The Dark Side Brew Crew gathered last weekend for a blind taste test to determine the best hefeweizen in the ABQ metro area. Mrs. Solo and I hosted the event with Stoutmeister, E-Rock, Porter Pounder, and Brandon present from the original Crew. Only Shilling was absent due to his job. Brandon’s awesome girlfriend Taylor handled…
Category: Beer Battle
Irish Red Challenge: The champion still reigns
The Crew, well half of us, gathered last year a week after St. Patrick’s Day to select the best Irish Red Ale that was being poured in the ABQ metro area. There were three of us choosing among just four reds, so it worked as basically a scaled-down version of our annual Super Bowl Stout…
Beer Notes: Irish Red challenge, brewer shuffle, and more
Dear lord have I had my fill of high school basketball. It’s not over until Saturday, but I’m ready to be done. The good news is I’ve made money for beer! (and other expenses, but hey, priorities) Anyway, didn’t mean to neglect the site or the current wealth of news, but a man only has…
Stout Challenge: Double down on the new champion
Three years, three Stout Challenges, three different champions. In the first year, Marble took the crown. In year two, we went to a blind taste test format and it was La Cumbre who came out on top. Sticking with the blind taste test format this year, our only change of note was that Mrs. Solo…
Super Bowl of Stouts, new Tractor opening, new brewer at Bosque all equal one big weekend
Happy Friday, everyone! Stoutmeister here with a roundup of all the recent beer news and notes, plus a preview of this big “it-should-be-a-national-holiday” weekend. Yeah, it’s Super Bowl time, and at least this year there are two teams involved that not everyone in the Crew utterly despises. I’m rooting for the Seahawks, personally, but that’s…
Beer Battle: The greatest pumpkin ale of them all is …
Way back in the spring the Brew Crew staged a mini-beer battle between the four varieties of Irish Red that were on tap around town. Here in the fall, pumpkin beers have become the predominant seasonal of the moment, even rising above Oktoberfest-style beers. A few years back I, Stoutmeister, wanted nothing to do with…
Beer Battle: Picking the finest Irish Red of them all
Sometimes inspiration can strike at the oddest hours. With the crummy weather coming in, E-Rock and I (Stoutmeister) decided to postpone our planned Taos Trek II that we had set for this past Saturday. Franz Solo actually had a Saturday off, and despite the Lobos going kaplooey, he wanted to watch basketball and drink beer….
Beer Battle II: The new king of the stouts is …
Well, Super Bowl Sunday has come and gone, but our hangovers remain in the Brew Crew. We staged our second Beer Battle yesterday, once again pitting the area’s best stouts against each other to see if anyone could steal Marble’s crown. Someone did, but rather than spoil the suspense (hey, don’t stop reading this, you’re…
The NM Dark Side Brew Crew presents the House IPA Challenge
With the New Mexico Brewers Guild’s 2012 IPA Challenge in the books, we feel that it is time for a challenge of our own. The original idea of the IPA Challenge was to see which brewer had the best regular IPA on tap. Over the years, the Challenge has featured some of the state’s hoppy…
Beer Battle: The Stoutest Stout of All Is…
Marble’s Oatmeal Stout, or at least that was how we ended up voting after the first NM Dark Side Brew Crew Beer Battle. The battle took place during halftime of the Super Bowl (if anybody out there expected us to watch Madonna, then clearly something is amiss in your knowledge of the Crew). We brought…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 