It has been a little while since any of us in the Crew had the opportunity to travel to breweries in New Mexico outside the Albuquerque and Santa Fe metro areas, so long before the windy forecast popped up, I made the decision to head south for an overdue visit. Wish me luck with the…
The Week Ahead in Beer: La Cumbre lends a hoppy hand with charitable IPA
As the pollen blows and swirls around us 24-7 this time of year, a proper hop-forward beer can offer a semblance of at least momentary relief, with its strong aroma and biting flavor restoring senses dulled by juniper and elm. While we joke about IPAs as allergy relief, La Cumbre believes that a proper beer…
Fate of the Fests: Mapping out a future for craft beer events
Over the weekend, several of us in the Crew were able to enjoy the annual Cask Festival at Sidetrack Brewing. During the course of our day, we discussed more than just the tasty beers at hand, but also in how this was a model small-scale festival. That brought us back to a story that we…
Cask Festival returns to Sidetrack with varied lineup from 13 breweries
Well, first, the good news is that the annual Cask Festival is back at Sidetrack Brewing this Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. The bad news is that it has sold out, so if you were not lucky enough to snag a ticket, continuing to read this could just make you sad and a bit…
Catching up with old friends and new at the old house we call Casa Vieja
In a rare event where two Crew members could get together, Stoutmeister and AmyO met up at Casa Vieja at 4541 Corrales Road in Corrales for the annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series interview. Lucky for us, we were able to meet with brewer Michael Sharpe, assistant brewer Will Robertson, and the previous owner Gary Socha…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Celebrating women, baseball and a Run with Joy
Some weeks it can be hard to pick a single thing to focus on here in the intro. This week, the dilemma was more what don’t we focus on, and leave out, and subsequently feel really bad about doing that. Ah, to heck with it, let us sum up a very event-heavy week with some…
Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery weathers some big changes in 2023
A while back the Crew felt the tremor of a tectonic shift in ownership and management at Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery. We knew there had been a major quake, but out of respect, we kept a tight lid on the seismic activity until someone was ready to chat about the major change. Over the course…
Turtle Mountain prepares to celebrate a quarter century of beers and bites
Years ago, Turtle Mountain Brewing owner Nico Ortiz told me a story about when he first opened his brewpub in Rio Rancho back in 1999 in a building that used to be a laundromat. Sometimes, people would walk in the door with a basket of laundry under their arm and stare in wonder at what…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Boxing Bear taps into world of competitive pinball
Last week, I made an overdue stop at Boxing Bear Firestone for a pint, and then ended up playing Iron Maiden and Foo Fighters pinball with members of the staff. The games from Road Runner Pinball are quite popular with the brewing team as well as customers, and this coming Friday will feature a full-on…
Ex Novo, Bosque and La Cumbre lead the way in Untappd Community Awards
Late last week, the Crew noticed some online chatter about something called the Untappd Community Awards. This was new, at least to us, and led us over to the website where the beer ranking/recording app had compiled the collective ratings of every beer in certain style categories, divided up among the 50 states. The final…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 