Good lordy, the fest biers/Oktoberfest lagers be upon us, and in great numbers. Well, part of it has to do with Saturday’s Marblefest, where the downtown brewery is welcoming its contemporaries and their versions of the annual autumn seasonal for an all-day celebration. We will have a lot more on this event later in the week, including who is pouring what. Overall, though, the fall beers are finally upon us, as the temperatures (mercifully) begin dropping. Hey, if we can all be a little Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, why can’t we be a little German in autumn?
New Draft:
Brew Lab 101 tapped new batches of BOOM Shakalager (Munich Dunkel) and Chillax Lavender Cider. Downshift tapped its Oktoberfest in Ruidoso, and it should arrive soon at Outpost 1706 in Old Town. Ex Novo has more Sons of Scotland on tap, plus La Llorona (Red Ale) is now available. Gravity Bound tapped Counterweight (Hazy IPA). Harmon Lane will be tapping RIP … A, a red rye IPA, on Thursday. Kaktus has more Blond Ale on tap. La Cumbre tapped Thunderbolts & Lightning, a Bohemian pilsner (now go ahead and admit what song is stuck in your head upon reading that beer name). Lizard Tail recently tapped 007 Strong Scotch, Strawberry IPA, Apricot Grand Cru, Long Nosed Tripel, and Lemon Cherry Cider. Marble tapped more Prickly Pear Gose. Nexus will tap its Fest Bier! on Saturday. Quarter Celtic puckers up with its new kettle sour, Mango Catharina, and also tapped Becca’s Blend Red IPA. Red Door tapped Shandy Town Lemon Lager and Hibiscus White IPA. ReSource asked What Are You Wheating For? with its new apricot wheat ale, plus Severe Memory Leak: Berry Cherry Sour is now available. Rio Bravo tapped more of its award-winning Dice Roll Hazy IPA. Sidetrack added Irish Red a few months early. Turtle Mountain tapped Por Mi Vida (Key Lime Mexican Lager). (UPDATES) Boxing Bear brought back Metal Head Stout. Marble tapped Attack of the Keller B’s, a nice light lager.
Up in Santa Fe, Second Street has Skimboard Sour back on tap at both locations. Further north, Red River Brewing tapped the latest edition of its Contagion Fruity Sour Ale, this time blackberry rhubarb. Down south, Truth or Consequences Brewing will tap Southern Ring IPA on Thursday.
New Package:
Bow & Arrow rolls out cans and draft of its new West Coast IPA, Monument Magic, today (Wednesday) at the brewery. Boxing Bear added more Bear Knuckle IPA in cans and on draft. La Cumbre brings back its amazing Oktoberfest Lager on Friday. Marble will roll out its Marblefest Lager on Saturday for the festival. Nexus has its popular Scotch Ale back in cans. Steel Bender will have cans and draft of Blackberry Dynamite available as soon as the last Cherry Dynamite runs out this week. Second Street will have cans and draft of its award-winning Brown Ale available on Thursday. (UPDATE) Canteen rolls out cans and draft of its Oktoberfest on Thursday.
Notable Events:
Today (Wednesday) — Bosque Nob Hill will host the latest round of Trivia for a Cause: Better Call Saul, starting at 6 p.m. The winning team will pick the charitable winner. Teams of two to 10 players need to register for $25 apiece, so see the Bosque social media pages for more details.
Friday — Gin & Jazz returns to Tractor Wells Park at 5 p.m., featuring Burque Pupfish and Zoltan.
Saturday — As we already mentioned, Marblefest takes over the downtown brewery/taproom from noon until close. There will be a biergarten in the north parking lot, featuring beers from multiple local breweries. Admission is free until 3 p.m. Look for more info in a separate story later this week.
Quick News Bits:
Ex Novo is closing The Corral for a private event today (Wednesday) from open to close.
Rio Bravo is looking for a production brewing specialist to join their team.
Turtle Mountain North will not open until 3 p.m. today (Wednesday) and Thursday do to a staffing shortage in the kitchen. So if you know a cook who needs a job, now you know where to send him/her.
Albuquerque metro area breweries
Bombs Away Beer Company — Featured seasonal: Hazy Chain DIPA V.14 (7% ABV, 100+ IBU), made with Ariana, Kohatu, and Talus hops.
