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…

The Week Ahead in Beer: Biere de Canteen

Greetings New Mexico craft beer lovers, this is E-Rock, back to bring you this installment of The Week Ahead in Beer. This column is hand-crafted to keep you up to date on all of the seasonal beers, news, and events served up at breweries and taprooms in New Mexico. If you haven’t made a pilgrimage…

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…

Jubilation comes through again with Stone’s finest offerings

On a fine spring afternoon, Stoutmeister, Mrs. Solo, and I, Franz Solo, went to Jubilation for a tasting event featuring a strong selection of beers from Stone Brewing Co. The offerings included the brand new Go to IPA, Stochasticity Project: Grapefruit Slam IPA, Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean, Matt’s Burning Rosids, and…

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…

A Farm(house) in the desert sings of spring

Franz Solo’s slew of beer reviews continues. This is good, because one of us — well, me — is gonna be buried in high school basketball coverage this week with the state tournament starting up Tuesday. Say a prayer for me. Or buy me a beer if you see my exhausted remnants at a brewery…

By Mjolnir, this is an ale!

Franz Solo has been a busy little beer drinker of late, so we asked him to share more of his favorites with all of you. Thus, a rare Saturday story from the Crew. Enjoy! — Stoutmeister While spring cleaning my beer fridge (drinking all the bombers, bottles, etc., left over from my winter stash), I…

Spring into beer at Taos Ski Valley

The good folks up at the Taos Ski Valley know there is more to life than just skiing and snowboarding. There is beer, and it is good, and it brings people to the valley even after the snow melts. To celebrate the change of seasons, the Taos Ski Valley is playing host to the Spring…