Welcome to the second entry in our Look Back/Look Ahead Series for 2013-14. I (Stoutmeister) have been sitting down with brewery representatives here in December to get their take on how 2013 turned out for their establishments, while also looking ahead at what their customers can expect in 2014. Our first entry dealt with La…
Author: Stoutmeister
Former sports writer in Tucson, LA, and Burque. Now I write about craft beer, which is a totally reasonable way to support my hobby of spending afternoons and evenings indulging in the finest stouts, lagers, and more.
La Cumbre celebrates year three while preparing for an exciting year four
Greetings everyone, Stoutmeister here with the first post in what we’re calling the Look Back/Look Ahead Series for 2013-14. As the year draws to a close, rather than just write up a single summary review of the last 12 months in beer, I decided to take all this free time I have and go talk…
Membership has its benefits at New Mexico breweries
It was around this time last year when a fan of the Brew Crew told us that we should write up a post about all the brewery memberships/mug clubs around town. To us that sounded like a great idea and then, well, something happened. We got busy and 2012 sprinted to such a sudden end…
Stout (Day) philosophy: What makes a great dark beer
Howdy, all. It’s Stoutmeister. My personal holiday that I totally came up with is upon us. Yes, Friday is International Stout Day. Wait, you mean I don’t get credit for that? Oh. Well, can I get a free pint of stout? Please? Pretty please? Anyway, it really is International Stout Day, so get on out…
Roosevelt Brewing well worth the trek to Portales
Editor’s note: While working on a film crew recently, Porter Pounder was in the Clovis-Portales area in Eastern New Mexico and asked all of us if there was anything to do there. I told him to stop by Roosevelt Brewing and check it out. He did that and wrote up a full review of the…
Beer Notes: A festival for Cruces, Dead pints, Hopfest winners
Happy Friday everyone. Stoutmeister here with a grab-bag of beer news and notes. I would ask if you all had a fun Halloween, but it seemed strangely quiet out there. Save for a show at Sister Bar and the kids trick-or-treating, putting the great holiday on a Thursday meant a lot of folks put it…
The Stumbling Steer starts to rumble to life
It has been a while, over a year in fact, since a new brewery (Bosque) opened in Albuquerque. After a long drought, there are some new breweries on the horizon, the biggest and most ambitious of which is The Stumbling Steer. The Steer is located in the old west side Quarters near the intersection of…
Hopfest in Review: A proper farewell to festival season
There was a bittersweet feeling as the Crew left Hopfest on Saturday afternoon. It stemmed not from any disappoint in the event — it was quite the opposite, in fact — but instead it came with the realization that beer festival season in 2013 was coming to a close. Even though the year itself is…
To properly tackle Hopfest everyone needs a battle plan
Hopfest is big. There are 62 breweries serving up samples for thousands of beer lovers. In other words, it is not the place to just walk into and wander about. Nope, you need a plan, a battle plan. Luckily, the Dark Side Brew Crew is here to provide one. It’s what we do. In terms…
Bosque prepares to celebrate one year of great beer
Bosque Brewing is growing up right before our eyes. This Saturday the north side brewery will celebrate its one-year anniversary with a party for its loyal customers and anyone else who wants to join. I sat down with brewers Gabe Jensen and Ryan Jameson to talk about Saturday’s festivities, as well as looking back to…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 