The Week Ahead in Beer: Oktoberfest avalanche and more events upon events

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s six breweries, one in Los Alamos, and one in Moriarty also joining the party. Once again, we all face a jam-packed weekend of fun and beer. Oh,…

A hop farm springs up in the North Valley

The Albuquerque metro area is now home to 30-plus breweries. And, finally, one hop farm. Red Hat Hops is looking to keep things even more local in terms of beer ingredients. Located at the edge of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, off Rio Grande north of the overpass above Montano, this new operation occupies 4.5 acres….

A whirlwind tour of Asheville uncovers some craft beer gems

One nice thing about having children-in-law is that they sometimes end up in nice places, and you have to visit them, of course. Such was the case here. My daughter-in-law is currently studying at Duke University in North Carolina. I never had much of an occasion to visit NC in the past, though I didn’t…

Bathtub Row’s Mr. Fixit has emerged as its unsung hero

Bathtub Row Brewing (BRB) in Los Alamos is an unusual sort of brewery, being based on a co-operative business model. It’s also in a small, fairly isolated town. These things lead to a lot of community involvement and pride. I know that many people have done an awful lot of volunteer work on all facets…

The Week Ahead in Beer: Five days of fun await everyone

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s six breweries, one in Los Alamos, and one in Moriarty also joining the party. There are no major festivals this weekend, but there is still plenty of…

Marble’s three locations rely on three Unsung Heroes

Up until now, I have left the Unsung Heroes Series to our other writers. When I sent out a second email to the breweries asking for more nominees, Marble Brewery responded with not one but three, the managers of each of their taprooms. “These three unsung heroes are on the front lines everyday and are…

Tractor pulls together 24 other NM breweries with Hops for Harvey

The staggering toll of Hurricane Harvey is still being felt across Texas, with many homes and businesses lost to the destructive flooding. Included among those are craft breweries, and their employees, many of whom no longer have a job as a result. The MBAA (Master Brewers Association of Americas) Texas District reached out to neighboring…

Palmer Brewery’s Unsung Hero fills in all the gaps

I made my way through a weeknight happy hour crowd in the expanded bar seating area at Palmer Brewery/Left Turn Distillery to interview Chris Medina, assistant distiller and sales manager. Chris started on the distilling side at Left Turn about two and a half years ago. When the brewery opened in November, he began helping…