Bosque Brewing Company — Featured seasonal: Oh Hey, Pinyon Jay! (5.5% ABV, 20 IBU), a prickly pear juniper wheat ale, made in collaboration with The Drinking Horn Meadery and Audubon Central Flyway to raise awareness of the Pinyon Jay and its habitat in New Mexico. Available on draft and in cans.
Bow & Arrow Brewing — Featured seasonal: Desert Modern (6.7% ABV), an IPA made with New Zealand hops, available in cans and on draft.
Boxing Bear Brewing Company — Featured seasonal: I Dip, You Dip, We DIPA (8.8% ABV, 100 IBU), another massive hop bomb from the brewery that specializes in such things, this one was made with (deep breath) Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Citra, Falconers Flight 7C’s, Ekuanot, and Mosaic hops. Available on draft and in cans (taprooms only).
Brew Lab 101 Beer & Cider Company — Featured seasonal: Kiwi-Mango GoGo (5.7% ABV, 8 IBU), a fruited gose, as you might have guessed.
Canteen Brewhouse — Featured seasonal: Helles Awaits is back in cans and on draft.
Casa Vieja Brewery — Featured seasonal: Sharpe Dressed Man Chocolate Vanilla Stout is like two desserts in one.
Cazuela’s Seafood & Mexican Grill
Differential Brewing — Featured seasonal: Strawberry Blonde Ale (5.4% ABV, 19 IBU), it’s basically summer in a glass. It’s back on tap after a temporary “outage” the last couple of weeks.
Downshift Brewing at Outpost 1706 — Featured seasonal: Gratitude Session IPA (4.2% ABV, 40 IBU), brewed to support local charities, right now $1 from every pint sold goes to the Shelter Fund of the Community Foundation of Lincoln County.
Enchanted Circle Brewing Taproom
Ex Novo Brewing — Featured seasonal: German Overalls (5.8% ABV), the annual Oktoberfest lager release is back in cans and on tap for a limited time.
Gravity Bound Brewing — Featured seasonal: Corner Stand, a strawberry lemon basil gose that’s perfect for all of you fruited-sour lovers out there.
Harmon Lane Brewing at Southwest Grape and Grain — Featured seasonal: Ginger Beer (5% ABV), a Moscow mule-style brew, made with real ginger and back sweetened with brown sugar and lime juice.
High and Dry Brewing — Featured seasonal: Crack in the Iceberg (6.9% ABV, 50 IBU), an IPA featuring Michigan-grown hops.
Hops Brewery — Featured seasonal: Killer Bee Pale Ale (6.3% ABV, 23 IBU), this beer is made with actual honey from killer bee hives in Southern New Mexico.
JUNO Brewery
Kaktus Brewing — Featured seasonal: C-Thru Stout, because anyone releasing a stout in the summer gets our seal of approval.
La Cumbre Brewing — Featured seasonal: Lake Day Hazy DIPA (8.7% ABV), now available on draft and in cans.
La Reforma Brewery — Featured seasonal: Astronave (6.1% ABV), a hazy pale ale brewed with Galaxy and Citra hops.
Late Shift Lager House at The Craftroom — Featured seasonal: Hop Villain (6.8% ABV, 102 IBU), a beastly IPA that is a change of sorts from the lager-dominated lineup.
Lizard Tail Brewing — Featured seasonal: Ginger Mead is still on tap even after the recent National Mead Day, so that counts for something.
Marble Brewery — Featured seasonal: Brett Tripel (10% ABV), aged in red and white wine barrels, this is one big beast of a beer on draft only. Click on the different taprooms in the menu for the updated beer lists for each location.
Nexus Brewery — Featured seasonal: New Mexico Snow Storm IPA (7.2% ABV, 36 IBU), the runner-up at the 2021 New Mexico IPA Challenge had another strong finish at the 2022 NMIPAC, coming in fourth.
Palmer Brewery and Cider House — Featured seasonal: 2 Robs Make a Rita, an annual collaboration with Starr Brothers Brewing.
Ponderosa Brewing Co. — Featured seasonal: Italian Pilsner, the winner of back-to-back gold medals at the 2021 Great American Beer Festival and the 2022 World Beer Cup, is available on draft and in cans.
