New Brewery Series: Fieldhouse Brewing
This week we are showcasing some new breweries that are set to open soon in the area. We are very happy to welcome three new breweries to Colorado Springs and one in Poncha Springs, just outside of Salida. We'll post one or two a day for the first couple days of February. This post will be dedicated to Fieldhouse Brewing...See the whole New Brewery Series here.
We met Travis and Niki of Fieldhouse Brewing at our anniversary party but we had been in touch via email in preparation for this New Brewery Series. They both were very nice people and have invited us to come out and try some of their beers. We haven't been able to try any yet, our schedules never quite lined up, but we plan to as soon as possible. It turns out Niki has Celiac's disease, so she can't have gluten. She's holding one of Fieldhouse's gluten-free beers and Travis is holding the IPA in the above photo. We interviewed them, see what they're up to, what beers they'll be making, and what they're going to do about gluten. These questions were a series of questions I just kind of listed off in an email.Fieldhouse Brewing, how did the name come into being?Niki's best friend lived with us for a few months along with her two dogs. Her German Shorthair Pointer, Gunner, is a pretty high energy dog that has some separation anxiety issues. He had a history of chewing up the inside of garage doors, ripping down insulation in basements, and other destructive habits whenever his owner left. Since living with us (and our two English Mastiffs) he was very calm and didn't display any anxieties or destructive behaviors. One day, in reference to his newly improved behavior, Niki asked Gunner, "Do you love living at the Fields' house?" Then a light went on and she said, "WAIT! Fieldhouse! Fieldhouse Brewing Company!" That is how we got our name.
Do you have a general idea of what kind of beers you will focus on? What will your main line up be, what kind of special beers do you imagine making?We don't want to focus on only one specific style of beer. We want to make beer that people like and we want to make all styles of beer. So far our main line up consists of: Honey Wheat, Vanilla Porter, India Wheat, Maple Nut Brown. We are still working on an Irish Red, IPA, Blonde, and a gluten-free beer or two. We have a few specialty recipes, such as our Pumpkin Porter and White Chocolate Raspberry Stout. We are working on a few other ideas but don't have them nailed down yet.What size brewery will you be? Are you going to be a brew pub, or production brewery? We will be brewing with a 4 bbl system to start. We are going to be a production brewery and have a taproom. We may have a restaurant in the future but just focusing on the taproom for now. We want our brewery to bring people together. We want it to be a relaxed and fun environment that everybody wants to hang out in. We really want to focus on creating community and community involvement.What are some of your favorite breweries? Breweries that you look to for inspiration and ideas? Some of our favorite breweries are Breckenridge, Odell, Dry Dock, Pug Ryan's, Backcountry, Dogfish Head, Carver, Tommyknocker, and New Planet for Gluten Free beers - just to name a few. We have been especially inspired by Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head.
How did you decide you wanted to open a brewery? What's your story? In December 2010, Travis started homebrewing. We have always desired to own our own business, to do our own thing. Nothing clicked though. There was nothing we came across that we were passionate about, until we found beer! Travis is passionate about brewing; we finally found something we want to do for a business. Since then Travis has developed more than 10 different brews. We are always coming up with more ideas and recipes to try in the future. Everyone that tries Fieldhouse beers LOVES them. We have had multiple people tell us that a beer they have tried from us is their favorite beer. Period. With this kind of feedback, we gained more and more confidence that we need to do this for a living and share our beer with all of Colorado Springs! Another part of what we want to do is provide Gluten Free options for beer and food. The inspiration for this comes from Niki having Celiac's Disease and having to follow a very strict Gluten Free diet.
Tell me a bit more about how Niki's Celiac's Disease will change how you operate as a brewery...Hey, Niki here. Living with Celiac Disease has kept me from being able to enjoy all of the awesome craft beer out there. The only options for those who have to adhere to a strict gluten-free (GF) diet are ciders and a few brands of GF beer. Honestly, as far as the GF beer goes, I'm not overly impressed by what's out there right now. So, it is one of our goals to provide a rotating tap of several different styles and flavors of GF beer. We want everyone to enjoy craft beer, including those who currently can't!Location and Opening Date?Travis and Niki had been looking at a location that was in the eastern part of the city but the location ended up not working out. They are still looking. That also means that they aren't sure exactly when they'll open, but we'll keep you posted here.Staying in touch with Fieldhouse:Fieldhouse Brewing on Facebook- - -To stay up to date with Focus on the Beer you can receive email updates and join us on our Facebook page.