Rio Rancho finally has another hometown beer. If you have ever doubted the demand for craft beers in “The City of Vision,” just keep reading. The Blue Grasshopper has been serving local beers from other breweries and their own wood-fired pizza since they opened late last year through the help of a Kickstarter campaign. Now,…
Renovations are underway at Marble’s downtown pub
Power tools and hard hats are nothing new around Marble Brewery, which has already seen major recent renovations to the patio and the bathrooms, with the brewery expansion still to come. Before that happens, however, the pub/taproom at the main brewery will get a much-needed makeover. Beginning today (Monday) and running until March 6, the…
Santa Fe Brewing releases the ECS Belgian Strong Ale
Santa Fe Brewing Co. just released the latest brew in their Ever Changing Series, the (ECS) Belgian Strong Ale. It’s big, bold, and very Belgian. The 3 Bs of the powerful, yet un-hoppy brews. Now, before I get into exactly what I mean by all that, I want to discuss Belgian beers briefly to help…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Nothing says love like a pint of a good brew
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with the reunified edition of The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s four breweries and one newcomer down in Socorro also joining the party. We tried hard to keep the state edition going, but without…
Summing up the year that was and the year that is in the local beer scene
I meant to write up a final summation of our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series last week, but I was holding out hope we would get the last breweries done. Alas, it was not to be, as they (Broken Bottle and Pi) never responded to Franz Solo’s interview requests. So we finish this series with…
Distillery 365 set to also jump into the local brewing scene
A little while back the Crew was contacted by the owners of Distillery 365. As a group we are not adverse to indulging in alcoholic drinks besides just beer, it just tends to be rare and often involve things of an extremely positive (e.g. champagne at a celebration) or extremely negative (e.g. shots of whiskey…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Get those beards to La Cumbre after you call Saul
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with the reunified edition of The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s four breweries and one newcomer down in Socorro also joining the party. We tried hard to keep the state edition going, but without…
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…
WinterBrew 2015 was an epic fest for the ages!
It’s been a week now, and the dust has finally settled on another successful WinterBrew. New Mexico beer enthusiasts have been back, hard at work, with memories (hopefully) of many great beers, plenty of new friends on their Facebook rosters, and a slew of crazy pictures on their cellphones. From the beer, to the food,…
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…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 