Back in 2021, when the New Mexico Brewers Guild held its first social since the pandemic lockdown, there was an unfamiliar couple hanging out amongst all the brewery owners and brewers at Boxing Bear Firestone. I was eventually introduced to Jeff Tomlinson and Stefanie Luna, who were preparing to make the leap into the brewing…
Quartet of New Mexico breweries bring home medals from NABA competition
The North American Brewers Association announced the medalists for the International Beer and Cider Awards on Friday, with four Albuquerque breweries combining to win four medals. Quarter Celtic picked up its fourth medal in the last three competitions by earning a gold in the Collaboration Beers category for Birra al gusto di Birra, the Italian…
Blazin’ Brewfest returns to Las Cruces after a 4-year hiatus
The last four executive directors of the New Mexico Brewers Guild have been kind enough to allow the Crew to remain on the email lists for their informative newsletters, which means that from time to time, we are privy to advance knowledge of some cool upcoming events. One that we were surprised to see earlier…
Beer festivals appear around the state this weekend including in 2 mountain towns
Beer festival season continues apace this weekend with at three festivals to choose from, two of which I will highlight here. One is in the north (Los Alamos) and one in the south (Cloudcroft), so they likely won’t compete for customers. In an odd twist, I, the “Los Alamos correspondent” for this blog, am actually…
Downshift Brewing shifts into expansion mode in its home base of Ruidoso
Downshift Brewing was born out of an idea to downshift in life, to change the perspective and lifestyle of its owners from big-city chaos to small-town tranquility. Sometimes, though, an opportunity presents itself that cannot be missed, and a little brewing operation suddenly ended up getting bigger overnight. To learn more about this sudden growth…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Behold the beautiful insanity of the Brewathlon
Sometimes breweries come up with events that one could consider genius, or insanity. The Brewathlon is a little of both, in our opinion. This new event from Brew Lab 101, benefiting R4 Creating in Rio Rancho, will take place this Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. You can sign up here for all four events,…
Beer Notes: More Crushies for 2 local breweries, QC wins Down Under and more
It has been busy with all the events lately coming right on the heels of the World Beer Cup and Craft Brewers Conference, so we missed a few items of note. For instance, Second Street and Steel Bender combined to win five Crushies at the Craft Beer Marketing Awards, which were also announced during CBC….
Bear Fest roars again at Boxing Bear’s Firestone location
While one big beer festival did not return for this Memorial Day weekend, another is back in full force as Bear Fest will once again take over the back parking lot at Boxing Bear’s Firestone taproom and brewery. The event runs from noon to 6 p.m. this Saturday, featuring five guest breweries and one distillery,…
Tractor Brewing sticks to its usual routine of filling up ABQ Beer Week with events
The times, they are a changin’, and in this case we point to the slimmed-down ABQ Beer Week. Gone are the days when folks had to pick and choose between multiple events happening at the same time. For all that change, however, one thing remains constant — Tractor Brewing hosting an event almost every single…
The Week Ahead in Beer: A lovely long weekend is exactly what we all need
Ah, three-day weekend. Ah, end of school year for some (raise ’em high for the teachers). And, of course, a weekend of remembrance for those lost to war. Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start of summer, which means it’s truly the busy season for our local breweries. Show some extra patience and kindness to…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 