As noted in the most recent edition of The Week Ahead in Beer, the Crew put out the call for everyone’s favorite beers from New Mexico breweries for 2014. The replies from our readers, not to mention from all of our writers, were fairly diverse. We’re not gonna do an ultimate ranking or anything —…
Tag: Cazuelas
The Crew’s holiday beer merch guide — ABQ-area edition
As we did for Santa Fe a couple weeks ago, we do now for the ABQ metro area. The Crew, and for once this is a multi-person endeavor, has set forth and compiled a list of breweries’ merchandise to give you a handy guide for your holiday shopping. Hey, you can’t always just buy people…
Best of the (Brew) Fest plus other notes from one wild afternoon
No one got sunburned! Well, that’s how we all looked back on NM Brew Fest 5 after a long, rough Sunday (our football teams, real and fantasy, didn’t help our hangovers, either). OK, we also looked back at the many great beers we drank and how much fun we had. From the VIP barrel-aged beginning…
More fun than a barrel of monkeys, er, beer, it’s NM Brew Fest 5
Beer festival season wraps up (sniff) in our state with the fifth annual NM Brew Fest at Expo New Mexico (the fairgrounds) this Saturday. It promises to go out with a bang, thanks to a special early event admission where you get to taste multiple barrel-aged beers brought in by the NM Brewers Guild. Yes,…
The Balloon Fiesta tourist’s guide to craft beer in New Mexico
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…
Where to quench your hop thirst at Hopfest
Oh, Hopfest, you lovely giant beer festival, you have returned. It’s Lucky No. 7 for Hopfest, which returns to the Isleta Casino this Saturday. Tickets are still available online today (Friday). They go up in price at the door ($35 for general admission, $45 for Extra Hoppy Hour), so we highly recommend you get them…
Reviewing Red Door’s beers before the soft opening
Porter Pounder and I went over to Red Door Brewing’s sneak preview Tuesday afternoon and came away quite impressed. Much like Boxing Bear did earlier this summer, Red Door took the time to perfect their first batches of beer and it showed. We already talked about the general ambiance and setup for Red Door, so…
A cider wins State Fair Pro-Am, beer drinkers weep
Despite the title above, I don’t mind a good cider every now and again. But, seriously, a cider won a beer competition? That was the case with this year’s State Fair Pro-Am competition for professional brewers. Santa Sidra’s A Tad Sweet was named Best of Show. Congrats to the folks at Santa Sidra, we’re sure…
The State Fair Pro-Am selects the best of the best
Over the last two weekends, judging has been going on for the State Fair Pro-Am Brewing competition. On Friday evening at Tractor Brewing Wells Park, the Best of Show was chosen. There we 180 professional entries and 269 amateur entries for ales, lagers, meads, and ciders. To avoid the longest caption in history with the…
Hefeweizen Challenge ’14 — A tournament of refreshment
The Dark Side Brew Crew gathered last weekend for a blind taste test to determine the best hefeweizen in the ABQ metro area. Mrs. Solo and I hosted the event with Stoutmeister, E-Rock, Porter Pounder, and Brandon present from the original Crew. Only Shilling was absent due to his job. Brandon’s awesome girlfriend Taylor handled…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 