Lagerpalooza draws in lovers of the style from southern New Mexico and beyond

The faucets of glory shall pour forth an epic lineup of lagers this Saturday afternoon. (Photo courtesy of TorC Brewing)

After leading off the current edition of The Week Ahead in Beer with a quickie preview of this Saturday’s Lagerpalooza at Truth or Consequences Brewing, we wanted to go a little more in-depth about this new celebration of the style.

Luckily for us, TCB co-owner/chief beer officer John Masterson was more than willing to answer our questions via email. The event runs from noon to 5 p.m. at the main brewery location. It’s only a two-hour drive from Albuquerque, so there should be plenty of time to drive down, enjoy the six sample pours of your choice and a pint of your favorite, and then get back to attend the New Mexico United match. Hey, that’s our plan.

Now to the interview.

NMDSBC: What inspired you to create Lagerpalooza?

Masterson: Inspiration was multifaceted. First, a bunch of locals and I are really into delicious lagers. They can be really hoppy, but nobody mistakes them for IPAs because of the hop selections. In fact, our Oktoberfest (releasing later this month) has more hops (Tettnang) per barrel than our Buckhorn IPA! We’ve currently got four lagers on tap — Airstream Ultra (3% ABV, Saaz), Manana Lager (hopped heavily with Aurum), Street Taco Lager (Motueka), Joe Cross Dark Lager (Sterling), and we just ran out of Lucky Dog Lager (Saaz). Street Taco Lager is our best-selling beer so far this month, and it’ll be our Lagerpalooza beer. So, we figured let’s bring a bunch of lagers in just to experience and compare and contrast.

Second — I’m frequently made aware of ABQ/northern NM breweries’ collaborations and tap takeovers, but haven’t seen much of that down south. So we prioritized inviting southern breweries and then filled in a few slots with ABQ breweries. We have three banks of 12 faucets in our taproom, and I really wanted to dedicate an entire bank of 12 to this event.

Third — With reduced hot springs tourism traffic and low (Elephant Butte) lake levels, August is pretty slow in T or C, so I thought I’d try to make a little pop in the local economy for us, restaurants, lodging.

Fourth — We typically brew on Thursdays, and across the alley from our back door the Matthew 25 food pantry distributes on Thursday mornings, so we get to see their friendly volunteers helping people out who need groceries. We asked the breweries to donate their beers so we could donate a portion of ticket sales to the food pantry.

NMDSBC: What are the breweries bringing?

Masterson: Our friend Jeremy Kinter from Tractor is helping us (a lot) organize this event, and he’s working on the list with specifics. I know he’s bringing Traktoberfest, plus we have a Helles from Spotted Dog, a Smoked Pilsner from Icebox, a Mexican-style lager from Quarter Celtic, a German-style pils from Cloudcroft, Lucky Toad from LTC, and our Street Taco.

NMDSBC: Why do you think lagers have seen such a resurgence in popularity?

Masterson: Well, they are the most popular beers worldwide, right? (Heineken, BudMillerCoors, Stella, Becks, etc.) But, I suspect that the craft beer craziness of the previous decade just got tiresome for some beer-drinkers. Too many hazy-chunky-candybar-addled-quadruple-dry-hopped-fruited monstrosities. A crisp, clean lager, brewed locally with care and aplomb, will never get old. The typically lower ABV is probably also a selling point for many.

NMDSBC: For anyone new to TorC, what are their best food options before, during and after the festival?

Masterson: There’s a new food truck two doors down (carne asada, Philly cheese steak, quesadillas, plus breakfast stuff Sunday), Mexican restaurant El Faro kitty-corner across the way that sometimes is willing to deliver, $5 delivery to the brewery from Outer Edge Pizzeria, and Doordash or pickup available from Sidekixx (our bar/bowling alley/restaurant) and others. Passion Pie is a downtown breakfast fave. Some say the town’s best red chile is at Tony’s. More here.

By the way, there’s a $3 discount if you reserve your Lagerpalooza entry early tickets online.

And, the live music from Mineral Hill starts at 7. (“Human Country Funk and eclectic feral Americana”)

A big thanks to John for the thoughtful and thorough responses.

Here is that final list of participating breweries, courtesy of Mr. Kinter of Tractor Brewing.