Quarter Celtic Brewpub— Featured seasonal: Dark Pedro, a Mexican-style dark lager so good that some of our friends have asked us to only drink this at their funerals. Our friends are morbid, but they have a point, it’s a quality brew.
Red Door Brewing — Featured seasonal: Mic Czech Pilsner (4.5% ABV, 30 IBU), at this point is almost a year-round beer, but we will still count it here, and you can take it home in cans in addition to enjoying it on draft downtown or in Clovis.
ReSource Brewing — Featured seasonal: Summer of Equality Stout, a lower ABV version of their popular house stout.
Rio Bravo Brewing — Featured seasonal: Vienna Waits (5.5% ABV, 20 IBU), a delightful amber lager.
Rumor Brewing (formerly Ale Republic) — Featured seasonal: Love (4.4% ABV, 12 IBU), a smoothie sour with sweet and tart cherries.
Sidetrack Brewing — Featured seasonal: Lively Lager (5.4% ABV), a sweet light lager that just hits perfectly in the waning days of summer.
Sobremesa — Featured seasonal: Berliner Weiss, the traditional German sour is now available. Order it “mit schuss” and you will get a shot of strawberry puree added to the beer.
Starr Brothers Brewing — Featured seasonal: Herban Cowboy Hazy IPA, a collaboration with Boxing Bear that is just a wee bit dank.
Steel Bender Brewyard — Featured seasonal: Cherry Dynamite (5.15% ABV, 5 IBU), the summer version of the popular kettle sour series is getting down to its final kegs and cans. If you help drink it up, the next variant in the Dynamite series will take its place sooner than later.
Thirsty Eye Brewing — Featured seasonal: Dude. Dude? Dude! is a hazy IPA that took home the gold medal in the all-local competition held prior to the Great New Mexico Beer Festival back in June.
Tractor Brewing Company — Featured seasonal: The Dune DIPA just makes us wish they would hurry up and release part two of the latest movie adaptation of Dune. It was also Tractor’s NMIPAC entry.
Turtle Mountain Brewing Company — Featured seasonal: Koi No Yokan (4.55% ABV, 27 IBU), a Japanese rice lager brewed with Sorachi Ace hops.
Santa Fe breweries
Beer Creek Brewing — Featured seasonal: Get to Da Hoppa is an IPA brewed entirely with New Mexico-grown hops and barley. Available in cans and on draft. If you buy the cans and go home, you must immediately watch Predator.
Chile Line Brewing — Featured seasonal: A Huevo (5% ABV, 20 IBU) is a Yerba Matte-inspired beer.
Hidden Mountain Brewing (formerly Blue Corn Brewery) — Featured seasonal: Pepino Lager, made with cucumber and lime, is a perfect pairing with the food menu.
Rowley Farmhouse Ales — Featured seasonal: Chantal (8.5% ABV, 30 IBU), this French-style saison was brewed in honor of a friend of the brewery who passed away after a battle with cancer. Available in cans and on draft.
Santa Fe Brewing Company — Featured seasonal: Oktoberfest is back in cans and on draft, and we have no problem with this having arrived in July. If Samuel Adams can do it, so can SFBC.
Second Street Brewery — Featured seasonal: Boondock Skye (4.8% ABV, 35 IBU) is one of two session IPAs on tap right now, so grab some and compare it to Porch Season to see which is better.
Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery — Featured seasonal: White Rabbit Wit, the first in a series of new witbiers.
Other breweries you need to visit
Bathtub Row Brewing — Featured seasonal: Til Death Do Us Tart, which was brewed for Emma and Nate’s wedding back in July.
Little Toad Creek Brewing and Distilling
Red River Brewing and Distilling — Featured seasonal: Angry Bear Blonde, a double-strength blonde ale, goes great after hiking in the mountains.
Sierra Blanca Brewing — Featured seasonal: Peanut Butter Porter, because let’s face it, there aren’t many NM breweries using peanut butter in their beers, but it’s still a very popular adjunct.
Truth or Consequences Brewing — Featured seasonal: Masquerade Dark Cherry Saison (6% ABV, 19 IBU), as the brewery wrote, “This ruby red French-Belgian ale is mysterious and elegant, evocative of spiced wine and holiday cakes.”
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That’s all for this week! If you have any questions or comments, leave them below or contact us on our Facebook page.
Keep supporting local!
— Stoutmeister
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 