Fieldpointe Brewery

Trying not to forget about this post and let weeks go by on this one as I have done on the previous posts. The Fieldpointe South crew got together this past Sunday and today is just Tuesday – not too bad on the timing – provided I start and finish it now.

We were discussing at the previous brew session that a coffee beer has not made its way into the Fieldpointe brewing menu. The former Racine Brewing Co. had a coffee beer: Cuppa Joe which was a coffee brown ale. I wasn’t a regular consumer of it – not because it wasn’t good – it was – I just usually prefer to keep my two favorite daily beverages separate – the coffee hot in the morning and the beer cold in the evening.

Mark suggested that we give it a go – so why not? I managed to find a beer recipe on the American Homebrewers Association website for Surly Coffee Bender. This, I’m sure, is not the true recipe for Bender but a close clone. Anyway, it served well for the base recipe for Mr Coffee Brown. As always, there are modifications to online recipes to make them uniquely Fieldpointe. Based upon what the Surly website indicates as the basic ingredients for Bender, we have the bases covered. Thanks to Surly for heading us down this one way street in the correct direction!

The day began properly with Sunday morning worship. Always good and proper to start the new week off with priorities in order. God is good. He’s given us beer.

The BM Bar opened at 11 AM to get the brewing event off and running. The BMs were “extra tasty” so two made the rotation for each of us. It was a great day to brew.

While the mash water was heating, the 2nd fermenter of Freudenfest was transferred to a keg. A proper and reinforcing reminder was given that this keg was going to Fieldpointe North. Fieldpointe South has 4 kegs on tap: the 3 “church” beers and 1.21 Gigahops – Doc Brown’s Ale. Despite Mark claiming that the beer mice are getting out of hand and that he needed the Freudenfest keg, no sympathy or compassion was given. It was suggested that he set traps for the beer mice.

Beer mice are everywhere. Some places have higher populations than others. They are responsible for emptying your pint glasses and kegs. Their populations MUST be kept under control. Fieldpointe South has some work to do to lower the rapid consumption and depletion of beer on hand.

Not too long into the session, the home state Green Bay Packer game kicked off at noon. Mark worked hard at relocating view apparatus to the Man Cave and even went so far as to record the game so that it could be paused and played at will during the brewing process. We were happy with the result.

At some point Mark’s wife, Helen, cooked up a pot of chili on the stove – with cornbread. My bowl bottom was covered twice – since that was the theme started with the BMs. Good stuff!

Mr Coffee Brown wrapped up sometime during the thrashing of Dallas by Detroit. Was not sad to witness this. Good to see the Lions making a name for themselves – it’s those Vikings that need to be brought down a step or two. Even Paul’s Chicago Bears are deciding to put some effort into playing this year.

As positive as it all seems, it was not all well in Denmark. Or more specifically, in the world of Fantasy Football. Fieldpointe North suffered death by a thousand paper cuts. This was the closest scoring game of my FF career – and what a tough loss to shoulder. A good Cowboy thrashing would have been easier to take.

What I find interesting is that I lost by the decimal portion of my score. How ironic! Gotta Love It must be doing just that. Sadness & Disappointment.

It should be noted that the Dorothy Doors were not open due to much cooler temps. We really have been spoiled with the fantastic Fall weather so far through the first half of October. (I did manage to open one of the doors to get the spent grain out to feed the residential wildlife and then promptly closed it on my return.)

For the record – today, October 15 made up for the previously mentioned great Fall weather. Rain and temps in the 40s made for a long wet cold sock and shoe day at school. 🙁

Mr Coffe Brown (named kinda after the Black & Decker unit) is an American Brown Ale with, you guessed it, coffee.

I did my part with the brewing of the beer. It is up to Mark to make it shine (or taste great) with his coffee choice addition. It is currently a mystery as to what coffee he is going to go with. Whatever it may be, it better be good.

So you say you want to brew Mr Coffee Brown? Why not? Here you go:

Grains

• 7 lb – Pale Malt
• 2 lb – Aromatic Malt
• 10 oz – Crystal 60°
• 10 oz – Special B
• 10 oz – Flaked Oats
• 8 oz – Chocolate Malt

Hops

• 0.5 oz – Warrior @ 60 minutes
• 0.5 oz – Glacier @ Flameout
• 0.5 oz – Willamette @ Flameout

Yeast

• Lallemand – Nottingham

Adjunct

• 5 oz – Quality Course Ground Coffee added to fermenter after primary (Make sure it doesn’t taste like ground – Mark.)

Projected Analysis

• OG – 1.058
• FG – 1.014
• Color – 24.5 SRM
• ABV – 5.7%
• Bitterness – 30 IBU

Will this change my perception that coffee and beer should be kept separate and keep to their designated times in the daily routine? Time will tell.