The stouts did flow on a lovely Saturday afternoon at Bathtub Row Brewing, as the annual Stout Invitational returned to Los Alamos.

The Crew sent myself, Luke, and Reid to participate in the blind taste test of 16 stouts from breweries across New Mexico (Erin was also volunteering in the back, pouring samples for the first two of three sessions).

So who won out of that field? Well, if you do not follow the New Mexico Brewers Guild on Instagram (which was strangely not mirroring posts to Facebook that day), you probably missed the announcement of the first-time winner. Tractor Brewing’s Double Stuffed Sweet Stout, which more than lives up to its name, prevailed with 35 votes. Bosque was second with 29 votes and the trio of Piedra Blanca, Sobremesa, and Three Rivers tied for third with 13 votes apiece.

“It means a lot of the hard work we’ve been putting in in the brewery has been paying off,” said Tractor head brewer T.J. Friedrich. “This was a contest that we took very seriously. It was a contest that unfortunately due to distribution, we had to make a backup plan. This is a pilot system beer because we didn’t have room in fermenters with everything going out to our distributor.

“We kind of kept messing with it. We added chocolate, we added lactose. We pulled some back, we added some back, we threw some vanilla in it. Lo and behold, when we threw it all together (last) Monday, it came out perfect. We were really happy about it.”

Friedrich said the entire Tractor team deserved the credit.

“It’s really a testament to the guys in the back who are busting their butts,” he said. “I get to stand up here and hold an award, but this is more about them than it is about me.”

Guild executive director Ebbie Edmonston was happy to see Tractor prevail to kick off their 25th anniversary year.

“I’m glad they won,” she said. “I’m surprised they didn’t know which beer was theirs. That beer really stood out. I don’t taste all the beers, but I taste the beers that are in the running. It was solid. I hope they have it on draft soon.”

Edmonston is not the only one who will be waiting for Double Stuffed Sweet Stout to appear at Wells Park. Friedrich said the plan is to brew up a full-sized batch for a late 2024 release, along with two other stouts. For now, though, there may be some of the pilot batch ready to go.

“It’s kind of one of those (where we have) the opportunity to play with it, see what the public thinks,” he said. “Well, the public spoke, so it will be on our menu. We’ll probably do a special release (soon). We brewed a half barrel, but we only had to do a sixtel (for the Invitational), so there’s still two sixtels floating around. I messaged Jeremy (Kinter), we’ll probably be releasing those couple sixtels in the short term.”

The Crew will certainly keep an eye out for that release date and share it once it is announced. In the meantime, for transparency’s sake, I chose Nexus’ Lush Imperial Stout out of the field, while both Luke and Reid picked Bosque Strong, a 2019 bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout. Bosque was second on my list, followed by Tractor and Rio Bravo’s Barrel-y Legal.

Here are the final voting totals, along with which stout was which on the tray.

1. Tractor Brewing, Double Stuffed Sweet Stout (No. 14), 35 votes
2. Bosque Brewing, Bosque Strong 2019 BBA Imperial Stout (No. 9), 29 votes
3. Piedra Blanca Brewing, Robust Stout (No. 4), 13 votes
4. Sobremesa Restaurant and Brewery, Face the Day Breakfast Stout (No. 7), 13 votes
5. Three Rivers Brewery, Absence of Light Imperial Stout (No. 16), 13 votes
6. Milton’s Brewing, Bluehouse Semi-Sweet Stout (No. 15), 12 votes
7. Nexus Brewery, Lush Imperial Stout with Irish coffee (No. 12), 11 votes
8. Bathtub Row Brewing, Oz’s Oatmeal Stout (No. 6), 8 votes
9. Ponderosa Brewing, Krampus Gingerbread Dessert Stout (No. 10), 8 votes
10. Bonito Valley Brewing, Tin Star Potato Stout (No. 5), 7 votes
11. Quarter Celtic Brewpub, Raspberry Pastry Stout (No. 11), 7 votes
12. Rio Bravo Brewing, Barrel-y Legal BA Stout (No. 1), 6 votes
13. Canteen Brewhouse, Work of Heart Raspberry Pastry Stout (No. 2), 5 votes
14. Steel Bender Brewyard, Blue Bullet Oatmeal Stout (No. 3), 5 votes
15. Nuckolls Brewing, Coal Train Oatmeal Stout (No. 13), 3 votes
16. Turtle Mountain Brewing, Metal Snake Irish Dry Stout (No. 8), 3 votes

Check your favorite breweries’ current beer listings to see which of those are available on tap.

Overall, this was again a fun event, and the Guild ran it about as smoothly as ever.

“It went amazingly well,” Edmonston said. “I would almost argue too well. We were so efficient with getting those trays out. We learned last year that you have to start pouring the trays 15 minutes before the doors open. Therefore you have to start building up a surplus. I think all the trays were out within the first 20 to 30 minutes of when the doors opened. And then, all the brewers were twiddling their thumbs. What do we do now?”

You relax, brewers, and take it easy back there. That is what you do.

Oh, and while we had Edmonston there, we did ask her about an upcoming new event, Fete de la Funk, set for April 13 at Rowley Farmhouse Ales in Santa Fe.

“We have some funk coming,” she said. “That is a new event, obviously. We are figuring it out. I am a lover of funk, sours, and saison, so it’s a little bit of a thing for me as well as Rowley Farmhouse Ales. They approached me with the idea. I would love to see funk get a chance to shine as well.”

The brewery sign-up deadline is this Friday, so look for more details after that.

Until then, a big thanks to Ebbie, T.J., everyone in the Guild, and the amazing Bathtub Row staff for making Saturday such a fun event. Heck, even the weather cooperated, so a great day was had by one and all. If you have never been to the Stout Invitational, make sure to grab a ticket next year and trek on up the mountain. It is a great way to support the Guild and Bathtub Row.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister