Stoutmeister

The Week Ahead in Beer: Monsoon madness provides a nice cool down

Rain, glorious rain, oh how we have missed you. While it’s not always ideal for our summer patio days, the monsoons have cooled us down after a rough stretch of unrelenting heat, and frankly, we always prefer our beer-drinking temperatures to be a little less than surface-of-the-sun hot. As things cool down outside, it’s a…

Lightning crashes but both brewers conference and festival are big hits

This past weekend brought quite the doubleheader for the craft beer industry, with the New Mexico Brewers Conference on Friday and the inaugural Great New Mexico Beer Festival on Saturday, both held at Balloon Fiesta Park. While nearby lightning chased everyone off the field early on both days, it was still a good weekend for…

Great NM Beer Festival holds a first competition between local breweries

For the first time in a long while, an all-New Mexico breweries competition was held in advance of Saturday’s Great New Mexico Beer Festival. Local breweries competed for three medals in each of four categories, with a different brewery claiming gold in each category. Well, almost, since no gold medal was awarded by the judging…

Breaking News: Toltec Brewing closes its doors after 4 years on Westside

Normally, when one of us gets a text from a brewer, it pertains to a beer release, or perhaps a question about something related to his/her brewery. On Thursday afternoon, it was a text from eagle-eyed Ponderosa head brewer Antonio Fernandez that let us know about a surprising Facebook post from another brewery here in…

La Cumbre Brewing does what it does best and crafts an IPA for a good cause

One special beer release from La Cumbre Brewing caught our eye this week, so we reached out to owner/master brewer Jeff Erway over email to learn a little more about their new IPA that was brewed for a good cause. Juntos IPA will be released Friday in cans at both taprooms only. The proceeds are…

The Week Ahead in Beer: Gravity Bound celebrates another milestone marker

Gravity Bound Brewing is one of the best small brewery success stories we have seen in recent years. It opened in the middle of the shutdown portion of the pandemic with little hype, but quickly built a huge word-of-mouth following and positive reputation for its innovative beers and laid-back atmosphere. The co-owning brotherly duo of…

Great New Mexico Beer Fest takes flight at Balloon Fiesta Park this Saturday

In the pre-COVID times, there was always a bit of an unusual gap in the middle of the New Mexico summer between major events. From ABQ Blues & Brews on Memorial Day weekend until the start of the NM IPA Challenge in July, there were no large-scale events in the Albuquerque metro area. Enter Dean…

High and Dry teams up with Red Mesa once again for collab IPA and concert

The wonderful symbiotic relationship between local craft breweries and local music continues this Saturday at High and Dry Brewing. For a second time, the brewery has teamed up with the heavy desert rock band Red Mesa to create a special IPA, and this time it will be released with a full, live music performance. Last…

The Week Ahead in Beer: Events galore as summer kicks into high gear

You know it’s summer when it’s not only insanely hot outside, the beer events calendar is also beginning to overflow with events. Saturday alone is packed, with Kaktus’ Farm House Ale Event in Bernalillo, multiple breweries attending Heights Summerfest, a special music-and-collab-beer-release event at High and Dry, a musical tribute show at Thirsty Eye, and…

Quartet of local breweries pick up 8 medals at North American Beer Awards

The North American Brewers Association announced the winners of the annual NABA on Saturday, and four Albuquerque area breweries earned a combined eight medals. Bow & Arrow, Boxing Bear, Nexus, and Sobremesa added some new hardware, all either bronze or silver medals. Sobremesa earned three medals, claiming a silver for Atrisco Amber in the American-Style…