De Wilde Zuidentrein
Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery

 

 

 

 

Dark reddish color with minimal head and lacing, nothing really to write home about, but given the style a good representation of what to expect. Aroma is sour as all hell. Acidic with notes of tart cherries and wood that are buried underneath a wall of sour yeast. As I take the first sip I am slammed back into the chair with tons of barnyard funk. Loads of lip puckering tartness that rip at the taste buds before settling in and the lovely cherries come forward to show their might. A touch of sweetness is still left in here, but you need to look for it. Smooth, even body and a wonderful finish leave this one fresh on the palate

06/07

Huge thanks to Jeff. In fucking real that you'd share this with us.

Caramel colored body, good lacing, good stickiness. Very approachable carb.

Some oxidized woodyness. Fruit skins. Bit tannic for sure. Phenols coming out in droves. Complex.

Raspberry, dates, raisins, phenols. Bit sulfur. The phenols give way.to a tannic fruit finish that bitters nicely. Really delightful. Nom nom.nom. some plasticity but not awful. Blueberry as well on the back end.

Good body. Very delightful, perfect carb and delightful sticky flavors.

This beer for being five years old is as amazing.

Poured from a red waxed, 22oz bottle into multiple glasses. Thanks to Jay for this!

07/08 Blend

A: Pours with a hint of russett/rust. White head is tight and creamy and showed a surprising amount of retention.

S: Killer aromas of dark berries and barrel. Loads of fruit skin, red grape, and a hint of peach.

T: See above. Suprising amount of fresh fruit flavors in this (considering how old it is...the flavors held up incredibly well)

M: Sweet and also puckery without much of the expected lambic skull-crushing sour-ness.

O: Excellent example of a lambic from an American brewpub. Well made and very well cared for over the years. Thank you, Jay!

Thanks to d0b for sharing this at the pre-NotLA/"Alex handed in his dissertation" party. Served in my Kuhnhenn tulip glass. 07/08 vintage with red wax.

A - Pours with a couple fingers of light tan foam that dissipates to a thin cap and thicker ring. Hazed glowing red-brown color. Good looking stuff - just needs a bit of lacing.

S - No off-smells here. Acetic cider vinegar, sour apple & grapes, lactic acid, lemons, a bit of spicy Belgian-style yeast from the original fermentation, and funky horsey brett.

T - The taste isn't quite as good, but it is still quite pleasant. Very tart initially, and then morphs into some raspberry sweetness and light acetic acid. Finish is lightly sour, with a touch of tannic oakiness.

M - Dry finish, a bit of cottonmouth residual feel. Spritzy effervescent carbonation that is style appropriate. Light-medium body. Quite enjoyable!

D - If this weren't so rare I'd drink it regularly. A nice high-quality local sour brew! This was the surprise highlight of the afternoon - in addition to Kaggen! '05 and Hunahpu's. Good balance of sour, tart, and funky flavors.

Thanks to Weibull for cracking this at the Bruery for the initiation.

07/08 Batch

Poured into a mini snifter.

Pours hardly any ring of head. Color is a murky/hazed orange copper. No head retention or lace.

Aroma: lots of fruit here, cherries, apples, some oat. It is tart and I am wondering why it is listed as a lambic. It reminds me a lot of a wild ale with all the brett here.

Taste: Sour and funky with some tartness. Again, a decent amount of fruits. Mainly the cherries and apples. I get vinegar/acidic flavors as well, then the brett follows through. The oak shows here too.

Mouthfeel: Tart and acidic. Medium bodied with a lower amount of carbonation. Ends a little dry with a lot of tart flavors.

Overall, I have heard a lot about this beer being either very good or very bad. I thought it was decent, but I didn't think it was a lambic. I was glad I got to try this one.

Bottle at the Bruery Reserve Society Initiation.

Pours orangish-amber with a small off-white head.

Aroma is nice and funky with fruity (mostly cherry) notes, wood, and vinegar.

Flavor is somewhat tart and funky with cherry, lemon, oak, red wine, and vinegar. Some brett in there for sure. A little underwhelming, but not bad. Ok, maybe not underwhelming, but no better than whelming.

