There is always something fun about trying to tie a numbered anniversary to an event or beer at a brewery. Do a triple IPA for a third anniversary. Toss seven hops in an IPA for a seventh. Things of that nature.

Boxing Bear Brewing, though, decided to just go all-out and schedule 10 days worth of events at their two locations to celebrate their milestone 10-year anniversary.

I caught up with co-owner/director of brewing operations Justin Hamilton, co-owner/director of operations Jay Knigge, and director of marketing and event operations Astrid Galarza to run down all the events, and what led them to deciding that this was a good idea.

Hamilton was quick to credit Galarza for her work year-round on filling up the calendar with fun events.

“Astrid has been getting such a good grasp on the marketing and events coordination for us,” he said. “If you look right now, every one of our windows have posters. Every one of these are going to be good events. We’ve been trying to get to that for a long time. We’ve been trying to get pull. Lots of breweries have good beer. Everyone is trying to look for their niche. Events, in general, and ambiance is what pulls people.”

That ultimately led the leadership team to just let Galarza take charge of all things anniversary, though she in turn was quick to credit Knigge with the 10 days of events idea.

“I agreed in a momentary lack of sanity,” she said with a laugh. “But, it’s going to be awesome. We’re super excited. We decided to do events that we’re not necessarily into doing all of the time, but people have been asking us to do for a long time, like trivia and karaoke. It’s a treat for those die-hards that follow us. They know that this is a little different for us. Trivia is going to have specific categories, like a category about beer, a category about bears, and then a category about Boxing Bear Brewing history.”

Galarza noted that most of the events are free, with only a few coming with a fee, mainly those that have an art-making element, such as Sip & Succulent and Paint Night.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Galarza said. “Most of the events are free, and those that do cost money to participate in, we kept them very affordable. We just want people to come out and have a good time. They get to experience our 10-year celebration with us.”

Here is the full schedule, and take note which taproom, since some events will be repeated at the other location on a different night.

• Saturday: 10th Anniversary Beer Release (Decade of Dorks Dort), 6-10 p.m. (Firestone)
• Sunday: Custom Hat Bar, 1-5 p.m. (Firestone)
• Monday: BEARaoke, 6-9 p.m. (Firestone)
• Tuesday: Paint Nights, 6-8 p.m. (both taprooms)
• Wednesday: BXBR Trivia Night, 6 p.m. (Bridges on Tramway)
• Thursday: Sip & Succulent, 6-8 p.m. (Firestone)
• Friday, July 26: Ultimate Brewery Tour, 6-7 p.m. (Firestone)
• Saturday, July 27: Bear Games, 3-8 p.m. (Firestone)
• Sunday, July 28: Custom Hat Bar, 1-5 p.m. (Bridges) & Pinball Tournament, noon signup (Firestone)
• Monday, July 29: Sip & Succulent, 6-8 p.m. (Bridges)

“For a 10th anniversary especially, and any anniversary at this point in general, how do you fit everything you want to do into one day? Ten days is awesome,” Knigge said. “It might be a lot in 10 days, but this is like every week for us. Every week there’s a lot going on at Boxing Bear. With two locations, there’s at least five events or more every week.”

“If anyone is going to handle it, it’s Astrid,” Hamilton added. “Jay would come up and say ‘let’s do 10 days of events’ and I would say ‘go away.’ Then Astrid would say ‘OK.’ ‘Why did you say OK?’”

In addition to what’s listed above, Boxing Bear will also be selling some very unique and custom glassware starting during the anniversary beer release on Saturday and continuing while supplies last.

“Being that it is the anniversary and that we have such great friends and marketing connections, we of course have High Desert Flameworks and some of their associates making custom glassware,” Hamilton said. “We’ve seen stuff like this before, but these will actually have our logo on it. There’s a certain technology that’s called a bake-on. It’s basically screen printed onto a piece of glass and then it’s baked onto the glass. So we can do different logos. We’re going to have a specialty logo on actual hand-blown glass. There will be different tiers available. We’ll have some that are more affordable, a few more expensive, and then a high tier, just a few of them, for those who are interested in that level of work.”

