Stoutmeister

Where to quench your hop thirst at Hopfest

Oh, Hopfest, you lovely giant beer festival, you have returned. It’s Lucky No. 7 for Hopfest, which returns to the Isleta Casino this Saturday. Tickets are still available online today (Friday). They go up in price at the door ($35 for general admission, $45 for Extra Hoppy Hour), so we highly recommend you get them…

The Week Ahead in Beer: Everybody is back together again

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with the reunified edition of The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s four breweries and one newcomer down in Socorro also joining the party. We tried hard to keep the state edition going, but without…

Reviewing Red Door’s beers before the soft opening

Porter Pounder and I went over to Red Door Brewing’s sneak preview Tuesday afternoon and came away quite impressed. Much like Boxing Bear did earlier this summer, Red Door took the time to perfect their first batches of beer and it showed. We already talked about the general ambiance and setup for Red Door, so…

Red Door is ready to swing open this week

So back on Friday, Porter Pounder, Jason, and I went over to Red Door Brewing to check out the now-finished taproom and see just when they were opening. We found out it was going to be this week and agreed to hold off on a story until either the day of or the day before….

Santa Fe Brewing shares all the details on their massive planned expansion

There was a big moment last week where Santa Fe Brewing announced its long-in-the-works plans for a major expansion. It was even covered by the mainstream media, seeing as how Governor Martinez was there and everything. And what did we all get to read about? Tesla. Yeah, the car battery factory mess was repeated in…

The Week Ahead in Beer State Edition: Grand finale

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with the second half of the now-divided Week Ahead in Beer. This edition covers all the breweries outside of Bernalillo and Sandoval Counties. From Taos to Santa Fe to Farmington to Las Vegas in the north, to Portales, Artesia, Silver City, and Las Cruces in the south,…

The Week Ahead in Beer Metro Edition: Bikes and brews are together again

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with the Metro Edition of The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, giving you a list of their current beers on tap as well as any special events going on in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, and Bernalillo. Look for…

A cider wins State Fair Pro-Am, beer drinkers weep

Despite the title above, I don’t mind a good cider every now and again. But, seriously, a cider won a beer competition? That was the case with this year’s State Fair Pro-Am competition for professional brewers. Santa Sidra’s A Tad Sweet was named Best of Show. Congrats to the folks at Santa Sidra, we’re sure…

Best of the Septemberfest beers

One festival down, many to go. Marble’s Septemberfest kicked off festival season on Saturday afternoon. It was a fun, efficiently-run event with a good crowd. Kudos to Ted and Amberly Rice and the hard-working Leah Black for putting it all together. It was never overcrowded and the beer line moved quickly. Remarkably, even with all…

Ponderosa stampedes to its opening with work still to be done

Porter Pounder and I (Stoutmeister) wandered over to Ponderosa Brewing on Wednesday afternoon to try their beers for the first time. Neither of us was along for the sneak preview visit a couple weeks ago, so it was our first experience at the location at 1761 Bellamah NW. First, let us start with the location….