Stoutmeister

Beer Notes: More medals, more interviews, more brews

This edition of Beer Notes might count as the most random grab-bag of stuff ever. The news has started to pile up on our doorstep again, now it’s just a matter of finding that precious thing — time — in which to go more in-depth. Until then, well, here’s a summary of all the fun…

Red Door Brewing gets ready to swing open

It has been a while since the Crew got a chance to visit a new brewery in its construction phase. E-Rock and I toured Tractor’s Wells Park location a few months back before it was all up and running, but there is always something a little different about touring a brand-new operation. Fortunately, after a…

Beer Notes: New breweries making progress

Happy National Beer Day, everyone! Today is the 81st anniversary of the day prohibition was repealed, so folks everywhere should raise their pints in honor of one of those rare moments when politicians actually did the right thing. Anyway, while the various Crew members debate what beer to drink to honor this sacred day, I’ve…

The Crew gets to brew at Tractor for ABQ Beer Week

We have been teasing everyone for a while now with hints that we are getting to brew a beer over at Tractor. None of us have ever said why, so with brewing set to commence in about 16 hours or so, I get to be the one to fill in the details. So last year…

Bosque’s new brewhouse moving ever closer to activation

The other day I mentioned to the rest of the Brew Crew that Bosque’s new brewhouse was close to being fully operational. E-Rock naturally replied with “It’s a trap!” proving that once again we are all giant nerds in this group. Anyway, all Return of the Jedi jokes aside, I decided to head over to…

Nexus’ new brewer aims to keep a good thing going

For the finale of our series of interviews of new brewers around the Albuquerque metro area, I visited Nexus on Wednesday morning before they opened. Kaylynn McKnight, formerly an assistant brewer at La Cumbre, is in the process of taking the reins from Manuel Mussen. She will be the first female head brewer in the…

Turtle Mountain’s new brewer prepares for some big changes

Back during the holiday hustle and bustle, I sat down with Turtle Mountain owner Nico Ortiz and talked about his plans for his soon-to-be-15-year-old brewery in 2014. One thing he mentioned was a desire to push the beer forward to a level that could compete with metro area heavyweights like La Cumbre, Il Vicino, and…

Nexus moves closer to selecting second location

While I was over at Nexus to talk to new head brewer Kaylynn McKnight (the full interview will be posted Friday), I also chatted with owner Ken Carson about Kaylynn’s hiring and another rumor that had been passed along to the Crew. We had been told that Nexus was close to settling on a location…

Chama River’s new brewer intends to make his own mark

The last few weeks have seen a slew of movement among brewers in the Albuquerque metro area. It has also seen a lot of high school basketball state tournament games, so yours truly was a tad busy when it came to tracking down all those brewer moves. Fear not, for now I have a week…

La Cumbre’s Project Dank ranked No. 1 IPA in all the land

The good folks over at Brewing News have been holding their own version of March Madness for the last seven years, pitting the best IPAs across the country against each other in a tournament that started with around 30 entrants and now has 128. As our headline states, the 2014 champion is La Cumbre’s wildly…