Beer Premier brews feature classic styles, modern twists and wild experiments

There is a wide array of beers making their debuts this weekend.

As we noted back on Monday in our jumbo preview of New Mexico Brewers Guild events, the Beer Premier is back with 21 breweries debuting 20 brand-new, never-before-brewed beers. This year’s event will be held at Nexus Blue Smokehouse on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m., and tickets are still available online.

While there is a costume contest and a food pairing and all that, let’s face it, this event is all about those 20 beers. We asked all the participating breweries, from the collaborating duo of Palmer and Tractor to the way-out-of-town places like Bathtub Row and Three Rivers, to provide us with descriptions of the beers that will be introduced to the world for the first time.

We are (UPDATE) no longer bummed because all 20 breweries responded (it just took a little longer for some), and we are pretty darned excited to try these before we trek up the road to the final New Mexico United game of the season.

The descriptions on many of these were provided by the breweries themselves. You’ll probably be able to tell which ones. Any questions? Drop us a line via social media or at nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com.

Bathtub Row: Tusk and Bone Hazy IPA (6.2% ABV) — Better brewing through science! At the recent Craft Brewers Conference, Justin hunted down new info about hop flavor and aroma “survivables.” By blending specific hop varieties in specific ratios, he maximized compounds such as Methyl gernate, Geraniol, Linalool and 3-mercaptohexan-1-ol to bring you this incredibly fruit-forward hazy IPA. Grapefruit and orange citrus, musky melon and broadleaf weeds, tropical fruit punch, plums and berries, grassy and floral. Hazy golden color with sudsy white foam, mellow grain bill with huge hop presence beginning to end.
Bosque: Amor’s Dark Lager — The next release in the Bosque Co-Op Series, featuring plenty of caramel and coffee
Canteen: Burq Reynolds (6.6% ABV) — A Sabro/Citra hop combination hazy IPA with bright aroma and flavors of cantaloupe, grapefruit, and little cuties! (also their Movember release)
Enchanted Circle: Detonator Red IPA (7.4% ABV) — Heavily dry hopped red IPA.
Ex Novo: Name TBA — Bourbon-barrel-aged Earl Grey sour
High and Dry: Desert Trash (6% ABV/60 IBU) — Black IPA that is a desert treasure, rich in color like the night sky that hangs lowly over Albuquerque. Made with Chinook and Nugget hops.
UPDATED>>>Marble: Cholo Smooth (6.5% ABV) — Dripping with class, this sweet and sultry stout is chocolaty, roasty, and puro chingôn.
Nexus: Lush Imperial Stout on Vanilla (12% ABV/57 IBU) — “Lush” Imperial Stout is big, steep and rich. It has notes of sweet but bitter dark chocolate and roasted coffee. Made with Imperial’s “Darkness” Yeast, this beer is Nexus’ biggest yet at 12% ABV. It is sure to warm you on the coming chilly nights. Nexus’ submission to the New Mexico Brewer’s Guild Beer Premier has an additional twist of rum aged New Guinea vanilla beans. Cheers to 2021 Lush!
Palmer and Tractor collaboration: Bloody Hell — A snakebite with Palmer’s Helles mixed with 25-percent Blood Orange Cider.
Ponderosa: Blackberry Spice Beer — Inspired by the movie Dune, this is a blonde ale brewed with blackberries, lactose, and cinnamon.
Quarter Celtic: Old Ale — Aged English-style strong ale.
Rio Bravo: Green Tea Pale Ale (5.2% ABV/30 IBU) — We used exotic new American hops Exp-074 and Lotus to accentuate the citrus flavors and herbal flavor of the green tea. For a 15-barrel batch we added 100 pounds of green tea leaves, which caused a whole bunch of problems in transferring from our lauter tun, but eventually we got through it. This is the second time we have used tea leaves; the first was black tea in our peach tea ale and that gave us no problems in the brewing process. We really wanted to highlight the green tea flavor in this. After sampling the beer this morning we have a pretty dominant green tea flavor, accented by a delicate citrus flavor. I think it blends very nicely.
Second Street: Southern Passion Sloppy Sloth Hazy IPA (7.3% ABV) — A New England-style hazy IPA featuring South African Southern Passion hops — and a few other complimentary associates — and dry hopped three times. Fermented with our house British strain. Should have a great popping ‘tropical fruit’ spectrum in aroma and flavor.
Sidetrack: Baltic Porter (7.4% ABV/33 IBU) — Originally brewed in the Nordic Region, Baltic Porter is lager’s answer to imperial stout. A multi-layered malt composition culminates with toffee, bittersweet chocolate, and raisin undertones. Our version was lagered to brightness for two months and spunded for natural carbonation.
UPDATED>>>Starr Brothers: Monkey Knuckle Coconut Porter (6.5% ABV) — Small batch of our award-winning porter brewed with toasted coconut.
Steel Bender: Norwegian Would? (7.65% ABV/15 IBU) — Kveik strains (Norwegian for yeast) have been showing up in all sorts of beers lately due to their wild and forgiving nature. It seems to break all the rules when it comes to brewing yeast. In an attempt to get back to basics, we brewed this Norwegian-style farmhouse ale with one red malt, one bitter hop, one crazy yeast, and some juniper boughs for a touch of authenticity. The result is a fantastically complex and fruity brew of considerable strength. Cherries and chocolate at the fore with a rich maltiness on the finish, we think a Norwegian just might.
UPDATED>>>Taos Mesa: Blood Orange IPA (6.8% ABV/75 IBU) — West Coast-style IPA fermented on 250 pounds of blood orange puree. Falconer’s Flight and Mosaic hops throughout.
Thirsty Eye: Huning Highlander Scotch Ale (9.6% ABV/27 IBU) — This beer is a love letter to our historic neighborhood. Golden Promise malt is the star with just a dash of aromatic malt and roasted barley for notes of caramel sweetness, toffee, and figs.
Three Rivers: Name TBA — Barrel-aged bock brewed with locally grown squashes and locally roasted coffee from Caldwell Coffee Roasters.
Turtle Mountain: Stuff Stuff Stout (6.43% ABV/40 IBU) — A solution of confectionery pleasures, brewed with 35 pounds of Oreo Cookie Cake, whirlpooled with spearmint, and brought to condition on roasted cocoa nibs. This beer speaks of chocolate and roasted malt and coffee. Allow this stout to develop, as it warms. You’ll find some interesting flavors emerge, such as tootsie roll, and tobacco leaf. All with a creamy mouthfeel that is sure to pair well with any dessert.