Posts Tagged ‘Rowley Farmhouse Ales’

Tart at Heart 5 beer list leans heavily toward local breweries

Posted: April 11, 2019 by cjax33 in Events, News
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You do not need to wear a bunny hat to enjoy Tart at Heart’s beer lineup this year, but you could.

After waiting patiently, the beer list for Saturday’s Tart at Heart 5 is finally set and ready to go. For event details, check our previous story.

Twenty-one of the beers that will be available for sampling are from 10 local breweries, with the other eight coming from out of state for Saturday’s 2-to-5 p.m. event at Sister Bar.

If any last-minute changes occur, we will update this list. UPDATE: It turns out The 377 Brewery is also in attendance, bringing two more local sours to the event.

  • Bell’s Brewery: L’Appel du Vide-Blackberry Sour
  • Boulevard: Love Child #9
  • Bow & Arrow: Cosmic Arrow, Desert Revival
  • Canteen: Social Capital with jasmine and raspberry
  • Cantero: Tamarind Sour
  • Dialogue: Sour Raspberry, ODB Kettle Soured English Mild
  • Firestone Walker: Bretta Tangerine
  • Goose Island: Bourbon Country Bramble Rye
  • La Cumbre: Blood Orange Sour
  • Marble: 111 Rosé, Abbey Brett
  • New Belgium: Transatlantique Kriek
  • Odell: Brett Golden Sour Ale
  • Red Door: Blueberry Pie Berliner Weisse, Lemonade Stand
  • Rio Bravo: Cherry on Brett
  • Rowley Farmhouse Ales: Cote d’or Pinot Noir, Greyscale, Sonora Weisse, Grandissant (VIP only)
  • Steel Bender: Pucker Up Buttercup, Brett Innuendo, Ned’s Sour Pail, Ned’s Sour Pail with boysenberry, Viejo Agrio
  • Stone: Winter Harvest-Vintage 2014
  • The 377: Freya, Cosmos
  • Upslope: Wild Christmas

Pack some antacids, leave the car at home, and have fun this weekend. After all, there will only be about two-and-a-half hours between the end of this and the start of the New Mexico United game.

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister

Tart at Heart aims to go big in its 5th year at Sister

Posted: April 3, 2019 by cjax33 in Events, News
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The sours and barrel-aged beers will be back at Sister in a week-and-a-half! (Photo courtesy of Craft King Consulting)

Pucker up, people, because one of your favorite beer tastings of the year is back for another go around. Tart at Heart returns to Sister on Saturday, April 13 for its fifth annual onslaught of sour and barrel-aged beer goodness. To get the scoop on what this year’s event holds, I sat down with the main man behind the event, Angelo Orona of Craft King Consulting.

“We’re trying to do it big for the fifth year, for sure,” he said. “Some of the same concepts are going to be in play this year. Obviously we’ve got a lot of sour and barrel-aged beers … always trying to get the most exclusive (and) interesting beers into the state.”

This event sells out every year, and for those still hoping for a VIP ticket, sorry, you are already too late. Those sold out shortly after our interview took place; Angelo said there were only 10 left at the time we sat down. There are still general admission tickets ($40) for sale online and at the Kelly Liquors on Juan Tabo. Those still get you in for three hours of unlimited tastings from 2 to 5 p.m., and you get to keep the commemorative glass. VIP ticket holders get in at 1 p.m. and also keep the glass and a special T-shirt designed by local artist Chris Erickson.

Whether it is three hours or four hours of unlimited tasting, Tart at Heart has always brought out some unique and special beers, from local and regional breweries, plus national and international ones as well.

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Skiesta returns to finally put an end to winter (we hope)

Posted: March 14, 2019 by reidrivenburgh in Beer in Los Alamos, Events
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Spring is right around the corner (honest!), and with it comes the return of beer festival season. One of the early annual fests is Skiesta, which is held at the Pajarito Mountain ski area above Los Alamos. This year’s edition will be happening this Saturday.

In preparing for this article, I re-read last year’s post, which talked about how dry the winter had been. Well, this year we’ve experienced the complete opposite, as you all know. As I type this just a few days before the festival, yet another snowstorm/hurricane just blasted through the area. That storm should be long gone by the time Skiesta starts, but the extra snow will no doubt guarantee some fine skiing.  (The image below has more details about the skiing events, if that’s your thing.)

In addition to a costume contest, the band Escape on a Horse playing alt-country and Americana styles, and good food from the lodge’s cafe, there will be plenty of fine craft beers. Stoutmeister was able to get the beer lists from the breweries that will be in attendance:

  • Bathtub Row: Mexican Lager, Hoppenheimer IPA, Cherry Wheat, Irish Red
  • Blue Corn: Gatekeeper IPA, Round Midnight Imperial Stout, Roadrunner IPA, Messages from Nowhere ESB, Atomic Blonde
  • Rowley Farmhouse Ales: Greyscale (Merlot Barrel), Cote d’Or (Pinot Noir Barrel), Sonora Weisse
  • Second Street: 2920 IPA, Agua Fria Pils, Cranberry Stout, Black Canyon Porter, Low Winter Sun (Kettle Sour with Cherries), Rod’s Best Bitter, 2019 Imperial Stout (maybe)
  • Tumbleroot: Orange Chocolate Stout, Belgian Pale, American Light Lager, IPA

That’s a nice variety of styles, so you’re sure to find something you like. On a personal note, I visited Blue Corn last weekend and can speak highly of Gatekeeper (the winner of the 2018 NM IPA Challenge) and their Imperial Stout.

Be sure to avail yourself of the complimentary bus service that will be running to and from Sullivan Field next to Los Alamos High School every 30 minutes between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Cheers!

— Reid

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Marble and other local breweries send some big checks to Sierra Nevada

Posted: March 1, 2019 by cjax33 in News
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The Marble team presents a check to Sierra Nevada for the sales of Resilience IPA. From left, brewer John Carroll, packaging line director Nate Jackson, head brewer John Heine, and president/brewmaster Ted Rice.

The results are in from one big charitable effort on the part of several New Mexico breweries, and they are good. Marble Brewery presented a check for more than $22,000 to Sierra Nevada Brewing’s Camp Fire Relief Fund on Friday, all from the sales of Resilience Butte County Proud IPA.

Marble was one of six New Mexico breweries, along with 1,400 across the country, to take a Sierra Nevada recipe and make a beer where 100 percent of proceeds went to charity. It was needed to help the victims of the wildfires in Northern California that crept right up to the outskirts of Chico, where Sierra Nevada’s original brewery is still located.

“It’s so insane, and the biggest thing we wanted to do is thank everyone, because it was everyone’s consumption of this fantastic beer that helped us raise so much money,” said Marble social media director Leah Black. “It was with 1,400 other breweries around the country, so ours is just a small chunk of what will help this cause.”

Steel Bender Brewyard reported that it raised $9,500 for its batch of Resilience, while Canteen Brewhouse, Quarter Celtic Brewpub, and Cloudcroft Brewing did not have their final figures available. Rowley Farmhouse Ales still has some Resilience on draft, so if you never got to try this flavorful West Coast IPA, head up to Santa Fe and drink for a good cause. UPDATE: Cloudcroft also still has it on tap, so if you are headed south for the weekend, make sure to stop by.

A huge thank you to all the participating breweries, to Sierra Nevada for coming up with the idea, and of course, as Leah said, to all the hopheads who bought a pint or two.

Enjoy the weekend!

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister

The Crew has an extra ticket for someone to enjoy the loaded lineups at WinterBrew

Posted: January 10, 2019 by cjax33 in WinterBrew 2019
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It’s time to gather with 700 of your closest beer-loving friends at WinterBrew.

WinterBrew 2019 is so close we can almost taste all the great beers that will be poured at the Santa Fe Farmers Market on Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. If you were not one of the lucky 700 to get a ticket, well, you might be able to land the extra pass the Crew has in hand for the festival.

I love tapping into New Mexico beer history, so the first person to correctly answer the following question will be the winner. Since this event is in Santa Fe, we stuck with a theme for that town.

Q. What current Santa Fe landmark was a brewery way back in the 19th century? Hint: It currently has a connection to someone famous beyond just New Mexico.

