On this sometimes dreary Friday, Jason from the Bullpen and I trekked over to Rio Rancho to visit Blue Grasshopper in advance of their weekend-long grand opening. We met with brewer Peter Apers around midday and chatted about everything regarding this small but potential-laden local brewpub. First off, where is Blue Grasshopper? Well, hop on…
More fun than a barrel of monkeys, er, beer, it’s NM Brew Fest 5
Beer festival season wraps up (sniff) in our state with the fifth annual NM Brew Fest at Expo New Mexico (the fairgrounds) this Saturday. It promises to go out with a bang, thanks to a special early event admission where you get to taste multiple barrel-aged beers brought in by the NM Brewers Guild. Yes,…
New brewers bring gold home to New Mexico from GABF
Among the six different New Mexico breweries who won medals at the Great American Beer Festival last weekend, Blue Corn and Chama River sit slightly apart from the rest. Both breweries brought in new head brewers this year, meaning for Blue Corn’s James Warren and Chama’s Zach Guilmette it was the first time either had…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Basking in the post-GABF glory
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…
Mr. Oktober(fest) steps to the plate and goes deep
The Brew Crew gathered at Franz Solo’s house this Sunday for our first Oktoberfest challenge. Like our previous challenges, it was a blind taste test (thanks to our wonderful beer maiden, Taylor). This was the first time we felt there were enough marzen-style beers on tap at the same time to hold this sort of…
Change is good: Santa Fe’s got a new brew
Editor’s note: Luke went to this tasting over a week ago and filed his story shortly thereafter. A certain person, well, me, lost it amid the many story drafts filed and didn’t get around to it until after visiting Santa Fe today with my relatives who are in out of town. The good news is…
Lions, Tigers, and … oh, lord, what a disaster
Something I have been proud of during my time as editor of the NMDSBC is our effort to be fair and balanced, only really, not like that certain cable news network. We have tried to always offer up an objective view of the local brewing scene and its many festivals. Then along comes such a…
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….
Grab a brew at the Zoo this Saturday
Beer festivals are usually held at hotels, casinos, convention centers, parking lots, and a whole lot of other nondescript places. So whoever thought “we should have a festival at the ABQ BioPark Zoo” deserves a medal. One of the most unique settings we have ever heard of will host Lions, Tigers, & Beers this Saturday…
The Balloon Fiesta tourist’s guide to craft beer in New Mexico
It’s that time of year again, when lots of folks from outside Albuquerque and New Mexico descend upon the Duke City for the Balloon Fiesta. While a lot of us locals grumble about the increase in traffic, even we’re big softies for the Fiesta (assuming we wake up in time). Well, we are, our dogs…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 