Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s six breweries, one in Los Alamos, and one in Moriarty also joining the party. Cinco de Mayo, or Drinko de Mayo, is this Friday, just in case…
Tag: Rio Bravo Brewing
Charting out an early plan of attack for ABQ Beer Week
We are T-minus one month and one day until the annual madness of ABQ Beer Week is upon us once again. The Crew received a copy of the final printed schedule that you will soon be able to find (almost) everywhere there is craft beer. More events figure to be added between now and May…
Beer Notes: New label guidelines, Bacon Fest lists and more
Goodness gracious, beer notes on a Friday. Whatever has come over me? Brewers Association takes a stand against offensive labels An emerging point of contention for craft beer has been the use of blatantly sexist or offensive labels and imagery by certain breweries. Luckily, New Mexico breweries have largely managed to avoid these sorts of…
Rock & Brews jumps into the beer festival fun
It is spring, so slowly but surely the beer festivals are popping up. Our friends over at Rock & Brews are hosting a Spring Beer Festival this Saturday, with a mix of local and regional breweries in attendance. The event kicks off at 2 p.m., and tickets cost either $12 in advance or $15 at…
Food Truck Festival returns with more craft beer options
The 3rd Annual New Mexico Food Truck & Craft Beer Festival returns this Saturday with 20 local and regional craft breweries providing their beers at Balloon Fiesta Park. The event kicks off at noon and runs until 6 p.m. It will feature some 25 local food trucks. The cost is $5 online and $10 at…
Rio Bravo issues a bold challenge to start 2017
For this edition of our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series, I caught up with Rio Bravo head brewer Ty Levis at the end of last week. Ty is seemingly always in motion, befitting his position. Rio Bravo has endured its share of ups and downs since opening in late 2015, but he and the rest…
Stout Challenge VI: A Starr rises above the rest
Amid all the seriousness of the weekend, the Brew Crew was still able to gather to hold our annual Stout Challenge before the start of the Super Bowl. While the game featured an improbable rally by the favorite, our blind taste test featured an upset by one of the newer breweries in town. For the…
Beer Notes: Tart times at Rio Bravo
Rio Bravo head brewer Ty Levis said, long ago, that he fully planned to take advantage of the many barrels in his possession to branch out beyond simply doing standard barrel-aged stouts, porters, and barley wines. A sour program was coming, at least as soon as things finally settled down in terms of production at…
Eighteen NM breweries will pour their finest at Hopfest
Ah, late August, when the hints of cooler weather arrive, the kids go back to school, football (both American and international) revs up, and Hopfest takes over Isleta Casino. Hey, at nine years old, we can pretty much declare Hopfest an annual tradition. The largest beer festival in New Mexico returns this Saturday from 2…
Preliminary round of IPA Challenge produces some surprising results
And we are off! The preliminary round of the 2016 New Mexico IPA Challenge is complete, with 16 15 breweries advancing to the three main rounds that will begin next weekend at Santa Fe Brewing. This came out of the 28 beers that were sampled in a blind taste test Saturday afternoon at Rio Bravo….