Send us an email at nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com with your answer. We will announce when the contest is over on social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram), so keep an eye out there. The winner will be informed directly via email. If you are the winner, just meet the Crew out front at 5 p.m. (we will have our shirts on for easy identification). This is just one small way to give back to you, our loyal readers.

UPDATE: The question was answered correctly on Thursday at 5:30. It was the Jean Cocteau Theater, owned by George R.R. Martin. He’s kinda famous, right?

Now, for everyone that is going, we present the beer lists for 16 of the 18 attending breweries. Hopefully we get the other two before long.

  • Abbey: Monks’ Ale, Monks’ Dark Chocolate, Monks’ Tripel Reserve, Monks’ Grapefruit Wit
  • Bosque: Driftwood Oatmeal Stout, Open Space Haze, Elephants on Parade Tart, Frostbit Wit, Fistful of Churros, Bosque Cider
  • Bow and Arrow: TBA
  • Chili Line: TBA
  • Cloudcroft: Chai Spiced Porter, Oatmeal Stout, Railspike Red Ale, Trainwreck IPA
  • HoneyMoon: Camellia Flor, Camellia Blanco, Cidrucha
  • Lost Hiker: Snowpocolipse (Winter Warmer), Midnight Squirrel Stout, Rye Knot (Belgian Pale w/ Rye), Connectivity IPA
  • Marble: Desert Fog, Double White, Coffee Porter (NEW! Replacing Cholo Smooth), Sympathy for the Pork Chop (Smoked Marzen)
  • Picacho Peak: I Heart Chocolate Porter, Twisted Windmill (DIPA), 575 Scottsman, Dirty Blonde, Javelina Black (American Stout)
  • Red River: Lazy Bear Blonde, Midnight Meadows Oatmeal Stout, Back 40 Farmhouse Ale, Super Bad Medicine Bourbon Barrel-Aged Honey DIPA
  • Rowley Farmhouse Ales: No B.U. IPA, Petite Blanche (available from 5 to 6:10 p.m.), Cote d’Or Double Cerise (6:10-7:20), Sin Barreras Mole Barrel-Aged Stout with fresh raspberries (7:20-9)
  • Santa Fe: 7K IPA, Getta Witness (Witbier), Pepe Loco (Dark Lager), Chicken Killer 2.0
  • Second Street: 2920 IPA, Jackplane Imperial Porter, Agua Fria Pilsner, Boneshaker Special Bitter, 2018 Anniversary Ale, 2018 Skookum (Barleywine), Barrel-Aged Skookum, Chin Gose, Kolsch, MBV Stout
  • Sidetrack: Hobo King Lager, Dark Engine Stout, Turntable IPA, Buzz Bomb, plus cask of Dark Engine with cacao nibs and coffee
  • Starr Brothers: There Gose Them Boyzz, Brown Chicken Brown Cow, Lost City of Gold (Hazy IPA), Zombies in the Manger (Biscochito Stout)
  • Truth or Consequences: Bad Santa (Spiced Winter Ale), Good Juju (American Brown Ale), Irish Red, Palomas Porter, Supernova Hazy DIPA, Truth Serum (Barleywine, in bottles)
  • Tumbleroot: Captain SMASH (Rum Barrel-Aged SMASH Barleywine), Orange Chocolate Stout (nitro), Farmhouse Saison, Pale Ale
  • Turtle Mountain: Tiempo Mañana IPL, Darker than Darkness (Schwarzbier), Stockholm Syndrome (Baltic Porter), Deep Depravity (Barleywine), plus the archived 2016 Depravity and then 2017 Infinitesimus

Those are a lot of big, malty, chewy beers, so make sure to pace yourselves. WinterBrew is always a blast of an event, whether you take the Rail Runner or drive and spend the night in Santa Fe (please do not drive up and back if you are drinking). There will be food inside, but it might not hurt to load up at Second Street Railyard next door beforehand.

See you all tomorrow night.

Cheers!

— Stoutmeister

Rowley Farmhouse Ales celebrates silver in 2018 and plans another great year in steel and wood

Posted: January 10, 2019 by Luke in Look Back/Look Ahead Series 2018-19
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From left, Wes Burbank, Elissa Ritt, Tyler King, Jeffrey Kaplan, and John Rowley.

It’s 1 p.m. on an unseasonably warm Saturday at Rowley Farmhouse Ales (RFA). Before I could even ask my first interview question, a couple variants of Perennial Sump Imperial Coffee Stout are popped, poured into mini snifter glasses, and shared around the table.

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The best interviews are the ones where beers are present.

Just about the whole RFA crew is in attendance. Sitting around the long outdoor picnic-style table out on the patio are assistant brewer Tyler King, co-owner Elissa Ritt, chef Jeffrey Kaplan, head brewer Wes Burbank, brewmaster John Rowley, and of course, what would their gatherings be without friends? It’s a familiar scene with this crowd, a bottle share amongst buddies, furnished with beers just like Sump Coffee Stout, one of the many fruits of RFA’s keen networking labors with breweries from all over America. As it is, it’s quite unlikely to find another brewery that does more out-of-state collaborations in New Mexico, and that’s not going to stop any time soon.

The day before, I let the RFA crew know I wanted to do the Look Back/Look Ahead story for 2018-19, and asked, “Who’s in?” Thankfully, everyone was obliged to join me for a chat.

2018 has been another successful year at the small gastro-brewpub tucked away just off of Cerrillos Road. One of the major highlights was the silver medal win at GABF (Great American Beer Festival) for their Berliner Weisse, Germophile.

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Yes, that’s the RFA crew way down there on the stage.

“For me, it just means we’re on the right track,” Burbank says.

King then adds, “It legitimized all of our long days, 24-hour weekends, and all the hard work getting this place up and running.”

“And, it’s nice to be recognized for all of our hard work,” Rowley finishes.

Bringing on Burbank as head brewer was a strong push for Team Rowley last year.

“He’s a fantastic brewer, brings a lot of talent to the table,” Rowley says.

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Weekend Beer-cap: Drinking for a good cause after a short wait

Posted: December 18, 2018 by cjax33 in Weekend Beer-cap
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You can also get Resilience IPA at Canteen, Steel Bender, Rowley Farmhouse Ales, and starting Friday at Quarter Celtic!

Gonna keep this edition short on my part due to time constraints. As mentioned a while back in The Week Ahead in Beer, several of our local breweries have joined others around the country in making Resilience IPA, a Sierra Nevada recipe, to help the victims of the terrible fires in Northern California. For every participating brewery, 100 percent of all proceeds will go to the charities helping the fire victims.

I snagged a pint at Marble Heights on Monday night, and it was quite the delightful beer. It recalls a time when IPAs still had a piney element opposite the citrus fruit sweetness that now dominates the genre, whether hazy or not. It is, in a sense, an old-school IPA, but it has more than enough malt backbone to keep it from drying out completely. It should have just the right amount of hops to please the crazier hopheads, while not going overboard for those who prefer a more drinkable IPA.

Marble is far from alone in having it available locally. A batch already went on tap before that at Rowley Farmhouse Ales in Santa Fe. Cloudcroft Brewing will have a batch on in the near future. Elsewhere in the metro area, Canteen and Steel Bender have their batches going on tap today (Tuesday). Quarter Celtic’s batch should be ready Friday. We encourage everyone to visit their personal favorites among the breweries and make sure to get at least one pint of Resilience. Heck, you can even try them from brewery to brewery and see if you can pick up on any slight variations in flavor. We would be curious to know what others find.

As for the rest of the Crew, a couple of them checked in with their recent beer adventures from outside of Albuquerque (way outside, in one case).

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Weekend Beer-cap: Finding time for brews amid pre-holiday madness

Posted: December 11, 2018 by cjax33 in Weekend Beer-cap
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It’s definitely not the best picture of our always-in-motion Metal Mayor, but we were happy to see him at a local brewery.

A long winter nap is becoming more and more tempting, but there are beers to drink, and the Crew kept after them this past weekend.

