Prep your palates, the day of the hops is almost upon us!

The final round of the 2026 New Mexico Brewers Guild IPA Challenge is this Saturday at Boxing Bear Firestone. Online tickets for all sessions (noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m.) are still available, but if you want to get in on the last session so you can stick around to hear the results, get them now as the count is running.

If you would rather go early and don’t want to wait around for the results, fear not, the Crew will be there as we have been every year since we started this website in 2012. We will drop photos and quick info about the winners on social media (Facebook, Instagram) when they are announced after 6 p.m., and add a story with quotes from the winning brewery either right then or by no later than Monday (got a United game to get to by 7:30 Saturday).

This is all for fun, and it represents the biggest annual fundraiser for the Guild. Still, brewers do love bragging rights.

Host Boxing Bear won last year’s competition, their fourth overall, by just one vote over Downshift. Speaking of the Ruidoso brewery, they have the most votes (27) through the first two rounds of the competition.

The rest of the top contenders include Sidetrack (23 votes), Icebox (20), two-time winner Gravity Bound (18), Flix (17), Bow & Arrow (16), six-time winner Canteen (16), and Ex Novo (14). Boxing Bear has 11 votes through the first two rounds, but never count out the Bear in this competition.

So for any first timers out there, how does this work? Well, it’s fairly simple. You buy a ticket, show up at the appointed time, and you will be given a tray of 16 numbered (but not named) IPAs. Sample your way through them, pick a winner, and you get a full pour of that hoppy ale. The votes will be tallied up and added to the first- and second-round totals and a final winner will be crowned.

Our best advice for any newcomers is to take the tasting notes page, jot down which IPAs are hazy and which are clear, then smell your way across the tray and note which aromas are your favorites. Do an initial tasting in whatever order you would like (1 to 16, 16 to 1, even numbers, odd numbers, hazies first and clear second, whatever) and write down your initial impressions. Make sure to have a glass of water and maybe some pretzels to help break up the flavors on your palate. Otherwise, you risk hop overload.

Take a beat, then go back through and note any changes as the samples warm up. You do not have to finish any that you dislike, just dump ’em all into a single cup and push those aside. Ultimately, you can pick the winner by whichever standard you judge IPAs. Personally, I just go with which beer is the one I would want a full, 16-ounce pour of at the end.

Got any further questions? Send us a DM on social media or contact us at nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com. If we cannot answer your question, we will pass it along to the Guild or Boxing Bear.

Otherwise, see many of you Saturday afternoon.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister