Stoutmeister here, finally getting around to recapping the beer awesomeness that was this past weekend. If I had a good excuse for waiting this long to write about things, I would use it, but in the end it was just the usual stuff (Topes, watching Euro 2012) and some unusual stuff (moving furniture around, a wicked case of inexplicable insomnia).

So anyway we (E-Rock, Franz Solo and myself) kicked things off properly on Friday night with an overdue visit to La Cumbre. While I sat glued to Arizona’s College World Series victory over Florida State (BEAR DOWN!), we all managed to enjoy some of the fine summer seasonals now on tap. Miles from Cologne, served in the 7-ounce stange glass, was a delightful Kolsch-style ale that can cool off anyone from the summer heat. It is light in color, but flavorful without too much hops. Even better, in my humble opinion, was BEER, the award-winning pilsner. Having visited Germany in the past, I can say it’s one of the closest American beers to Bavarian goodness. It has a nice bite with a smooth, relaxing finish. It definitely puts to shame all the macro-brews that call themselves pilsners.

E-Rock had both of those styles and a Pale 32, which as its name implies is a pale ale. Here are his thoughts on all that La Cumbre had to offer: “Pale 32 almost seemed closer to a red in my opinion. It was darker than most ales with a bit of a bite. In the heat of the summer, you can’t go wrong with BEER and Miles from Cologne. I suggest starting with a few 7-ounce glasses of Miles from Cologne (less than two bucks apiece) and then dive into a pint of BEER.”

After all that we zipped over to Tractor to close the evening (honestly, we cannot remember a night where we didn’t visit Tractor after LCB closes; we are creatures of habit). It was jam-packed, but the food trucks were there and the beer tasted great after a long week. There was nothing new for us on tap, but new beers are coming down the pipeline soon.

Saturday featured a new and hopefully annual event, Il Vicino’s Year of Beer Festival. The geniuses at the Canteen saved one keg apiece of all the beer styles they created in the past year and served it up for us all to enjoy either again or for the first time. They set up a tent in their parking lot and divided the beers, five apiece, into separate stations by genre. There were Lighter Beers, which we skipped, Pale Ales, IPAs, Full Flavored Ales, Full Flavored Lagers, Dark Beers, and Strong Beers.

The strong beers, which were basically Imperials and barley wines and the like, featured the return of two of my favorites, Passtout and St. Bob’s Imperial Stout. Both pack a wallop at first taste, but the finish is wonderful (and dangerous, so I limited myself to one sample of each). Passtout was more of an oatmeal/smoked variety, while St. Bob’s was a bit sweeter to the taste, with chocolate hints.

Among the Full Flavored Ales, I was impressed by the hoppy ESB, which is quite different from the ESBs at Nexus and Santa Fe’s Second Street Brewery. It was a unique offering to put that many hops into an ESB. The only other FFA I had a sample of was the Amber, which was fine for that variety, but I prefer Chama River’s version. I’d had the Irish Red enough times that I decided to skip it, while the 505-Five collaboration from Beer Week was more than enough to handle once in a lifetime.

For the Full Flavored Lagers, all were old favorites that I had to indulge in again. The Bock (sweet) and Marzen (mild) were solid, while the Schwarzbier was fine by me, though my friend Rachel declared it to have too much of a tobacco flavor that I could not detect. The top two beers among the FFLs were the Cascadian Dark Lager, which is basically a snazzy black IPA, and the Dark American Lager, another one of those endlessly drinkable beers that even non-dark beer lovers could enjoy.

The Dark Beers included the Cherry Chocolate Milk Stout, which was so sweet the only time I ever had it that it did not make its way back into my glass. If you like beer-as-dessert, snag a pint the next time it’s available, but it was too much for me. I skipped the ubiquitous Slow Down Brown, which is tasty but available at just about every IV location, and focused instead on the Sasquatch Scotch (which won this year’s beer tournament at IV), Dark & Lusty Stout, and one of my favorites of all time, the Sweet Sandarine Porter. My full pint choices were the stout and porter, which I’m sure comes as a shock to everyone reading this. Again, creature of habit.

As a bonus highlight to our visit, taking away some of the pain from watching ancestral homeland Poland choke against the Czech Republic, we also got to participate in a brewery tour of the Canteen. We will have to go back sometime and do a more thorough visit when we can set something up with the Canteen’s super friendly/helpful/knowledgeable brew staff.

E-Rock sampled many of the same beers and some that I did not. Here is his recap of the Year of Beer festival: “I had the most fun at the IPA section. Instead of drinking random beers, I was lucky enough to get a tour of all of the hops utilized in all of Il Vicino’s IPAs. There were the mellow old world hops of the Centennial IPA, the powerful Midwestern American hops of the Simcoe IPA, and the northwestern hops that give Wet Mountain IPA an almost piny flavor. These were just a few examples. It’s amazing what variations of hops can do for the flavor of an IPA alone. For me, that part of the festival was worth the price of admission. We also had several other beers, the brewery tour, and of course the commemorative glass.”

To cap the weekend, E-Rock and I were invited to join the ABQ Craft Beer Drinkers Group down at the ABQ Press Club. There were a number of delicious, rare beers either on tap or in bottles that we got to enjoy while hanging out with some great new friends. I had pints of the Deschutes Nitro Obsidian Stout (dear lord it was awesome; one of the smoothest strong stouts I have ever tasted) and the wonderfully wicked Stone Smoked Porter.

E-Rock enjoyed a bottle of a truly unique beer that I will let him explain: “I can’t remember the name of the beer. It was in a language that I do not speak. What I do remember is that it was an ale aged in granite. It almost had an oaked taste, but the granite gave it an earthy taste that I have trouble defining. If you are at the Press Club, just ask for the granite ale. The bartender will know what you are talking about.”

After all that beer, Sunday was a day of rest, relaxation, and soccer.

I also have good news in that Cryptogrind and Shilling will be returning to start writing here very soon, plus we’re adding a new member who has some serious home-brewing skills to share. The Crew will (hopefully) be back to posting multiple stories every week, which should inspire this here editor to get off his lazy butt and actually write things up in a timely manner again.

Until then, remember to root for Germany to win Euro 2012, get yourselves out to an Isotopes game when you can, and make sure to drink responsibly wherever your beer desires take you!

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister