Flossmoor Station Collaborative Evil 2008

Brewed by Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Flossmoor, Illinois USA

Bottle 65cl.
Clear medium to dark brown amber color with a average, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, caramel, spicy - cardamom. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and light moderate bitter with a average to long duration. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. [20090306]

Bottle at Alvinne pre-ZBF09. Good peppery aroma. Cloudy dark brown colour. Small white head. Good peppery flavour, quite malty and sweet.

Date: January 10, 2009
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, HMoG
Appearance: muddy burnt orange, fine beige head, bits of drippy lace
Aroma: sweet and spicy aroma, dark caramel, array of spices
Flavor: sweet and tart flavor, caramel sweetness, fruity tartness, lots of varied spices
Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 14/20
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: **4

(Draught) Pours a cloudy brown body with a medium beige head. Aroma of toasted grain, smoke, anise, clove, caramel, and candi sugar. Flavor of toasted malt, molasses, raisins, dates, candi sugar, plum, and toffee.

Bottle... Backus’s Backdoor Bash ‘08... Murky, dark, prune-colored ale with a small, creamy, off-white head. Spicy, herbal, tart aroma. Medium-bodied with a coarse mouthfeel and fizzy carbonation. Interesting flavor - a wonderful balance of tangy acidity, hop & alcohol bitterness and caramel sweetness. Finishes crisp, then moderately sweet, lightly acidic and pretty darned herbal. The alcohol is nicely tucked away. Different and delicious. Many thanks to scubarex for providing the bottle that I shared!

No head; red, fully hazy beer; Toilet desinfectant, some cooked greenery, alcohol. Sharp MF for a more ore less fruity taste, orangepeel coming out, all in all a jumble of conflicting flavours. Sharp, resiny finish. Medium bodied, feel as from acidburn. I prefer Matt’s IPA’s...

Thanks to goldtwins for sharing this. Deep brown appearance. Aroma is very intense. Loads of big molasses, cocoa and toasted rye. Rummy with a some blackstrap molasses, buckwheat honey/treacle and sweet maltiness. While the aroma is intense but suggestive of something appealing the flavour is really quite terrible. Sticky, rotten banana and peach with a lingering funky (not good funky) rancidness. Like rotten fruit mixed with fresh raisins and some lactic sourness. Freaking awful.

Since we’ve only a stunted commercial description here (as opposed to what’s on the bottle), I’ll mention that this was brewed by Matt Van Wyk at Flossmoor Station in collaboration (Get it?) with Todd Ashman of FiftyFifty and Zac Treimert of Lucky Bucket. I’m rating from a bottle autographed by label artist frankenkitty (too bad we’re sillily not allowed to do links within the site from the ratings pages) procured for me by the inevitable dm9831 (who hates being pointed at). It poured a slightly hazed cola-brown with a slender head that died quickly. The heavy spicing along with the dark fruitiness and molasses scents make for an almost medicinal aroma. All blends well in the flavor, like a spiced up raisin bread with banana slices and honey along with some orange zest. (I eat that every Easter.) The alcohol remains well hidden until it gets into the veins. I really think this one’s going to age well and look forward to popping the bottle that I laid down next Christmas. Nice job by Matt, Todd, and Zac.