Medium body with average acidity for a sour beer.

Drinkability is average-plus. Surprised this is classified as a fruit lambic - I'd put it in the American Wild Ale category.

07-08 bottle.
Thanks to Jay for busting this out.

This beer pours a deep burnt honey color. There's a thin bubbly head thar leaves some nice lacing as well.

The nose is the best part of this beer for me. There's a briny cheesy funk that is quite interesting. There are also notes of horse, lemon, raspberries, and band aids.

The taste is tart with a sharp sourness. I'm getting a lot of briny cobwebs, earth, stinky cheese, lemon, vinegar, musty wood. There's some sour stone fruit skin in there as well.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with a low level of carbonation.

I was extremely excited that we didn't have an off bottle of this. I'm also really glad I had the chance to enjoy this beer.

I won this bottle in a charity raffle, so I decided to share with a few friends. Some of the reviews of this beer made me sort of expect a horrible drain pour. Well, luckily, it was not. Actually, it was pretty damn good. Pours a reddish color with a nice white head. Smells funky and sour. I am getting more sour fruity smell than any other funk, sort of like a sour raspberry. The taste is pretty damn good. More sour fruit with a bit of sweetness in the back ground. No off flavors and no chlorine. It is light and crisp on the tongue. It was very easy to drink and I could have easily finished the bottle by myself.

This beer may not be Flossmoor's best, or even rank among the top sours, but I liked it. I think I even liked it better than the hyped up Gargamel. I think there were some tainted bottles out there, because mine was tasty and clean.

Thanks for sharing, Carlos, but this beer is fucking awful. This is the 07/08 batch

A: Gorgeous deep mahogany with a thin white head with great retention. Some lace is left behind as well

S: Chlorine, mild cocoa, harshly phenolic, harshly metallic and mildly plasticy. Yep, that bad. There's also some cherry tartness present, but this beer is riddled with garbage.

T: Opens up harshly sweet with a metallic and chlorine like character. Kinda like sucking on a steel tube in a swimming pool. Finishes very sweet and phenolic. No sourness at all, what the heck is this doing labeled as a lambic?

M: Medium body, but the harsh sweetness and chlorine characteristics made it impossible to objectively take note of how it felt on the palate otherwise. Just not enjoyable

D: God, was this a drainpour or what.

Consumed at the tasting we had on 7/25/09-7/26/09. Thanks Carlos!

07/08 batch. The beer appears bloody crimson with a one finger off white head.

The aroma is of plastic, chlorine, and plum, with lots of sugar. Other notes are of bready malt, oak, tannins, prunes, and cocoa...but I can't get past this really unpleasant plastic. There are also some rather unpleasant metallic notes.

The flavor is metal at war with plastic while dark fruits skirmish with Brett. I did my best to get past the unpleasantness and analyze the deeper beer beneath the flaws. I found some cocoa and prunes, and then I gave up. Other notes are of chlorine, plastic, and metal. There's far too much metal, and I like metal. The finish has a terribly unpleasant level of astringency that lingers with the plastic and metal.

650ml kindly shared by seaoflament. 07/08 batch.

Beautiful clear garnet with a spotty white head, very nice. It's all down hill from there, though. The nose is all plastic; sugar coated plastic, plastic cherries, spontaneously fermented plastic. Intensely metallic and harshly phenolic. The taste is sweet as fuck, but no less plasticy. It's like some kind of plastic dessert drink; liquefied plastic cherry melange. The transition from cloying sweetness mid palate to harsh, bitter astringency in the finish is impressively dynamic. Mineral, metallic aftertaste that lingers forever. Thanks Carlos :(

06/07 bottling (one of about a dozen bottles), brought to the Sea Of Floydster Post PP Belgian Fest Epic Tasting by weibull - thanks Jason!

Unfortunately, this beer is completely ruined for me by a distinct chlorine smell (think pool water, as mentioned in Floydster's review). This is evident, but not overly pronounced in the smell - but it does cut into sour, semi-fruity aroma that remains.

