FIELD RECORDINGS X BAY COFFEE

Water, Barley, Coffee, Yeast, Hops

Our latest Field Recordings release – an Irish coffee of monstrous proportions. Field Recordings is North’s experimental side project, creating new beers that take a look at historical brewing techniques to see how we can translate these into modern styles. We’re continuing our barrel-aged series in collaboration with Bay Coffee – a roastery on the Welsh Coast who use renewable energy to create their award-winning coffee. Our eighth Field Recordings release uses a range of Speyside, Highland and Bourbon whiskey oak casks, blending stouts that have aged between 6-18 months. This process smooths out the beer, adding character and enhancing the nuances of the various whiskey barrels, balancing these flavours to create a rich and decadent base to build on. We welcomed Duncan, from Bay Coffee, to Springwell and conducted experiments with a variety of coffees and roast profiles to see which would work best with our blended barrel-aged stout. We settled on a Sumatran coffee from the Aceh province in Indonesia, consisting of Bourbon and Catimor varietals. The coffee beans are sourced from Ketaira, a women-owned and managed coffee cooperative, have been processed using the Giling Basah technique that is common in Indonesia, and literally translates to “wet grinding”. The Sumatran coffee cuts through the richness and brought forward a beautiful roasty aroma, laced with red berry and chocolate, that excites you for the layers of flavours to come. An initial hit of whiskey and light bitterness from the roasted coffee smooths into notes of dark chocolate and red currants, highlighted by the blend of barrel-aged stout. A balanced finishes leaves smokey and light peaty tones of the whiskey on the palette. The artwork for this Field Recordings release is also a collaboration, between Refold and Pete Skwiot Smith – a Saint Paul, Minneapolis based designer, known for his drum and bass music related work.

March 2024

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