The measure of success for a brewery can be found in many different forms. There is the financial component, the awards won at major festivals, or just a general positive word of mouth. One little extra way to see how a brewery is doing is to judge it amongst its peers, namely by seeing how…
Tag: craft beer
Brew Lab 101 roars back just by keeping things consistent on all fronts
Sometimes, all a brewery really needs to do is just stick to a comfortable routine, providing maximum value for customers with good service, quality beers, and a consistent lineup of events throughout the week. It’s not splashy or anything groundbreaking, but it works, particularly for the good folks at Brew Lab 101. I caught up…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Bringing the funk, the metal and a whole lot more
There have been past weeks filled with a wide variety of different types of events and themes, but we gotta admit, this week might take the cake. (Mmm, cake) Anyway, this weekend will feature comedy, belly dancing, weird metal, a yard sale, a funky festival, Easter fun for grown-ups, a certain contest, and traditional metal….
The Week Ahead in Beer: Kolsch Service is the best kind of service
We have written a bit about some not-so-great trends lately in the industry, but now we are seeing one develop that we can definitely get behind. Kolsch Service, a very German tradition, involves stanges, where you sit at a table and your server keeps bringing you these wonderful, skinny pours of kolsch until you decide…
Painted Lady Bed and Brew keeps things spooky and fun all year round
Sometimes the hardest thing for any brewery is to come up with the names for their beers. When Painted Lady Bed and Brew owner Jesse Herron started brewing last year, he became the latest to face that challenge. “I spent probably two years leading up to brewing coming up with names of beers,” he said….
Turtle Mountain finishes brewery move and prepares to fire it up
The move is complete, the construction dust is out the door, and now only a few finishing touches remain before Turtle Mountain can fire up the brewhouse again and start churning out Hopshell IPA and Wooden Teeth lager again. I caught up with owner Nico Ortiz and head brewer David Pacheco last week to tour…
Beer Notes: United in Beer lineup, license renewals and more
Time to dust off — and no, that’s not a joke about today’s weather, which, achoo, sucks — the old beer notebook to catch up on some recent happenings. We start off with the annual “selection Sunday” for United in Beer. The ultimate brewery collaboration event is back at Ex Novo in Corrales on May…
Stout Invitational 2025: A back-to-back winner for first time in event history
For the first time in history, a brewery has won the New Mexico Brewers Guild Stout Invitational in consecutive years. Tractor Brewing prevailed with 30 votes for their second straight win, edging out Nexus Brewery, which had 29, in the annual event at Bathtub Row Brewing in Los Alamos. “It was really funny, I didn’t…
An eye for art and a thirst for beer: Catching up with Thirsty Eye
On a particularly warm January evening, I met up with brewer John Kofonow, general manager/co-owner Jo Sloan, and co-owner Kim Arthun at the ever-cozy Thirsty Eye Brewing at 206 Broadway Blvd. SE in the historic Huning Highland neighborhood in Albuquerque. For a random Wednesday, it was comfortably busy inside. We sat inside, though it was…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Swapping all that homebrewing gear at Bossfight
There is a Sunday afternoon gathering that might just be of interest to all current and former homebrewers. The Homebrew Equipment Swap Meet and Social will run from 2 to 5 p.m. at Bossfight Brewing, one of their last major events before the farewell party February 28. The Worthogs organized this event with the brewery,…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 