Happy MLK Day, Burquenos! Stoutmeister here with another clearing out of the old beer notebook. This past weekend has been a busy one for beer and this coming week figures to be just as busy, if not more.

First, a programming note, E-Rock’s The Week Ahead in Beer will be appearing on Tuesday. While he was able to track down everything he needed via the phone last week, despite doing that from Austin, Texas, he is currently driving back from said state capital to ABQ today. Besides, it’s a holiday, so we can give him one Monday off, right? Right?

Anyway, this week has two major events, and I’m not just talking about Wednesday’s UNM-Colorado State showdown at The Pit. (Yay, Lobos ranked No. 15; bigger yay, that means I get to cover the game and make some much-needed beer money!) First up on Friday is WinterBrew in Santa Fe. I’ll be riding the RailRunner up, so my ETA might not be till after 6 p.m., but I bought my ticket in advance. I would highly recommend both taking the train and buying tickets in advance. At last count only a few hundred remain. Bosque Brewing and the as-yet-unopened Duel Brewing of Santa Fe will be making their festival debuts.

The second major event, one we have been mentioning a lot on Twitter and Facebook, is the Brew Crew’s own first-year anniversary party at Back Alley Draft House, this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The whole Crew will be there (we hope) to celebrate. It is an open event, so we are inviting all of our readers, their friends, drinking buddies, long-suffering spouses/significant others, you name it, come on down! There is the possibility of some new beers debuting at Back Alley, so we’re excited, to say the least. You can also order pizza from NYPD and enjoy it with the large variety of craft beers on tap at Back Alley.

Oh, and if you wish, there is also the Battle of the Food Trucks coming up tonight (Monday) from 6-8 p.m. outside Il Vicino Canteen. Chow down outside, then duck inside for a tasty pint or two!

Now onto all the news that is fit to print …

Turtle Mountain: We missed you

Four of the Crew — myself, Brandon, Shilling, and Franz Solo — made an overdue trek out to Turtle Mountain in Rio Rancho on Saturday. We all enjoyed the mighty tasty Celtic Brown, a sweet, malty, smooth brown ale. It has a low (sub-5.0) ABV, so it definitely qualifies as a safe beer, though it has plenty of flavor. Another hit amongst the Crew was the Ironman Black IPA, with a hoppy bite at the outset and a smooth, malty finish. Find an excuse to visit Turtle Mountain soon before these two seasonal styles run out (and yes, they are now official entrants in our Season of the Month challenge).

Also on tap for a limited time is the Stone Enjoy by 2.15.13 IPA, which Brandon recapped in the most recent Saturday Night Sixer.

Now the reason for our visit to Rio Rancho was to eat good food, drink tasty beer, and watch our beloved NHL return. Unfortunately, because NBC sucks, we could not get the Penguins-Flyers game live on any of Turtle’s TV screens (and in an unfortunate twist, the main projection TV at Turtle gave up the ghost while we were there; they’re working on getting it fixed or replaced). But, being the smart guys that we are (no laughing!), we brought our laptops along and ended up watching the game that way, even if two identical laptops showing the exact same game could never seem to sync up the broadcast on NBC’s meh website.

The most amazing result: no, not the Penguins’ 3-1 victory (woots!), but that Brandon, a die-hard Flyers fan, did not punch me or our two readers who joined us in full Penguins gear. It was a truly great moment of self-control. Needless to say, we all let Brandon be alone after Sunday’s 5-2 loss to Buffalo. Not that I’m gonna gloat or anything, but the Penguins beat the Stanley Cup favorite Rangers 6-3 later that night. Nope, not gloating at all …

So much food (and beer)

The ABQ Craft Beer Drinkers Group invited us to join them for their annual Potluck BBQ at Marble later on Saturday. They provided enough food to make four more groups, while we had our own private (and very hard-working and greatly-appreciated) server bring us beers as we hung out within the back confines of the brewery itself. The Craft Beer Drinkers, for those who have never heard of them, a wonderful group of beer lovers who meet once a month or so. We have hung out with them before and have probably crossed paths with many of them at various breweries and beer festivals. You can check them out on Facebook, and hopefully I convinced more than a few of them to join us at the Crew’s anniversary party this coming Saturday.

The star of the night, besides grill master Silas and his lovely wife Monica (the group’s tireless organizer), was the Marble Imperial Stout. Compared to a lot of Marble’s beastly imperials, this was a smooth, flavorful offering that does not overwhelm the palate. I only had one, but that was more than enough. If the St. Bob’s at Il Vicino and/or the Russian Imperial at La Cumbre are too much for you, try Marble. You will get plenty of flavor in your beer without feeling like it just body-slammed you into the floor. (I am not knocking either IV or LC, it should be noted; both are delicious, but almost overwhelming, especially for those of you poor folks who do not have a nickname like Stoutmeister.)

Random stuff

• The Scotia Scotch Ale is back on tap at Bosque Brewing. This batch is sweeter, with less of that bitter aftertaste that the initial batch had (though that went away as the first batch aged). Go head on over before the Professor Emeritus of Beer’s friend Roger drinks it all. And I’m not kidding about that.
• The Crew has made it official: our Beer Battle on Super Bowl Sunday will be a rematch of the best stouts in the greater ABQ metro area! We will pit the best (non-imperial) stouts against one another, this time doing it as a blind taste test (a la the IPA Challenge) as to weed out any bias for or against a particular brewery (we’re human, it happens). We will have more on this as the days grow closer.
• Do not forget, the New Mexico Cup is drawing ever closer. The Feb. 16 event, where the Crew will be serving as “celebrity” judges, has tickets on sale online and around town at many of our local breweries and tap rooms. Pick one up when you can and join us for this first event of its kind in New Mexico, a beer festival with a fully judged competition among the participating breweries.
• Got any beer-related news or comments for us? Leave a comment below, send us something on Facebook or Twitter, or just come to the anniversary party this Saturday and let us know in person!

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister