Reflections on the first Santa Fe Open Brewing Competition

This past weekend, the inaugural Santa Fe Open Brewing Competition took place in, you’ve guessed it, Santa Fe. From Friday morning to the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon, the Sangre De Cristo Craft Brewers homebrew club (and friends and family) came together in a huge concerted effort to put on an event that proved an…

Something wicked (fun) this way comes: Oktoberfiesta is back

As I was driving home from Red River’s Oktoberfest last Sunday, I had a couple questions on my mind. How much Oktoberfest is too much Oktoberfest? And can anyone really have too much Oktoberfest in their lives? The answers that I came up with were thus: “too much” is too broad of a statement, and…

Release the hounds as Tractor celebrates its 15th anniversary

There is something almost eerie about a brewery taproom being so quiet before it’s open. Such was the case when I stopped by Tractor Wells Park on Wednesday morning. It won’t be the case the next time I’m there Saturday night. That’s because Saturday is Tractor’s Quincenera, a 15th anniversary party for the ages. There…

New Mexico racks up more medals at GABF 2014

Well, the results are in, and New Mexico has once again shined at the Great American Beer Festival. A year after a record eight medals (the best mark before that in a single year had been just four), NM breweries piled up another eight this time around in Denver, including a record five gold medals….

Rescue your weekend at Marble and other breweries

This weekend marks a temporary respite amid festival season, falling in between Hopfest last week and the upcoming Lions, Tigers, and Beers at the Zoo next weekend (plus GABF, for those lucky enough to head up to Denver) and then NM Brew Fest the weekend after that. So the good folks at Marble decided it…

Beer Notes: Yes, there are more breweries on the way

There has been a lot of little beer-related news items coming across the Crew’s proverbial desk of late, so I figured I would jam them all together in a notebook. Now it’s just a test to see how many of those items I actually remember. Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. New breweries are…

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…

AHA Rally in Santa Fe brings out the beer love in everyone

Hello, beer lovers! Luke and I were able to attend the American Homebrewers Association Rally held this past Saturday. The event was hosted at Santa Fe Brewing by Alana and her crew as well as volunteers from the Atom Mashers, Dukes of Ale, Santa Fe Home Brew Club, and Sangre De Cristo Craft Brewers club….

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….

Los Alamos is teeming with upcoming beer activities

Mere days after posting about how little there is going on in the sleepy little town of Los Alamos, I have returned to inform you about all of the upcoming activities in this bustling little party town. (I’m not going to go so far as to claim that my words actually caused these events, but…