The Week Ahead in Beer: Sours, imperials, and ski festivals are upon us

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with the reunified edition of The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s four breweries and one newcomer down in Socorro also joining the party. We tried hard to keep the state edition going, but without…

The Week Ahead in Beer: Some final thoughts on special beer releases

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with the reunified edition of The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s four breweries and one newcomer down in Socorro also joining the party. We tried hard to keep the state edition going, but without…

The Week Ahead in Beer: Enjoy a wee bit of the Irish (Red), laddie

Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with the reunified edition of The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s four breweries and one newcomer down in Socorro also joining the party. We tried hard to keep the state edition going, but without…

Stout Challenge IV: The winner by TKO is …

The Dark Side Brew Crew held our fourth annual Stout Challenge on Super Bowl Sunday. Long before we were cursing the Seahawks’ terrible play-calling at the end, we were rejoicing amidst 14 stouts that we sampled via blind taste test to determine who has the best in the ABQ metro area (plus Socorro). We were…

WinterBrew 2015 was an epic fest for the ages!

It’s been a week now, and the dust has finally settled on another successful WinterBrew. New Mexico beer enthusiasts have been back, hard at work, with memories (hopefully) of many great beers, plenty of new friends on their Facebook rosters, and a slew of crazy pictures on their cellphones. From the beer, to the food,…

The time has come for Stout Challenge IV: The Overload

Greetings, everyone, on this snowy Friday. Do be careful out there tonight when in pursuit of beer. Stuff is melting but not evaporating, so that means sheets of ice. And New Mexico drivers are bad enough without ice under their tires, so go slow if you desperately need some nocturnal pints. By Sunday, though, all…

WinterBrew set to kick off 2015 festival season in style

The first beer festival of 2015 is upon us. WinterBrew is set for Friday at the Santa Fe Farmers Market from 4 to 9 p.m. The event, run by the New Mexico Brewers Guild, has already sold out all 750 of its tickets. So for those 750 lucky people, this preview is for you. For…

Time to trek to Taos for annual Brew Master’s Festival

Ah, yes, it’s that time of year when I have to cover a football game and not go to the Taos Brew Master’s Festival. Of course, the rest of you don’t have to write about the New Mexico Bowl to pay for future beers, so you might as well hit the road Saturday afternoon and…

Membership has its benefits at New Mexico breweries — 2015 edition

As we did last year, the Crew has gathered all the information we could on brewery memberships for 2015 to give you a one-stop shopping spot to compare and contrast which ones you might want to purchase. Different Crew members have various memberships. As the photo shows, I (Stoutmeister) renewed my Tractor membership already. Still…

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…