Hey there everybody. It’s Stoutmeister, feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve. Thursday represents the start of ABQ Beer Week 2013, a 10-day celebration of all that is good in our world — beer. I think at this point we could all use a beer, too. There has been enough bad news from the world lately. A little escape would do us all some good.

We posted the full list of events a couple weeks ago, but there have been a few changes. In order, Saturday’s Il Vicino Double Barrel Beer Tasting will feature a Belgian Dark Strong aged in bourbon barrels, not a Scotch ale as we had been told. I know, oh darn, one good beer swapped out for another.

That same day, the TBA Two Fools Beer Tasting will feature New Belgium beers on this day as well as on Sunday. Hey, New Belgium has more than enough beers to make for two days of tastings. The hours and details are also set for the special beer tasting at Jubilation on Saturday. The event will run from 2 to 4 p.m. and will feature Anderson Valley beers. The challenge will be to see which is better, the beer poured from bottles or from cans.

On Sunday, Nob Hill Bar & Grill will play host to a beer brunch with beers from, you guessed it, New Belgium. That event kicks off at noon. There will be a fee, but it was not revealed as of when I hit “publish” on this post.

Monday’s one change is the Deschutes Beer Dinner at O’Niell’s Nob Hill has been canceled. However, you can still go to O’Niell’s and try a selection of Deschutes beers from 5 to 7 p.m.

Those are the changes we’ve found so far, there could still be more to come.

The Brew Crew’s plan for Beer Week is that every day we will run/re-run a list of that day’s events, giving you the nitty-gritty details you need, the who/what/when/where, essentially. As much as we would like to be at every event, between our various jobs, school, music gigs, and the like, we cannot hit up everything. The events we do attend will get write-ups as quickly as we can get them on the site. We will do our best to offer you reviews and recommendations of the best beers we try, be they from local breweries or our out-of-state friends.

If you want to interact with us, ask us questions, seek our “sage” advice, etc., leave us comments here on this site, get at us on Facebook or Twitter, or if you see any of us bearded fools rambling about, don’t be shy, come up and say hello.

And speaking of meeting us, you’ll get the chance to introduce yourselves when the Crew takes part in the Meet & Greet night on Thursday, May 2, at Marble. You can still come down and say hello to us, the ABQ Craft Beer Drinkers Group, the Babes in Brewland, and the Worthogs, a home-brewing group from Rio Rancho. The best part is that it’s a free event, and you’ll be at Marble, so you can grab a pint of your favorite while you interact with all of us.

But if you really want to see the Crew in action, come to the Dark Ages at ArtBar on Friday, May 3. The cost is only $10, with the bulk of the proceeds going to our friends in the Blackout Theater Company. Doors open at 8:30 and the show starts at 9 p.m. It will be a mix of local performers (don’t worry, Blackout’s Lauren Poole will be in charge of assembling some amazing talent to entertain you), a pack of musicians led by our own E-Rock performing songs from “Dark Side of the Moon,” and in between the various acts and songs the Brew Crew will be engaging the audience in beer trivia. You’ll have the chance to win some awesome prizes, drink some great dark beers, and enjoy yourselves in advance of the giant celebration we’ve planned for my 35th birthday the following day, which we are calling “Blues & Brews.” Hopefully a few thousand of my closest friends can attend. Wait, that’s not being done in my honor? Oh, well, then I’ll just consider it a giant present from the universe to me.

Actually, it’s not the universe that is behind Beer Week, but Marne Gaston and her awesome staff at Feel Good Festivals. I had the opportunity to hang out with Marne at Marble the other day to talk about Beer Week (which, oddly enough, begins on her birthday Thursday and ends on mine). She wants everyone to attend as many events as possible, while being responsible drinkers, of course, but she does have one or more events per day that she plans to attend. So we’ll list Marne’s picks for the day, as well as ours.

Here is the recap of our conversation that gives newbies an introduction to Beer Week, followed by our day-to-day selections.

Stoutmeister: It seems to me like there are a lot more events this year, more tappings, more tastings, more special events. It’s wonderful.

Marne: I’d have to look back to be sure, but in my press release last year I said over 40 events and this year we have 60. That’s only counting some of them that are happening every day I’m only counting once.

Stoutmeister: What’s the process been like this year putting this together?

Marne: In some ways this year was a lot easier because it’s the third year and people know what it is. They know it brings people in. It’s free, we don’t charge anything. The only tough thing is that sometimes things still change at the last second. The Deschutes beer dinner became a beer tasting. So we’re constantly having to update the website.

Stoutmeister: We have the two all-week events, the Hot Sunner Nights (at Desert Fish) and the Lips of Faith Pairings (at Geckos), this year. I think that’s the first time we’ve had all-week events.

Marne: We have things like Two Fools does things almost every day, O’Niell’s does almost every day, but it’s different (beers). … It’s kind cool with those two because you can pick a time to go that’s convenient to you.

There’s lots of free (events). That’s one thing people are looking for.

Stoutmeister: This is Albuquerque, they freak out over paying $5 for parking at an Isotopes game. Free is good.

From here we tackle the top events by day, which you can find below in part two of our preview.