As more and more breweries have been forced to shorten/alter their hours, or stay closed for a day or two (or even longer, in the case of Taos Mesa, which has gone back to takeout only), it is starting to become a bit risky to venture out again thanks to the Omicron variant of COVID-19….
Lava Rock Brewing regains its footing and now aims to open a new taproom
Back in the midst of the more restrictive days of the pandemic, a change in brewers went down on the Westside, and none of us in the Crew was able to head over and get the lowdown. I finally rectified that on the final day of 2021, catching up with Lava Rock head brewer Dan…
The Week Ahead in Beer: New year, same challenges
Here we are, what year is this? Beats me (Franz Solo). Nothing is quite as it was. Up is down, stout is IPA (Cascadian dark!), left is Tuesday, hawks and handsaws, or something of the sort. This year does begin somewhat ominously, with another onslaught of post-holiday COVID cases and the expected chaos which stems…
A decade in review: 10 years of writing about craft breweries in New Mexico
Holy hell, the Brew Crew is 10. It was around this time a decade ago that one of us wrote up the quickest of posts, simply titled Greetings, which announced our mission statement to be a collective of five writers who wanted to chronicle the growing industry of microbreweries (remember when we called them that?)…
New Mexico Brewers Guild executive director moves on to her next chapter
The first time I met Leah Black was when she was slinging beers at the long-gone Hallenbrick Brewing, where she was gutting through the process of pouring brews despite a broken wrist suffered recently on the ski slopes of Northern New Mexico. Then, months later, there she was, sans air cast, doing the same at…
The mostly complete guide to New Year’s Eve/Day brewery hours
With New Year’s Eve and Day upon us, we thought it would be a good idea to put together a guide to all the altered closing and opening times at local breweries, just as we did for Christmas Eve and Day. Unlike the previous holiday, the majority of breweries are staying open on New Year’s…
Best of 2021: The Crew picks top beers, events and more from an erratic year
These last two years have been a challenge when it comes to finding actual good moments that made us smile, but when we dug a little deeper, we still found enough positive memories worth sharing. 2021 was not quite the oppressive doom-and-gloom year that 2020 was, and as we looked back, there was actually quite…
The Week Ahead in Beer: High hops, er, hopes for the forthcoming year
Well, thank the dark lord, 2021 is almost over. Finding optimism for 2022 can be hard sometimes, but hey, at least there will be new beer to enjoy. Right? RIGHT, UNIVERSE?! Ahem, anyway, this final week of this misbegotten trip around the sun will feature a couple big stouts in cans, an aptly named lager,…
Ponderosa Brewing posts banner year even amid all the challenges of 2021
Ponderosa head brewer Antonio Fernandez is not the kind of person who looks at a pint glass as half empty. Even in a year where things felt like they were far emptier than just halfway, he and the team at the Sawmill District brewpub managed to remain upbeat and cautiously optimistic for 2022. After having…
The mostly complete guide to Christmas Eve/Day hours at local breweries
With Christmas Eve and Day almost upon us, we thought it would be a good idea to put together a guide to all the altered closing and opening times. This year did provide a surprise as there will be four breweries (and counting) open on Christmas Day. Gravity Bound will be open from noon to…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 