At this point, if you have not gone to WinterBrew with all that we have extolled about this amazing festival over the years, there may not be much hope for you.

Work is getting in the way? Call in sick.

Need to take care of your kids? Just leave out some food and water, they will be fine.

Have a weird phobia about Santa Fe? The turquoise cannot hurt you, and it’s not at the Farmers Market building anyway.

Anyway, we could go on, but we are missing the point of this article, which is to highlight some of our favorite beers of the festival. Almost all of these are now available at the respective breweries. Rather than try to pick one favorite above all, we are just listing them alphabetically by brewery in two categories, outside the Albuquerque metro area and those within our state’s largest population center.

The best of the north

Bathtub Row: Holiday Cheer Barleywine, a lovely, proper ale of some heft. It’s more than worth the drive up the mountain to Los Alamos.

Nuckolls: Kyle Line, a Scotch ale that’s dangerously smooth. How dangerous? It packs a punch at 9.2-percent ABV. A wee heavy, indeed.

Second Street: Breaking Plaid and Superior Porter, a “West Coast-style” Scotch ale and a classic robust porter. The latter is available in cans, so if you cannot make it to Santa Fe, then go ahead and check Albuquerque-area liquor stores for six-packs.

Tumbleroot: Molé Stout, which just keeps getting better with every iteration. It packs a spicy kick over a classic stout base.

We should also note both the 30th Anniversary Barrel-Aged Chicken Killer from Santa Fe Brewing (thanks for saving a keg from last year!) and two of the exclusive Rowley Farmhouse Ales festival-only releases, Ned Ryerson Barrel-Aged Barleywine and Mike Drop Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout. Those sorts of special one-off beers also help make WinterBrew so awesome.

The finest of the metro area

Bow & Arrow: Midnight with a Chance of Coyotes, it’s not only one of the most cleverly-named beers, it’s also a great imperial stout. And, you can get it in cans for a limited time.

Brew Lab 101: Singularity Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout, which might require a knife and fork to consume, this boozy beast is available the brewery in Rio Rancho and the taproom in the Northeast Heights, but only for a limited time.

Canteen: Autumn Rose Vienna Lager, because every now and again you need a break from the imperial brews, and this dark, sweet lager is a perfect patio beer for when it warms up again out there.

Flock of Moons: Confusticate and Bebother!, a WinterBrew-exclusive release, this dark Yorkshire ale has now been tapped at the brewery. Trust us, you want this beer in your lives (even if the name wreaks havoc on ye ole spell check).

Rio Bravo: Barrel-Aged Dunk-a-Chito, which is basically a liquid cookie steeped in bourbon. We don’t really have to sell it past that, do we?

Thirsty Eye: Huning Highlander Scotch Ale, another of those beers that keeps getting better every year that they brew it again. Plus, you can make lots of “there can be only one” jokes as you down your pint.

Tractor: Ole Wizard Fingers, a delightful doppelbock that drops on us all this Friday at all three taprooms. You shall pass and … OK, fine, it’s probably getting a little late in life to keep making Lord of the Rings jokes. Sorry. But, seriously, go get this one and several other outstanding dark beers currently in the Tractor lineup.

Turtle Mountain: Solstice Stout and Dankle Dunkel, a pair of mid-range (ABV-wise) dark beers that should go perfectly with some of the more robust food offerings at both TMBC locations.

All right, those are our picks. For those who attended, which were your favorites? There are no wrong answers, of course. Beer is beautifully subjective, is it not?

Oh, and since we have a bunch of additional photos, we figured why not share them here?

And yes, all of the other Chicago Bears fans at the festival found Andrew and his hat and talked about that loss to the Rams. They’re surprisingly optimistic for next season, which is more than I can say for us Steelers fans. Mike McCarthy, really? Someone pass me more of those barleywines.

A big thanks to everyone at the New Mexico Brewers Guild and all of their volunteers. We will see many of you up there again in 2027.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister