If your favorite brewery appeared to be missing its brewer on Tuesday, fear not, for he or she was likely working hard at Bosque Brewing in Bernalillo. Well, maybe not working hard, exactly, but that was the gathering place for representatives of some 20-plus breweries as the New Mexico Brewers Guild collaboration brew day took place.

Land of Enchantment Lager was the result, the brain child of a number of brewers, brewed on the Bosque brewhouse for release in the near future. The beer was described by Bosque’s Tim Woodward as “a mix of an India pale lager and a West Coast pilsner.“

While the Bosque team went to work, everyone else mingled, shared beers, shared stories, and devoured the ample supply of goodies from Dunkin Donuts, and later, Restoration Pizza.

Brewers Guild executive director Leah Black organized the entire day with help from the Guild’s board of directors and the staff at Bosque.

“I think it’s really important — the colla-BEER-ation — is what we’re all about,” Leah said. “It’s so cool to have the brewers pick each others’ brains. … We just felt like it was very needed for 2019. Today right now we have over 20 breweries, hanging out, commiserating over other people’s beers, sharing beers, it’s such a cool event.”

The beer recipe itself was a joint venture of multiple brewers.

“Bosque has graciously donated their production facility,” Leah said. “So (Bosque’s) John Bullard and Tim Woodward kind of helped as far as what we could do today and what (ingredients) they had. Jayson Wylie and Dave Kimbell, our technical committee on the board, they collabed with John and Tim to bring this recipe together with donations (of ingredients) from a couple of the breweries.”

The name of the beer came from one brewer.

“It was actually, I think, Antonio (Fernandez) from Ponderosa (who) originally suggested it,” Leah said. “We all really liked it. It was so simple. It was perfect.”

The lager will be on tap at multiple breweries, though an exact release date is TBD, but likely in late October/early November.

“Right now, everybody here that’s in on the brew today, it will be at their respective breweries, and then anything that’s left, other breweries will be able to (order),” Leah said. “It will just depend on how many kegs we have left.”

A rough count of the breweries in attendance (it was a lot of people) included Roosevelt Brewing (Portales), Spotted Dog Brewery (Mesilla), Taos Mesa Brewing, and Santa Fe Brewing for those beyond the Albuquerque metro area. Breweries in town besides the host that had someone present included Bow & Arrow, Boxing Bear, Broken Trail, Canteen, High and Dry, Marble, Nexus, Ponderosa, Red Door, Sidetrack, Starr Brothers, Thirsty Eye, Toltec, and Tractor.

There were also a number of conversations between brewers, many of whom were meeting for the first time, that may lead to future collaborations. Throw in plenty of happy conversations about forthcoming beers, from the return of Vantablack at Boxing Bear to all sorts of malty and hop-forward creations around town, and it was a mighty good time on Tuesday afternoon.

Thanks to Leah for the invitation to join in and be a fly on the wall. A fly enjoying a fair amount of local beer, pizza, and donuts.

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister