WinterBrew 2014: The best brews of the fest

Another WinterBrew is in the books, and once again it was a successful event at the Santa Fe Farmers Market on Friday. The Brewers Guild sold out of tickets well in advance, and other than a few people accidentally dropping their sample glasses, it was a great crowd. While I personally missed that pizza joint…

WinterBrew 2014: Big beers set to rule the day in Santa Fe

There will be 16 breweries serving up their finest at WinterBrew on Friday at the Santa Fe Farmers Market. The event kicks off at 4 p.m. and runs until 9 p.m., and if you have not purchased ticket(s) yet, you are out of luck, because they announced way back on Tuesday that it was sold…

T-minus one week till WinterBrew

It has to be said: It does not feel like winter out there. Hopefully that does not end up jinxing us all to a week of wind, snow, and ice, but this has been one mild winter. Nonetheless, in keeping with the spirit of what should be the season, the New Mexico Brewers Guild will…

2014 promises to be a beer-y good year

A new year has dawned, so in the spirit of being lazy and not moving out of this here recliner, I decided a dreaded list story was in order. And no, this is not because this here Stoutmeister is still hungover from Franz Solo’s New Year’s Eve party. While I did drink some great beer…

Stout (Day) philosophy: What makes a great dark beer

Howdy, all. It’s Stoutmeister. My personal holiday that I totally came up with is upon us. Yes, Friday is International Stout Day. Wait, you mean I don’t get credit for that? Oh. Well, can I get a free pint of stout? Please? Pretty please? Anyway, it really is International Stout Day, so get on out…

Beer Notes: A festival for Cruces, Dead pints, Hopfest winners

Happy Friday everyone. Stoutmeister here with a grab-bag of beer news and notes. I would ask if you all had a fun Halloween, but it seemed strangely quiet out there. Save for a show at Sister Bar and the kids trick-or-treating, putting the great holiday on a Thursday meant a lot of folks put it…

Blue Corn continues to raise the bar in Santa Fe

Welcome to part one of our three-part Santa Fe brewery series that does not actually include Santa Fe Brewing itself. Why not? We can drink SFBC beers anytime, since they’re all bottled or canned and sold down here in ABQ. We cannot, however, enjoy Blue Corn, Second Street, or Duel anywhere but at their breweries….

New Mexico breweries rock out to some heavy medal

All of us at the Dark Side Brew Crew and most of the craft beer drinkers we know are all aware that New Mexico has some great breweries. The breweries proved that belief, and then some, by pulling in a single-year-record eight medals at the Great American Beer Festival on Saturday morning. Dating back to…

Holy s*** we’re finally going to Santa Fe

Beer drinkers are big talkers. Not just at the bar, but often when just sitting around, even if there’s no beer (especially if there’s no beer, when I think about it), we talk about beer and doing this and that with beer. For a while now, well, pretty much since the IPA Challenge, we’ve been…