Good afternoon everyone, hope you’re enjoying this tranquil Friday before we all slip into three-day weekend mode. So the first day of ABQ Beer Week went in the books last night, and boy was it busy. We’ll have some Crew correspondents checking in with a review from one of the other events, but for most everyone we knew, last night was all about the Battle of the Beer Geeks at Tractor Wells Park.

HAMMER SMASHED STOUT CRUSHED ALL COMPETITION! THE CREW IS TRIUMPHANT! ALL HAIL US!!!

Ahem, sorry, had to get that out of the way. We didn’t really crush anybody, I believe the final tally was 35 votes for our stout and 30 for the Babes in Brewland’s outstanding Rye IPA. But we did win, and boy, did it feel good. It’s one thing to drink beer. It’s another thing to write about beer. It’s another thing to make some beer at home and share it with friends. It’s a whole different thing to make a beer and share it with the masses.

We didn’t just want to toss up a post and brag about ourselves (OK, maybe a little), but we did want to publicly thank a lot of the folks involved.

Thank you to the other four beer groups, the Babes, ABQ Craft Beer Drinkers, NM Wort Hogs, and the Dukes of Ale. You all pushed us to make our beer live up to the standards we know you all have. It was a great competition and I hope you all had at least half as good of a time as we did.

Thank you to Josh Campbell and David Hargis for letting us brew on your system and for all of your help on brew day and again Thursday. We have learned a lot more about brewing from you.

Thank you to Skye and Nicole for organizing this whole thing. And then thank you both again for jumping in last night when things got crazy (I don’t think anyone expected a crowd of that size; way to go, Burquenos, and folks from parts beyond) and helping out behind the bar. We really appreciate all that you do for the craft beer scene in our town.

Thank you to Aaron, Jaimie, and the other Tractor bar staff members whose names we don’t know. We know it was stressful and some of you probably wanted to just steal the beer, go off into a dark corner, and curl up in a fetal position, but you all toughed it out. It was a great job by all under tough circumstances. If anyone ever asks if you really earn your paychecks, please point them out to any Crew member, and we will happily punch that person in the face.

Thank you to Kimo’s Hawaiian BBQ. Your food truck rules (the teriyaki chicken was so good). And probably saved a lot of people from stumbling out of there last night.

And finally thank you to all of our readers and everyone else who showed up to vote and drink with us. Without you, we quite literally would not have won (there were only five of the seven Crew members present, so that means 30 other people voted for us). And without you all, not only would this website not exist, but neither really would our amazing craft beer scene.

So keep supporting local brewing efforts, whether it’s at all our breweries big and small, or even when individuals or small groups like ours brew at home. We live in a grand time for beer, never take it for granted.

The rest of the Crew will see all of you around town at the various ABQ Beer Week events this weekend. I have to skip Friday’s events to go talk to the Isotopes about that whole ear-biting-off-incident, and then I’m off to Chicago. Apparently there’s a World of Beer about a half-mile from the wedding hotel. Pray for my soul, and the souls of my friends at the wedding.

Until the rematch in 2015, all hail Hammer Smashed Stout, champion of the Battle of the Beer Geeks!

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister