During our trip to Ruidoso Oktoberfest last Saturday, the Crew made sure to carve out some time on Friday to chat with the owners of the two breweries in town to see how things have been going. In the case of Lost Hiker Brewing, that meant meeting the new owner, Steven Swangstu, and his family…
Tag: Lost Hiker Brewing
Downshift does Oktoberfest just right for Ruidoso and everyone else
After having gone to the original Oktoberfest in Munich last year, one might think any festival of that type in New Mexico could not possibly live up to that experience for the Crew. Well, yeah, nothing comes close to that event in sheer size, but that does not mean the Crew cannot be impressed. And,…
Oktoberfest in the mountains called and the Crew answered
After missing out last year, albeit for a very good reason, the Dark Side Brew Crew is descending upon Ruidoso for their epic Oktoberfest celebration at Downshift Brewing Riverside on Saturday. Oh, that reason was because we were at the OG Oktoberfest in Munich last year, but you’ve already heard us gloat about that plenty…
Playing the waiting game or a preview of what stories are on deck for summer
Last week was quiet. Like, ridiculously quiet, as far as beer stories go. We have entered into a bit of a news lull, it appears, as breweries prep for the summer rush that they know/hope is coming. Everyone could use a great a summer, and most that we have spoken to recently are optimistic after…
Lost Hiker continues to thrive despite some unexpected new challenges
There are quite a few one-brewery small towns in New Mexico, in all different parts of the state, ranging from places with populations in the triple digits to those in the five-digit category. It can be interesting, then, to see what happens when a second brewery moves in down the street. There is often the…
Beer Notes: Updates on all the new places still in progress
With the recent openings (re-openings?) of two closed-turned-new-breweries — Lizard Tail Industrial (neé Cantero) and Juno (ex-Dialogue) — we figured it might be a good time to catch up on what is still in the forthcoming brewery/taproom pipeline. Also, our planned story for today fell through, so here we are, going to Plan B. Got an…
Lost Hiker Brewing finds a home in the cozy confines of Ruidoso
At some point, all of us have probably that moment where we think it would be a good idea to quit the job, sell the house, move to a quiet little town and start anew. Most of us then sigh, shake our heads, and get back to work. For longtime Austin-area teachers Dan and Jennifer…
The Crew returns to the road to visit breweries in southern NM
It has been a long, long time since multiple members of the Crew piled into a vehicle and hit the road to visit breweries beyond the confines of the Albuquerque and Santa Fe metro areas. Well, with vaccine coursing through our systems, and eager to avoid a potential influx of Texas tourists in the summer,…
Brewery Patio Bracket Round Two: The Southern challengers to the top titans must be decided
Welcome to the second round of our brewery patio bracket tournament. We kick things off, as we did in the first round, with the breweries in the South and East, and South and West parts of New Mexico. Our original plan was to take the top four (out of eight) in each region and have…
Summerfest returns to Pajarito Ski Area with 13 breweries on hand
Pajarito Ski Area outside of Los Alamos has a handful of big events throughout the year, and it’s time for another as Summerfest will be held this Saturday. If you haven’t been up to visit yet, this would be a great time to do so. If summer finally kicks in, you can rest assured that…
