving around a bit (including going past the Infant Jesus of Prague - seriously did someone name the Church after that bit in Talledega Nights?) and a call to the brewery we got ourselves straightened out. That's right, Rod called for directions, someone should take his man card or something. Flossmoor Station is very unique because it's actually connected to the Metra Flossmoor stop. The interior is done up like some kind of railroad station meets a Rock Bottom, it feels a bit like manufactured but still comfortable. We decided to go with a sampler of all the beers to try as many as we could. As a result, these reviews will be much more brief.

An interior shot of the bar area, there's a train going around the ceiling.

Zephyr Golden Ale
Jess: Light nose, lemony American Pilsner style
Rod: Lemon pilsner nose with a slightly hopped flavor. Standard pilsner

Gandy Dancer Honey Ale
Jess: Hoppy, caramel nose, smooth honey flavor with a rye style hoppiness
Rod: Honey, malt and a bit of..... vomit in the nose. Kind of gross. The flavor doesn't have that last item at all but instead is composed of caramel malt, honey sweetness, rye and a slight bitterness. Tastes better than it smells.

Station Master Wheat Ale
Jess: Lemon nose, hoppy taste for a wheat. Overall a good American wheat, reminiscent of 312.
Rod: Typical hefeweizen nose of yeast, banana and citrus. Lemon and light malt with a sweet, watery finish.

Roundhouse Raspberry Ale
Jess: Dried fruit nose, sweet raspberry taste, very standard for the style
Rod: Getting soap, raspberries and a sock smell in the nose. Odd. The flavor is super raspberry, lemon and honey. Like Oaken Barrel Razz-wheat plus sugar but less fizzy.

ReplicALE Belgian Blonde
Jess: Nose of coriander and orange. A creamy texture reveals a warm, almost wheat taste. Similar to a hefeweizen.
Rod: Orange, banana, lemon zest, coriander and cream in the nose. Cream, lemon, lemon zest, banana, honey and malt in the taste.

Pullman Nut Brown Ale
Jess: Great hazelnut meets porter nose. Creamy, robust nutty taste with lots of caramel. A great dessert beer!
Rod: Roasted coffee bean and caramel syrup aroma. The beer was lighter and more bitter than expected from the nose. Flavors of coffee, dark chocolate and walnuts.

Our impressive sampler tray, we enjoyed the design and descriptions on the mat.

Milky Way Stout
Jess: Basic malt / toffee stout nose. Big lactose sweetness with a very smooth slight bourbon taste.
Rod: Dark roasted malts and a slight coffee and chocolate aroma. Similar to an imperial stout but not as alcoholic. The flavor brought out characteristic sweet stout flavors such as lactose, dark malts and coffee. Nutty flavors were mixed in with a light bourbon finish.

Leftorium
Jess: Perfumey nose. Cherry tartness with the same level of tartness as Diamond Kings' persimmons.
Rod: Hilarious name for a Flanders Brown! Yeasty funk to the nose with cherries, malt and a distinct sourness. The flavors were composed of cherries and persimmons with a caramel maltiness and a balanced sour flavor. Very refreshing and clean finish with a light tartness remaining. Definitely a good session beer.

12
Jess: Belgian style anniversary ale with a big banana nose. The flavor is a banana-plosion! Like 99 bananas beer. This needs to be aged.
Rod: Tons of banana in the nose with an alcohol sweetness. It tasted of banana candy, alcohol and mint.

Panama Limited Red Ale
Jess: Hops! Very hoppy nose with a slight malt finish. Grapefruit and red ale maltiness with pine needles.
Rod: The nose on this one was very malty and sweet. The bitterness was that of an ESB with caramel malt flavors and grapefruit hops. Reminded me of the Raccoon Red at the Rock Bottom Downtown.

Lady Columbian IPA
Jess: Pine nose, not very strong but a great balance between hops and drinkability
Rod: Big wet cascade hops in the nose. Grapefruit hop flavor with high IBUs. Kind of like the Sugar Creek Pale at the Downtown Rock Bottom but sweeter.

We decided to finish out our visit with a full tulip glass of Leftorium. A great choice by us if we do say so, it was the perfect compliment to the free appetizer bar that we stumbled upon at Flossmoor.

The Flanders Brown "Leftorium" - seriously, we laughed about that for a while. We're easily amused apparently.

After Flossmoor we headed towards the Orland Park Rock Bottom. With 14 beers on tap and after reviewing 12 at Flossmoor we decided to say screw this reviewing stuff, we want to just savor the flavor!

As you can see from the picture, this is a fully equipped Rock Bottom!

You may remember Iain from the College Park Rock Bottom. He was the previous brewmaster up there, and moved to the Orland Park location when they opened (placing Liz at the reigns at College Park). The most impressive beer here was the American Dream aged in Bourbon Barrels. It had a huge bourbon flavor which was very surprising for a hoppy APA. More brewers should do this instead of only using the barrels on stouts! We'll definitely make this journey the next time we head up to Chicago!

Thanks Iain for the idea and starting a tradition on our Chicago trips.