Some things just never seem to stop around here in Albuquerque. The weather will always be weird and unpredictable. The drivers will continue to stupify us with their, well, stupidity. And new breweries will keep opening.

Albuquerque Brewing Co. currently has their first lineup of beers in the fermenters and the bright tanks. They could be open in March, which we admit, caught us by surprise. We had heard about ABC last summer, but then things went radio silent. Now they are back up and running, much closer to opening than we could have expected.

There is nothing wrong with that, mind you. Most places would probably like to keep things quiet until the exact moment where they are ready to swing the doors open with beers ready. We look forward to trying those beers here in the coming days and will report back to all of you.

For the record, ABC will be located at 8610 Pan American Fwy., just south of Alameda where Wilshire Ave. meets the frontage road.

So beyond that, what else is on deck? Everything else is just rumors at this point. We know of Boese Brothers Brewing downtown at Silver and 6th, but word is it might be one of just three or four new breweries looking to open in that area. The guys at Ale Republic are getting ever closer to their own location and we know downtown was the area they preferred (or at least the area north of downtown where we already have Marble, Tractor Wells Park, and soon Rio Bravo). Another brewery may soon pop up near 12th Street and I-40, but again, it’s all just a rumor until someone wants to confirm it.

We don’t know what’s up with Hops Brewery, the small place in Nob Hill, either. It looks like we have some homework assignments to do here in the coming weeks. But as always, if any of you out there have any info on new breweries you would like to share, you can reach us at nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com or via our Facebook and Twitter (@nmdarksidebc) pages. Or, heck, if you see us out and about in person, just buy us a beer and drop some knowledge.

Special beer release overload?

Many times we have asked for reader feedback and not gotten much, but we would really like to encourage some this time around. Recently at a few special beer/bottle releases, attendance was seemingly down compared to past nights. Luke and I started talking about why that might be the case, and Adam chimed in online and suggested maybe we’ve hit overload. There are so many breweries creating special beers, especially at this time of year, that in general the public may be a bit burned out. Luke talked to some beer distributors in Santa Fe who said that people in New Mexico only want “cans and kegs,” and don’t care much about bottles and bombers anymore.

So here are our two questions for all of you.

1. Have there been too many special beer releases lately and is that forcing you to limit your attendance at the special events?

2. Do New Mexicans really prefer cans and not care about specialty beers in bombers?

Let us know what you think on social media and we will share your thoughts. Let’s get a conversation going, over beer, of course.

Random stuff

• Just for today, since it’s stupid cold outside, Marble will move their temporary tap cart inside to the back of the brewery. From 4 to 10 p.m., you can get your Marble fix on draft indoors. Only crazy people would be on the patio today, right?
• Round Two of the Brewing News National IPA Challenge is in the books, with four of the nine New Mexico IPAs advancing. La Cumbre’s Project Dank, the defending champion, moved on along with Bosque’s Scale Tipper, the NM IPA Challenge winner, Canteen’s Exodus and Second Street’s Fulcrum. The round of 32 will be held this coming weekend. Here is the official bracket so you can follow along.
• The next Thursday at the Brewer’s Table at Blue Corn will be March 12. It will include a four-course meal this time around. When they have the menu ready, we will share it. And then Luke will probably go eat all that food, drink all the beer, and make the rest of us jealous that he lives in Santa Fe.
• A big thanks to Heimat House, where we had Brandon’s birthday dinner last night. The food was amazing and plentiful, the beer list was still so long that it took us forever to pick what we wanted, and overall it was a wonderful night. Brew Crew baby Bannon even slept through most of it, which his parents appreciated. If you still haven’t been to Heimat House, you need to get over there now. Just be prepared to have food to take home.
• Oh, yeah, and we are already gearing up to defend our title at the Battle of the Beer Geeks. Remember that fun event that was part of ABQ Beer Week last year at Tractor Wells Park? We will be heading over soon to brew up Dark Side Donutbrau (once we settle on a recipe to give Josh and David). And since Tractor is going to make us a trophy and shirts, we may just have to turn this into something truly ridiculous this May. We’re sure the ABQ Craft Beer Drinkers Group, Babes in Brewland, Dukes of Ale, and so on will be overjoyed to see that. Right, everyone?

Until the next time I have a bunch of stuff I can throw in a notebook …

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister