We are not beer critics. Oh, sure, we will review a beer every now and again, but our mantra from the beginning has been information over opinion.

Still, toward the end of every year, we will often talk to one another about what our favorite local beers were over the prior 12 months. Sometimes we even remember to write it down (or, at the very least, this is why some of us are still on Untappd). And, when we can actually get organized, sometimes we even share our favorite beers.

Not every Crew member did this year, but that is OK. Some were fairly limited in terms of getting out there (family, job, health, etc.). Others among us were frequently out and about, sometimes sampling new brews while doing interviews, others just inhabiting their favorite taprooms, usually in close proximity to work or home.

Now that we have listed our favorites of 2024, please share yours in the comments, in an email (nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com) or however you would like. There are never any wrong answers. The only rule is that the beers have to have been brewed in New Mexico.

We start with a little email back-and-forth between two of our members, who seemed to have a little fun bit of trouble of brushing away the cobwebs in their minds to recall what they have tried over the past year. Then come the rather extensive lists from our usual beer tasting host and our man in Santa Fe, followed by yours truly.

AmyO: I’m terrible at remembering beers/names! I’ll try to think about it.

Reid: Like Amy, I’m lousy at remembering, and I didn’t make much use of Untappd again. Maybe in retirement someday … I also don’t have any beer name nominations. But here’s something:

Though I tried a decent number of local beers in 2024, I only rent the memories. One from just a week ago, however, was a crowler (!) of Vanta Black from Boxing Bear. (I was too late to pick it up in sane-sized cans.) It was delicious and made for a toasty Christmas Day … on a beach in San Diego. It was actually not much warmer than in Santa Fe, so the warmth was appreciated.

AmyO: I second Vanta Black. I just had it yesterday.

(They’re adorable, aren’t they?)

Andrew: Not unlike previous years, 2024 was another year of splendid local beers that deserve recognition. I depend on my Untappd ratings and notes to inform this feedback every year. I start from my highest rated and then work my way down with the first on my list below earning 4.5/5 and the rest earning 4.25/4.5. There were MANY other delicious local beers in 2024. For frame of reference, a rating above 4.5 would be in the top 2 percent of beers I have rated, and a rating of 4.25 still puts a beer in the top 15 percent of beers I have rated.

• North Star Navigator, La Cumbre: Classic clean/crisp Cumbre Pilsner, but with a unique hop combination. This kind of beer only gets me excited when it’s executed perfectly and this was. Loved it.
• Rosa Amarilla, Marble: Clean and crushable yet still resiny and dank SMASH-style IPA. I described it as “yummy.” Best new Marble IPA in recent memory.
• Project Dank Mercury and Venus Editions, La Cumbre” I’m certainly a sucker for Project Dank, and any new edition is warmly accepted by me, including both of these. Go ahead and come out with the Pluto and Saturn editions in 2025 and I’ll be all over it.
• Retroflex, La Cumbre: I’m not generally a DIPA guy, but this had a nice, chewy, tropical body with a resinous finish that I appreciated.
• Fresh Hop Light Through the Trees, Ex Novo: Probably the best pale ale I have had in recent memory. Well balanced, for sure.
• Critter, Gravity Bound: Fan-fooking-tastic westy fresh-hop IPA. I would rather die drinking this WC IPA in ABQ than live on the WC. Killed it.
• Dark Side of the Moons, Flock of Moons: When I see a black IPA I order it. There was a war between hop-land and the malt republic, and this beer was being served on the frontlines. It was on-point as advertised. I’m not biased at all.
• Rez Pubby, Bow & Arrow: No joke, 2024 will go down in my book as the year of the dark lager. I had enough good ones to remember it this way, and this one was my favorite. Ask me for a toasty dark chocolate lager and I will present you with this gem.

Luke: For me, it was a weird year. I didn’t get around to as many local places as usual, especially since we lost a couple in Santa Fe — more on that to come— but from my travels, from bottle shares, and local hangs, there were definitely some memorable beers of 2024.

To start off, my highest rated beer was from a quick zip through Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was Slumber Car, a porter from Accomplice Brewing, a brewery in a train station. This porter may have been the best I’ve ever had, nailing the style but with plenty of flair. Makes me sad for silly places where porters are tough sells, like NM.

My favorite local beer was a black IPA from Rowley Farmhouse Ales, which (fun fact) was a very slightly tweaked version of the same beer recipe that Rowley originally designed for Santa Fe Brewing Co. that became their Black IPA, way back in the day. The beer is now only available at RFA (hopefully seasonally) by the name of Black Dog IPA. And, this one was really well executed by their newish brewer. It took me back to my first beer study article where, 10 years ago, I drank a six pack of the stuff just to try and understand what the hell a black IPA was.

Very high up in my ratings was an Imperial Stout from Rapid City, South Dakota, simply named Germany Chocolate Cake from Lost Cabin Beer Co. This beer and brewery made me feel like maybe beer isn’t dead after all, and not everywhere, as plenty of people gathered at this brewery after dark for pours of this amazing stuff, and recommended it, with plenty of excitement, to rando tourists like me.

A 2024 list would not be complete without mentioning our Crew bottle shares (yes, they still happen), with some ridiculously good verticals and horizontals of Abraxas among others. I only wish I could share those with more of my friends, but I try when I can. And, of course the “we’re not worthy” beer of the decade goes to A Deal With The Devil from Anchorage Brewing Company. Just don’t Google the price.

Up and coming: two beers I really enjoyed in 2024 are from “newcomers” to Santa Fe. One was from Nuckolls Brewing Co. with their absolutely see-through Choo-choo Pils. Light. Crisp. Delicious. They do so much right, when they do it.

And, to end my list is The Illusion of Finality, just a really special artfully crafted beer completely out of my depth and range, yet an experience so drinkable and shareable. It is a farmhouse ale from the coming-soon Santa Fe brewery, Keeping Together. Can’t wait for them to open!

Honorable mentions:

• Turtle Mountain Anniversary Ale, Turtle Mountain Brewing Co.: Absolutely the awesome sauce I ordered in a Flanders red.
• Tumbleroot Oktoberfest, Tumbleroot Brewing Co.: Yes! Finally, yes! Please keep making beer!
• La Folie, New Belgium: Listen, you haven’t had it until you’ve had it on their front porch. That is an experience.
• Gourd Summoner, Bosque Brewing Co.: I’m sorry, but I hated that I loved Gourd Summoner from Bosque Brewing as much as I did, because, pumpkin. But, here we are. And, it was good. And, I hate pumpkin puns, but that beer was absolutely gourd-ious.

Looking forward to a new year with renewed excitement for new beers! I’ve got some writing to do!

Stoutmeister: Last year, I organized everything by the month in which I checked into ’em, and sure, that worked, so let’s do it again.

• January: Man, I hope La Cumbre brews up Siberian Silk again, but if not, this last batch of the Baltic porter was the best one yet. Smooth as, well, you can guess, and this time packing some big roasty flavors. The world needs more Baltic porters. The other heavy hitter of the month was Shadowmere, a weizen doppelbock from Flock of Moons. You needed a knife and fork for that one.
• February: Marble went ahead and did their own Baltic porter and it was also quite decadent. Then came the WinterBrew beers (I forgot it was held in February last year, thankfully it’s back to January this year, so go get your tickets, darn it). Downshift brought up some maple goodness in Brewer’s Brunch. That beer, should it return in 2025, is worth the drive to Ruidoso alone (though honestly, please visit Ruidoso this year, they need you). Thirsty Eye wowed the crowd with RIGor Mortis, their epic take on a coffee stout. No, really, multiple people told me it was their favorite of the fest, beating out a lot of bigger breweries’ entries. Please brew that again, John. Ahem, banking on that homefield advantage in Santa Fe, Tumbleroot rolled out the best version yet of their Molé Stout, while Rowley Farmhouse Ales dropped in with big ol’ beaut of a barrel-aged barleywine, Ned Ryerson – 10 Year Henry McKenna Barrel. After the fest, I needed something light but still packed with flavor, and Canteen delivered with a Vienna Lager. Flock of Moons finished the month with a crisp and clear German pilsner, Vollmond.
• March: Kudos to Marble for their not-too-sweet take on a Scottish ale, Thistle Do Nicely. Flock of Moons hit the mark again with their helles lager, Ithilien.
• April: The highlight of this month was a quick trip down south to try Public House 28 for the first time, followed by an evening at Open Space Brewing in Santa Clara. I really did not have a questionable beer at either joint, but the big standouts were Suede Saddle, a dunkel at Public House 28, and Cartography, a flavorful American stout at Open Space. If you are looking for a fun, quality brewery to visit in NM in 2025, I could not recommend Open Space any more highly. Great people, cool space, quality beer, and they even have a brewery dog (Bobby) and a brewery cat (Jerry) who frequently inhabit the taproom. We will see what happens with Public House 28 now that it is operated by Icebox Brewing.
• May: This was a weird month in that it included my birthday, but not many new beers. I guess I was just into a lot of repeated favorites, or something. The lone standout newish beer was an old favorite that came back, Bear-Shark IPA from Boxing Bear. Just a rather perfect example of an old-school West Coast IPA, all piney and resinous.
• June: Welcome to vacation month with the Copa America soccer tournament in Texas and Georgia, which led to most of the beers consumed being from the local breweries there. Top breweries worth visiting include Stonecloud Brewing in Oklahoma City (yes, I drove on the first leg of the trip), the trio of Celestial Beerworks, Community Brewing, and Manhattan Beer Project in Dallas, Division Brewing in Arlington, Grain Theory Brewing in Abilene, Goodline Beer Co. in Lubbock, Pondaseta Brewing in Amarillo, and after a long cross-country flight, the epic metal brewery Little Cottage in the Atlanta suburub of Avondale Estates. Hails to the TRVE of the East!
• July: Back in NM, so back at it locally. Painted Lady dropped two excellent brews in Wolfman’s Got Nards, an amber, and All the Damn Vampires, a West Coast IPA. For the Love of Lagers went down at Canteen, with the highlights of the fest including Quarter Celtic’s award-winning Vienna Festbier and Second Street’s Tropical Pilsner. Sidetrack unveiled the IPA of the summer, Monarch. And then, amid all the stifling heat, Ex Novo said f— it and released Elijah’s Old Buffalo, an amazing barrel-aged imperial stout. I still have a bottle of that saved for a special occasion. Come on, my dear sports teams, give me one!
• August: It was fresh/wet-hop season, and by golly, Ex Novo is hard to beat at that game these days. The Fresh Hop Mass Ascension IPA was near perfection. The month closed with Marblefest, which I prefer to see as the start of marzen/festbier season. The best of that fest was Second Street’s Oktoberfest, but honestly, there was not a bad beer in sight there. Kudos to all of our local brewers for nailing those feisty little German lagers.
• September: Canteen went ahead and challenged Ex Novo for fresh-hop supremacy with Wet Hop Mountain IPA. Bombs Away then went ahead and challenged Second Street for marzen supremacy with their Oktoberfest. I can just separate those two as best canned Oktoberfest and best draft-only Oktoberfest. Yeah, that works.
• October: I needed to get out more this month, but didn’t, for some reason. Still, come on, the highlight of the month was our collaboration with Flock of Moons, the artfully-crafted Dark Side of the Moons. We wanted a proper black IPA, and damn it, we made one. With a lot of help from Jeff Tomlinson, of course. Someone had to be the adult in the room, right? Though, he did let us create the brewday playlist on Spotify. We shredded the Bricklight District.
• November: I really made up for not getting out much in October with this month’s onslaught of outings. Also, the breweries were just knocking ’em out of the park left and right. Unhinged invited me out to try their Los Muertos Porter, this time aged in different barrels. The whiskey barrel-aged version was primo. Tractor brought back my seasonal favorite, Turkey Drool. I finally made it up to Kaktus to try their take on Oktoberfest, and damn it was a quality lager as brewer Michael Waddy is really hitting his stride in Bernalillo. Marble brought back their excellent Turkish Style Coffee Stout, while Turtle Mountain released their own take on the style with La Vida Mocha. La Cumbre called timeout on the darkness and released the nice-and-crisp North Star Navigator Pilsner. Bow & Arrow dropped the double whammy of goodness that was Rez Pubby Schwarzbier and this year’s version of Buffalo Plaid, which I dare say is the best version of the Baltic porter yet. Gravity Bound wanted me to try Emotional Blackmail, an American stout, and though it took longer than expected, it was worth every delightful sip once I got my hands on it.
• December: How about we close the year with the surprise return of Reserve Ale at Marble? Sure, why not? Ex Novo then dropped this year’s flight of Kill the Sun, with the Pecan Pie variant just edging out the rest as my favorite. Well, maybe. I’ll have to go back and try them again just to be sure. La Cumbre then finished us off with their Darkest Day flights, with this year’s Siren Song, a barrel-aged imperial red, being a particular standout. Oh, yes, of course La Negra and La Negra Reserve were great as always, and the 14th Anniversary Stout was a spicy delight. It was a great, grand finale to the year.

All right, those are our picks. Now share yours in the comments, send us an email (nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com), or just let us know how wrong we were or how we all missed a great beer somewhere.

Remember, there are no wrong answers. That’s the beauty of craft beer, it’s a unique experience for each and every one of us.

A big thanks to all the local breweries for continuing to maintain their excellent standards even amid the ongoing economic turmoil of our times.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister