I recently had the (long overdue on my part) opportunity to catch up with Matt Simonds, owner of Broken Trail Spirits & Brew. I asked him to take me through a timeline of what has happened since the dark day New Mexico first shut down in March. Matt said it is all, unfortunately, very vivid…
Month: June 2020
Bow & Arrow Brewing fires up its new canning line as it adjusts to sea of changes in 2020
Bow & Arrow Brewing has a new toy. Last summer, head brewer Ted O’Hanlan said he was looking forward to having a canning line in 2020. By the end of the year, the brewery had pivoted to focus on its Rambler Taproom in Farmington, pushing the canning line back to 2021. Oh, how quickly things…
Remaining Santa Fe breweries at various stages of reopening
On Tuesday, the Dark Side Brew Crew ran my story on the Santa Fe breweries that have been open to the public for a couple weeks now, and what unique challenges they’ve faced as they blazed the trail for the others. As promised, I reached out to Second Street Brewery, Blue Corn Brewery, and Tumbleroot…
Beer Notes: Rio Bravo unleashes a barrel-aged behemoth in the middle of summer
A few newsy beer-related items found their way to our proverbial desks this week. Rather than go two days in a row without a new story, here is a quick summation of what we know. Rio Bravo says damn the season and full imperial stout ahead Sure, it may be toasty out there these days,…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Ex Novo makes the best out of a wee little typo
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 eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, one in Silver City, and one in Truth or Consequences also joining the party….
Santa Fe breweries face their own unique challenges as they reopen to the public
This past couple weeks, the Dark Side Brew Crew has been running stories about the challenges our breweries are facing as they slowly reopen, what they’ve had to do to maintain the safety of their customers, and the general public response from the breweries’ perspective. Continuing with our reopening the breweries series, I sent out…
Tractor among the event-heavy breweries that must refocus for the foreseeable future
It feels a little quieter at Tractor Brewing these days. That has nothing to do with the crowds; like their fellow breweries, they are limited to 50-percent occupancy, but the tables were full and people were beginning to gather on the expanded patio when I visited the Wells Park brewery taproom last week. No, it…
Crushing the can game at Second Street and beyond
Second Street Brewery’s design team has just won some major national awards for craft beer can design, but the best part about the local Santa Fe brewery’s design team is that technically it’s a one-woman show, Mariah Cameron Scee. Scee also designed the can for Pink Boots Society beer, Essential Pie, that was released today….
Gravity Bound Brewing lands on its feet after pandemic shutdown delays its opening
Gravity Bound Brewing had planned to open its doors to the public back on March 25. Well, as we all know, something happened before that which proved to be a bit of a impediment. As of Thursday, Gravity Bound has at last joined its fellow breweries in being open for customers at 50-percent occupancy. We…
The Pink Boots Society collaboration beer arrives on tap and in cans at 13 local breweries
Long, long ago, in a more innocent time, many of the women in our craft brewing industry gathered together at Canteen Brewhouse to create a special beer. Yes, in those days of yore, otherwise known as early March, the 2020 collaboration brew for the New Mexico chapter of the Pink Boots Society came into this…