Angry Mike's Stoudt Creek
Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery

Pours a dark brownish red color and smells very wine like with notes of dark cherries. Taste is similar with a slightly tart vinuous cherry flavor and not really roasty like I'd expect from the stout portion, but still rich in flavor. Low carbonation and pretty enjoyable. Unique for sure.

A terriffic Stout. Made from what would have been a better than average Stout base, they throw in tart cherries and chocolate to make an outstanding beer. The Cherries add a fruity aroma to the roasted coffee and chocolate. Flavors are the base stout but added tartness, sweetness, and acidity for extra flavor and complexity. The beer would have been super creamy even before the cherries or the barrel aging. Though the tart cherries seem to thin the beer a touch, the carbonation ends up soft and sliky. Often the fruit additions seem to compete or contradict the base beer. Here, I think the barrel and age really helped to mellow the flavors very well. Otherwise an ordinary heavy beer that gets lost in the shuffle.

Brewer Matt VanWyk described it to me thusly: It’s a big beer based on their Iron Horse Stout, aged on cherries in an oak white wine barrel. And it also won its category in the Festival of Barrel-Aged Beer on November 6. So, in a small snifter, it’s stout black with a big bubbly head. A big tart cherry taste is the first thing I noticed. Sourness begins to compete with a definite dry wine character. Finally, a somewhat chocolately dry stout flavor works its way through the crowd. Quite a complex and interesting brew. I enjoyed it even though I still can’t quite work out what I need to like in a tart or sour beer.