Beer festivals and the like are among the many event casualties of the current pandemic. Gathering people in large numbers anywhere is not a particularly good idea, so it has forced event organizers to get a little creative in how to keep annual traditions going. Take ABQ Beer Week, the annual multi-day, multi-event extravaganza that…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Ex Novo goes all in on All Together IPA
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, one in Silver City, and one in Truth or Consequences also joining the party….
The wild times of the first two Albuquerque breweries from 1883 to 1918
After a relatively quiet weekend for beer news, we decided it was time to get back to our Beer History Series. Last time around, we focused on an actual shootout that erupted at the first Southwestern Brewery in 1884. This time around, we wanted to take a longer look at Albuquerque’s first brewery, as well…
The Crew reviews 2 Boxing Bear beers with brewer Justin Hamilton
Well, hopefully this story doesn’t create nearly the comment storm of bickering beer lovers like Thursday’s article. Instead, it is all about the love … of two recent canned specialty beers at Boxing Bear. Four of us — myself, Franz Solo, Brandon, and Erin — were joined by Boxing Bear head brewer/co-owner Justin Hamilton (from…
Breweries express varying levels of disappointment and frustration with latest change to state regulations
At the start of the week, we sent out a single question to all the brewery owners asking how they were preparing their taprooms for a possible reopening this weekend. The idea was to hold back publishing any of those answers until Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham made the expected partial reopening official. Instead, the Wednesday…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Triple can release livens up the ABQ metro area
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, one in Silver City, and one in Truth or Consequences also joining the party….
Beer Notes: Broken Trail and Kaktus plan on returning this Friday
The number of breweries that have temporarily closed during this pandemic, eschewing the takeout-only model, is continuing to dwindle in the Albuquerque metro area. We have news on some planned reopenings, expanded hours, and more that just cried out for a Beer Notes. Broken Trail ready to return to action After shutting down its offsite…
Kicking off our beer history series with that time a shootout erupted at a brewery
Back when the pandemic first arrived in New Mexico, all of us in the Crew wondered if there would be many stories for us to write with breweries reduced to takeout only. As it turns out, the breweries have kept us plenty busy, but one idea for stories that we had back in late March…
New Mexico Brewers Guild goes virtual for Saturday beer festival
This era of stay-at-home has forced just about everyone and anyone to get creative when bringing people together. That includes state brewers guilds and other beer festival organizers, who cannot hold those festivals in the usual manner. A few state guilds have been experimenting with doing things online, and the New Mexico Brewers Guild will…
Santa Fe Brewing donates back to hourly staff and looks to brighter days ahead
Since the quarantine began, local breweries have handled the change in multiple ways. Among the announcements of closures and re-openings, new hours, sanitary procedures, specials and discounted prices, and an increase in package and to-go offerings, something else began to stand out. A genuine concern for the newly disrupted livelihood of the breweries’ front-liners —…
