Buzz worthy: Tractor Brewing Company, Flying Star Cafe collaborate on Midnight Cowgirl coffee stout

Get your coffee fix and quash your beer cravings with Midnight Cowgirl.

The new coffee stout is a collaborative effort by Tractor Brewing Company and Flying Star Cafe/Satellite Coffee. It will be released on Friday, Jan. 3, and will be available at all Tractor taprooms and Flying Star locations.

“How this brew actually came about was we got selected to be in the 2024 Stout Invitational, up at Bathtub Row Brewing in Los Alamos, and at the time, we were slammed back last January-February,” said TJ Frederich, head brewer at Tractor. “When they announced we were a part of it, we knew we weren’t going to get to do a new brew. So, what we did was, we actually took some of our existing brews and we tried mixing them and doing different ratios and kind of playing with the flavors. We actually ended up going with our Double Stuff Stout for that competition, but in an extremely close second was this beer, which was actually just a combination of our Luna de los Muertos Russian Imperial Stout and our Cowgirl Coffee Porter.”

What was to become Midnight Cowgirl, stayed in the back of Frederich’s mind, and he wanted to eventually create a full batch of it.

“We were starting to look at possibly sourcing coffee, which at times can be difficult, depending on what their inventory is and where they’re at in time of year, and coffee prices, and stuff like that,” Frederich said.

Jeremy Kinter, Tractor events and marketing manager, had a conversation with Flying Star Cafe/Satellite Coffee owner, Jean Bernstein, who was “ecstatic” to be part of the coffee stout collaboration. Frederich met with Matt Loraas, the roaster for Flying Star/Satellite, and tasted all of their coffees. The two also tasted the Midnight Cowgirl prototype.

“Me and him kind of put our edits together and decided what would be the correct roast for it,” Frederich said. “We actually originally wanted to go with one of their Brazilian roasts, but it turns out, as they tried to cold brew it, it didn’t translate over to the beer. So we ended up going with their house roast. We met a couple times, went over it, figured out dosing procedures. They got the coffee over to us and then voilà, the beer came to life.”

The name for the beer was suggested by a Tractor employee.

“I’m terrible at naming beers. It is not my strong point,” Frederich said. “One of the things I always do with Jeremy, I’m like, ‘Here’s the beer. Come up with a name for it.’ So this one, actually, one of our bartenders here at Wells Park was a huge fan of the Cowgirl Coffee Porter, and had asked me if we were bringing it back. I told her that we were doing a hybrid of our Cowgirl Coffee Porter and the Luna de los Muertos. And I’m trying to think of a snazzy name for it. She was just like, ‘You should call it Midnight Cowgirl.’ And I was like, that’s actually really good. That’s perfect.”

Guests can also enjoy entertainment while sipping on Midnight Cowgirl at Tractor’s Nob Hill, Wells Park and West Side locations on Friday, Jan. 3.

DJ Fishbowl will be spinning lively sounds starting at 6 p.m. at Tractor Westside, 5720 McMahon Blvd. NW. Later in the evening, Tractor Wells Park, 1800 Fourth St. NW, will host its First Fridays Comedy Contest hosted by Rusty Rutherford at 8 p.m. Over at the Nob Hill taproom, 118 Tulane Drive SE, patrons can enjoy First Fridays with DJ Flo Fader at 8 p.m. For more information, visit getplowed.com.