Taste is also hugely impacted by this chlorine dominance for me. While there seem to be touches of slightly sour fruits and maybe a bit of caramel at the back, the "pool water" seems to take over and just kills any enjoyment for me.

Not recommended.

Great to try a super rare beer; too bad it wasn't any good.

22 ounce bottle with red wax brought to the SeaO'Floydster tasting by weibull, thanks for bringing this brew Jason, 2006/2007 bottling, supposedly only a dozen or so bottles from that particular year, poured into my Rader snifter, reviewed from notes

A-Golden orange color with some red, 3/4 off white foamy head, some retention but not much legs or lacing
S-Apples, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, sugar, sweetness, mild tart, pool water identified by Julian and quite true, also some oak and booze later on in the aroma
T-Lots of berries, sweet malt in the middle, more fruit in the finish, weird stagnant taste when it warms that are like overly ripened fruit, not much tartiness unfortunately, needs less sweet and more sour
M-Sweet, fruity, and fruity mouthfeel, low carbonation which did not help things out, medium to full bodied, taste lingers quite a bit
D-Could not drink much of this, not much alcohol in the flavor, just a little syrupy and lacking in complexity that lures you back in, not very smooth

This brew sure is a rare one but not of Flossmoor's best, expected an impressive lambic from a great brewery but instead got a mediocre one, hope to taste the newer vintage soon and hopefully update this review with some higher marks but this just did not do much for me, still worth trying regardless

Thanks to Jason for bringing this rare and limited beer to the SeaofFloydster Tasting that took place March 28th...I've been looking forward to trying this beer. This review is for the limited 06/07 bottling.

Poured a dark golden with a decent head.

Sweet and tart berries with some powdery sugar and a touch of astringency in the background. Some apples later on.

Light tart fruits with a somewhat chlorine flavor in the end. Dry finish with some apples. Good but nothing too outstanding. Medium-low carbonation, very well suited for the beer. Wasn't too impressed with this one but I still have a bottle of the 07/08 bottling which I plan on doing a more detailed review.

***update 7-26-09***

Had this one last night at the 'You Bring the Cheese Tasting.' Thanks to RoyMunson for trading me this bottle. This was the 07/08 bottling.

After trying this again I just had to update my review, this one was a strange one. I picked up a bit of chlorine again and plastic note, quite tannic. Hardly any sourness or tartness at all, quite sweet with a weird plastic/choline finish that was hard to swallow. Not enjoyable at all and couldn't even finish my pour of this one.

GABF Sample bottle.

Pros: Deep fresh red fruit aroma. Raspberry, cherry, strawberry. Very nice. The flavor is very dry, sour, shows nice fruit. Very nicely balance.

Cons: Not the best appearance. The head could show more color.

It's a very nice beer.

07/08 hand marked bottle.

This is fascinating stuff. A Flanders Ale base (Leftorium), aged in wine barrels with a wild yeast blend that contains an isolated culture from Drie Fonteinen. Into an Oerbier tulip glass at 45º it pours a reddish orange that has good clarity in the light. Sizzling foam that reduces down to a ring at the edge.

Initial aroma of wet stone and cherry pits, but as it warms it takes on a more fruity and distinctly raspberry character...seeds, stems and all. Certainly not sweet, but more in a more traditional vein with natural fruit tartness verging on sour.

Effervescent body, light and airy, tart and fruity. Deeper layers of light cherry vinegar essence, tobacco, wild raspberries. The fruit has that mouthwatering presence that urges you have more. Dry finish that has traces of oak and cinnamon bark.

Thanks to paco1029384756 for the trade!

Addendum: After having several bottles of this, both the 07/08 and 06/07, at various ages, and fresh on tap twice... after a year the fruit was somewhat diminished and it was completely attenuated, but overall intact with no off flavors (07/08 blend, 06/07 didn't fare as well). Wild ales can be extremely temperature sensitive, be wary of shipping in the middle of summer heat (cooking in a hot truck or warehouse). It's unfortunate there seemed to be such bottle variation with De Wilde, but when fresh it was sublime.