Hello, beer lovers. Our friends from Oregon and Las Vegas meet up with us regularly when we can all arrange a convenient location. A couple of years ago we started doing beer tours when we meet in San Diego. Last week, our third San Diego beer tour got off to a bit of a shaky…
Santa Fe Brewing Company made some noise in 2015 and aims to be larger and louder in 2016
A lot can happen in a year. Much can change for us, personally and professionally in just 12 months. This is especially true in the ever-changing, rapidly-growing craft beer industry. That’s why the Dark Side Brew Crew does these Look Back/Look Ahead Series articles. It’s hard to predict all that will happen in one year,…
Somebody turn down the volume in our taprooms
Recently one of the first questions we were asked about a just-opened brewery came as a bit of a surprise. Rather than ask about the beer or hours or something like that, our reader asked us this simple question: “How loud is it inside?” While we could answer “not too loud,” we did so by…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Membership has some tasty benefits
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s four breweries and a pair of newcomers, one down in Socorro and the other in Los Alamos, also joining the party. Remember back in our brewery membership…
Firkin Brewhouse inches ever closer to finally opening
To say that it has been a struggle to get open for Firkin Brewhouse might count as the biggest understatement of 2016 (to date). The beer is nearly ready, the building is nearly ready, and yet they have dealt with one roadblock after another from the City of Albuquerque, which prides itself on being business…
Blue Corn Brewery sailed through smooth waters in 2015 and now aims for big waves in 2016
Greetings from Santa Fe! Luke here with another entry in the Look Back/Look Ahead Series. Recently, I met with brewers James Warren and Kyle Yonan of Blue Corn Brewery to see how their 2015 went and find out what’s in store for craft beer lovers in 2016. We talked about all the changes they saw,…
Kaktus kicks it up a notch with a new taproom and more
My latest story for our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series took me to two different towns. That is what happens when Kaktus Brewing moves out of just their cozy space in Bernalillo and opens a taproom in Nob Hill. That alone was the big move of 2015 for Kaktus, but it was far from the…
Boese Brothers blaze through first year and now settle into their second
Boese Brothers Brewery burst onto the local brewing scene in 2015, offering up a swanky downtown location, some out-of-the-ordinary beers, and a general sense of fun. That they did this all downtown, a former craft beer desert, has helped inspire a renaissance of sorts in that region. Since they opened at Gold and 6th Street,…
Albuquerque Brewing Company hopes to hit higher notes in 2016
The first year of operations for Albuquerque Brewing Company featured quite a few changes throughout 2015. I set up a meeting with new brewer/owner John “Carnie” Bevz to discuss the past year and what is coming in 2016 for our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series. When I arrived I found that they had a whole…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Wake up with some epic coffee stouts
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s four breweries and a pair of newcomers, one down in Socorro and the other in Los Alamos, also joining the party. To prove that winter is not…