Last week, I wrote on the many challenges all of us in the Crew face when trying to write about a brewery when it closes. Among the people who read that story was Matt Simonds, the owner of Broken Trail, which closed late last year, and he made the decision to share everything that went…
A past champion claims the top spot at the 10th Stout Challenge
A dozen stouts, poured at random, and the first one poured ends up the champion. That was how it went Sunday afternoon, as the Brew Crew gathered for the 10th time to engage in a blind taste test of local dark elixirs for our annual Stout Challenge. The winner? Oh, you will have to scroll…
The Stout Challenge lives with a few 2021 modifications
Here we go again. The Crew is gathering a few weeks later than most years, but it’s time for our annual Stout Challenge. Only there will be fewer of us participating, in a different location, and with fewer stouts. Hey, it’s the pandemic era, sacrifices had to be made. In some ways, the breweries made…
Writing about the end of breweries is much harder than the beginning
As we noted in Tuesday’s beer history timeline article, the idea for that story came from a reader after we put out a request for a little inspiration to help us through a slow news period. Another reader had a shorter and simpler request for an article, asking what is happening over at Cantero Brewing….
The Week Ahead in Beer: Digging out from the can avalanche
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, one in Silver City, and one in Truth or Consequences also joining the party….
The mostly complete timeline of the history of brewing in New Mexico
With our next few stories in the Look Back/Look Ahead Series delayed for various reasons, we put out a request to our readers on Facebook for some story ideas. One that caught our eye, or specifically mine, was to type up a single, comprehensive timeline of the history of brewing in New Mexico. Over the…
Nexus Brewery remains resilient in face of 2020 challenges
Nexus Brewery, like many of its contemporaries, had to figure out to how to adapt to the many challenges and restrictions of a pandemic world in 2020. The popular brewpub was able to survive with a little bit of innovation and a lot of patience. I caught up with owner Ken Carson over the phone…
The Week Ahead in Beer: The can-slaught returns with a vengeance
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, one in Silver City, and one in Truth or Consequences also joining the party….
Boxing Bear rolls with the punches in 2020 and prepares for a bigger and brighter future
Since we got the bad puns out of the way in the headline, we can now focus on the heart of the story, which is of course Boxing Bear Brewing. After debuting more than six years ago, these now-veterans of the New Mexico craft beer scene have already created a strong history and place in…
Bathtub Row Brewing hopes for a better 2021
Our latest entry for the Look Back/Look Ahead Series takes us back to Bathtub Row Brewing Co-op (BRB), tucked away near the Jemez Mountains in Los Alamos. 2020 was a difficult year for the little brewery, as it was for nearly everyone else in the industry. The business survived intact, thanks to government funding at…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 