Dear lord, that was probably the worst Super Bowl we have seen since … man, maybe Super Bowl XXXV? (The one where the Ravens annihilated the Giants, if your memory is too fuzzy.) At least we had lots of stout! Four members of the Dark Side Brew Crew, plus our good friend Tim, gathered on…
Category: Beer Battle
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…
Stout Challenge VII: A long-time favorite claims its 1st title
We drank four gallons of stout. Somehow, we are still alive. Seven members of the Dark Side Brew Crew gathered on Super Bowl Sunday to judge 17 stouts from around the ABQ metro area in a blind taste test. For the seventh time in seven years, a different brewery took home the title. We judged…
Stout Challenge VII: The darkness overwhelms us again
As more and more breweries open around the Albuquerque metro area, more and more stouts keep getting added to our annual Stout Challenge. Luckily, this year for the seventh edition, we should (hopefully, maybe) have more Crew members present than ever before to drink them all. For those who have not followed us for long,…
Stout Challenge VI: A Starr rises above the rest
Amid all the seriousness of the weekend, the Brew Crew was still able to gather to hold our annual Stout Challenge before the start of the Super Bowl. While the game featured an improbable rally by the favorite, our blind taste test featured an upset by one of the newer breweries in town. For the…
Stout Challenge VI: The not-so-sweet sixteen dark ales of doom
Well, it is that time of year again. The Super Bowl is this Sunday, which means it is also time for the sixth annual NM Dark Side Brew Crew Stout Challenge. We fill up growlers of stout from breweries around the ABQ metro area and then hold a blind taste test to determine which one…
Stout Challenge V: The few, the proud, the insane to take on this many
Super Bowl Sunday is almost upon us once again, and while folks will pick between the old (Denver and Peyton) and the new (Carolina and Cam), all of us in the Crew will choose something even more important. Namely, who has the best stout in the ABQ metro area. As we have done four times…
Stout Challenge IV: The winner by TKO is …
The Dark Side Brew Crew held our fourth annual Stout Challenge on Super Bowl Sunday. Long before we were cursing the Seahawks’ terrible play-calling at the end, we were rejoicing amidst 14 stouts that we sampled via blind taste test to determine who has the best in the ABQ metro area (plus Socorro). We were…
The time has come for Stout Challenge IV: The Overload
Greetings, everyone, on this snowy Friday. Do be careful out there tonight when in pursuit of beer. Stuff is melting but not evaporating, so that means sheets of ice. And New Mexico drivers are bad enough without ice under their tires, so go slow if you desperately need some nocturnal pints. By Sunday, though, all…
Mr. Oktober(fest) steps to the plate and goes deep
The Brew Crew gathered at Franz Solo’s house this Sunday for our first Oktoberfest challenge. Like our previous challenges, it was a blind taste test (thanks to our wonderful beer maiden, Taylor). This was the first time we felt there were enough marzen-style beers on tap at the same time to hold this sort of…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 