Hamilton said that each glass will be measured properly to hold 16 to 18 ounces, with a few 20-ounce glasses available. They will also be more affordable to buy through the brewery than if one were to go directly to one of the glass-blowing shops around town.

For those of us without any cabinet space left for more glassware, another daily bit of fun will be a special pairing of beer and something sweet.

“We teamed up with Snugglecub Cookies,” Galarza said. “They made special 1-ounce cookies for us, five different varieties, five different flavors that we’re pairing with five different beers. … There will be some interesting beer pairings.

“They’re based here in Albuquerque, and all of their cookies are named after towns here in New Mexico. It’s a great way to support local. That will be held from the 20th through the 29th while supplies last at both locations at any time.”

Knigge said there will also be one more limited-edition item for sale starting next week.

“It probably won’t be this weekend, but we’ll probably drop it next week. “We have a limited-edition 99 Beers of Boxing Bear poster,” he said. “It’s 26 by 34 (inches). There are 99 separate beer labels that we’ve done over the last 10 years. The top row even includes a bunch of bomber (labels) that we used to do, when bombers were a thing. They’ll be numbered, one of 100, two of 100. I think there’s more than 99 at this point, but our graphic designer Andy who’s been with us since the beginning put that together. It’s a really cool poster.”

Many of those classic beers have been brought back over the last few weeks, with a few still available on tap.

“We have so many new beers coming out. I think we’ve had four beers come out in the last 10 days. “We have the whole throwback series on,” Knigge said. “We did a poll on social media and everyone put in their favorites. We got to re-brew Umbers Cucumbers, Watermelon Gose, and we’re like, wait, these are the ones?”

Hamilton said that even though they asked for specialty/seasonal beers in the poll, many people just responded with beers like Uppercut IPA and Chocolate Milk Stout, which are available year-round. There will be some variants of those popping up, with Coffee Chocolate Milk Stout likely to appear on draft next week.

Beyond those, there is of course the anniversary beer itself, Decade of Dorks Dort, a Dortmunder-style lager that will be available in cans and on draft starting Saturday.

“Decade of Dorks Dortmunder, this was a beer that I really wanted to hand to the brew staff,” Hamilton said. “They took it and they did an awesome job with it. We have never done a Dortmunder before. Maybe we’ve done it on accident and called a Dortmunder. But, as far as making a Dortmunder recipe, things just fell into place.

“We’ve been really trying to find our niche with lagers and different styles and just experiment and play more. It’s always hard to do a lager in the busy beer season. But, I have pretty solid faith in what these guys were able to accomplish. We just canned it yesterday. It’s pretty awesome, I’m really happy with it. It’s going to be one of our entries for GABF. These guys really put their heads together and looked over tons of ingredients, tons of techniques, and just really nailed it.”

The lager will only be available at the two Boxing Bear taprooms.

“Again, I would really encourage people to come try it if you like lagers,” Hamilton said. “We’re really happy with it. Beer is traditionally nerdy, and we’re all beer dorks back there. It kind of fit the theme. It was originally going to be Five Dorks Make a Dort, but Jay said it’s (year) 10, so we have to throw that in there. We made it work.”

The release party will feature High Desert Flameworks and other longtime vendor friends of Boxing Bear set up in the back parking lot, Galarza said, and the dynamic duo of DJ Clout and DJ Batboy (who works as a bartender at the Tramway taproom) will provide the music.

“To circle back to social media, or our website has everything linked,” Galarza said. “You can also subscribe to our newsletter when you come into either of our locations. You can get the information that way, because (at times) the same event is happening at each location, but on a different day. Make sure you’re going to the right place.”

Whenever you can make it to the Boxing Bear taprooms over the next 10 days, a fun time is all but guaranteed. Heck, they even have pinball up at Tramway now, so you can get that fix at both locations.

A big thanks to Astrid, Jay, and Justin for carving out 20 minutes for an interview right before this all kicks off. Whether in the taprooms or with a Boxing Bear brew at home, we raise our glasses high to celebrate a decade of excellence for one of New Mexico’s finest breweries.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister