Stout Challenge VIII: Blackened is the end?

The days of the regular stout may be coming to an end. Declining sales has led to many breweries dropping stouts from their year-round lineups. Meanwhile, the Crew continues to change and evolve. We have lost members to moving out of state for work, others are greatly limited by parenthood or other personal matters, and…

Ponderosa finds its footing after taproom-fueled year of rapid growth

Every brewery that opens an off-site taproom hopes that it provides a decent boost in sales and revenue. For the folks at Ponderosa Brewing, they had those hopes when the small taproom at the renovated El Vado Motel on Central opened this past summer. The results, however, went well beyond what head brewer Antonio Fernandez…

The Week Ahead in Beer: A sad farewell to a classic brew

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, and one in Red River also joining the party. The beer industry can still surprise us from time…

Flix Brewhouse leads local charge at Beer Army Beer Wars competition

The first national beer competition of the year is in the books, and once again, New Mexico breweries have pulled off a strong showing. The Beer Army Beer Wars awards were announced last week, with five local breweries bringing home 20 medals. Flix Brewhouse came in seventh overall with one gold, four silvers, and one…

The Week Ahead in Beer: The darkness descends again this weekend

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, and one in Red River also joining the party. Winter in New Mexico does not exactly behave in…

Nexus taps into local history with its upcoming 3rd location

Nexus Brewery owner Ken Carson is a busy man these days. We had originally scheduled an interview for a Look Back/Look Ahead Series entry back in December, but it had to be postponed until last week. When we did have the time to sit down to talk about everything, from the early challenges in 2018…

Brew Lab 101 aims to fuse a love of science and the science of beer

The partial federal government shutdown has left many pending breweries in limbo, but that does not mean their owners are giving up the dream of opening in 2019. I trekked out to Rio Rancho on Wednesday afternoon to meet the owner of one of those forthcoming breweries, Brew Lab 101 Beer and Cider Company. Owner/brewer…