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…

Bosque prepares to celebrate one year of great beer

Bosque Brewing is growing up right before our eyes. This Saturday the north side brewery will celebrate its one-year anniversary with a party for its loyal customers and anyone else who wants to join. I sat down with brewers Gabe Jensen and Ryan Jameson to talk about Saturday’s festivities, as well as looking back to…

NM Brew Fest in review: Beaten up by barley wines

The remnants of Stoutmeister and Brandon greet you all on this weekday after an enjoyable weekend at the fourth annual New Mexico Brew Fest. Sure, we ended up a little sunburned and a little hungover, but that’s what outdoor beer festivals are all about, right? With our friends Dan, Jessica, and Adam in tow, we…

The Balloon Fiesta tourist’s guide to beer in Albuquerque

It’s that time of year again, when lots of folks from outside Albuquerque and New Mexico descend upon the Duke City for the Balloon Fiesta. While a lot of us locals grumble about the increase in traffic, even we’re big softies for the Fiesta (assuming we wake up in time). Well, we are, our dogs…

Feeling festive about the lineup at Brew Fest

Beer festival season hits its highpoint in October both in New Mexico and nearby, starting with the fourth annual New Mexico Brew Fest this Saturday at the Villa Hispana on the state fairgrounds. With Valhalla (aka The Great American Beer Festival) and then Hopfest later in the month, beer drinkers will be kept awfully busy…

Sizing up the superb selection at Son of Septemberfest

The Crew tackled the dirty dozen beers at Marble’s Son of Septemberfest on Saturday. Without further adieu, here are our quick reviews of those beers. Abbey Brewing, Monk’s Tripel Sweet, but not overly so. You don’t taste the alcohol, which could be an issue with this 9.2-percent ABV beast. It is easy to find in…

Beer Roundup: Back from the dead

As promised a little while ago, the Crew has resurrected this bi-weekly feature. This is where we share short reviews of the various beers we have tried of late from local breweries and from microbreweries across the nation. Since it has been a while since we have done one of these, I fear some of…

Fighting that post-major-beer-event-malaise

Happy Friday, beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with one of those posts where I write about a bunch of stuff that we hope to write in the future. Yeah, it’s kind of lazy, but it’s what we’ve got right now. There is always that period of post-event exhaustion. Now, the IPA Challenge did not wear us…

IPA Challenge: And the winner is …

For the first time in the 12-year history of the IPA Challenge, a brewery outside of the Albuquerque metro area will take the trophy home. Blue Corn’s Resurgence captured the title with a resounding victory after the fourth and final round at Marble’s downtown pub on Saturday afternoon. “It’s pretty good,” said Blue Corn brewer…

IPA Challenge: Blue Corn takes command after Round 3

Stoutmeister here with the recap of round three of the IPA Challenge on Friday night, with E-Rock sending the info down from Santa Fe Brewing. The big news is that Blue Corn’s Resurgence has seized control of the competition with Saturday’s big final round at Marble’s downtown pub looming. The good news is 100 voters,…