My weekend started early, as per usual, but it was more of a working weekend, with trips to Marble and Tractor to interview staffers for our Look Back/Look Ahead Series. After leaving Wells Park on Wednesday, I made my way to La Cumbre, as an old friend of the Crew tipped us off that Mayor Tim Keller would be making an appearance. I was not able to bend his ear, but I did still get to enjoy some Pecos Porter and catch up with some readers who were enjoying some afternoon beers. Though the Pecos does not get the hype of other LC beers, it remains a solid, sessionable dark beer that fits the winter chill.

There are two more special Brickie Stout casks to come at Steel Bender.

After a proper metal show with birthday boy Derek on Thursday night, I took it easy Friday night. By Saturday, it was time to head out again. Steel Bender has again had its 4 Casks of Christmas series every Saturday in December. They take the Brickie American Stout and infuse it with some other tasty elements, stick ’em in a cask, and watch everyone enjoy. This edition was special, as our own Franz Solo and old friend David Facey developed the French Toast Brickie. It was a delicious beer, with the sweetness of the maple syrup working in concert with the roasty malts. This Saturday will see another version, Fruity Chocolate Tart. Make sure to grab one or more of these wonderful brews while you still can this holiday season.

Speaking of the holiday season, Crew members found reasons for giving, and reasons to avoid the mass marketing rush and instead indulge in local beer and food.

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Weekend Beer-cap: The frigid temps won’t keep us from the brews

Posted: December 4, 2018 by cjax33 in Weekend Beer-cap
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The Pining for Breakfast Maple Brown at Red Door joins the pantheon of wonderful dessert beers in town.

The weekend was humming along at such a nice pace, and then the Steelers went out and f@#$ed it all up for me. It’s hard being a sports fan, but these days it’s easy being a beer lover. My weekend actually kicked off back on Thursday with trips to Marble Downtown and Marble Heights to interview a number of staff members for an upcoming Look Back/Look Ahead Series article. Naturally, I also got to partake in a few beers, because that’s the reward in advance for the hours of upcoming transcription.

First up, Ye’ Olde Ale is a delicious concoction made in collaboration with the Marble Beers in Manchester, England. A proper, 9.7-percent ABV English strong ale was aged in port wine barrels, with a little bit of brettanomyces thrown in for fun. The result is a complex beer that, in many ways, probably should not work together, but the warming alcohol and thick malt mixes wonderfully with the funky brett and sweet wine flavors. Also available were the Northside IPA and Alpha Acid Trip (Triple IPA), both of which had many of the best characteristics of what I still love in the style, with a piney touch to go with the more fruity and floral hops, plus enough of a malt backbone to keep them from drying out the palate. I also had more Reserve Ale, which has already run its course in bottle form, but remains on tap for now. It is a delightful batch this year, so if you have not had it, you are dead to me. (Just kidding. Well, maybe.)

From there, I grabbed a friend and headed over to Red Door for the release of the new Pining for Breakfast Maple Brown. I have had my fair share of maple-infused stouts in recent years, but for a lighter beer in color and mouthfeel, this brown held up well and did not allow the maple to turn it into a sugar bomb. The folks at New Mexico Piñon Coffee supplied the beans that brought in a nice coffee character to help balance everything out. Red Door has been churning out some quality seasonals for a while now, so make sure to snag a pint of this one and raise it high in honor of head brewer Matt Meier and his staff.

For Friday night, I trekked to the west side to catch up with a good friend and finally indulge in a long overdue pizza-and-beer night. We found room at the bar at the Blue Grasshopper location off Coors. While a number of the beers I wanted to drink had run out, the remainder (Boxing Bear’s Body Czech, La Cumbre’s BEER and Dunkelweizen) were more than enough. Throw in some really good pizza and even better company (thanks, Jess!), and it was a good night.

I picked up a trifecta of excellent brews from a beer-trading friend (thanks, Majin!) and stayed in on Saturday, a little too worn out from work to venture beyond the confines of home. As for Sunday, well, at least I didn’t punch the TV or anything. How a team blows a 23-7 lead at home is beyond me.

As for the rest of the Crew, two of them ended up joining forces for part of their weekend, while another ventured out of town for one of her favorite annual festivals.

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The Week Ahead in Beer: From Black (Beer) Friday to Small (Brewery) Saturday

Posted: November 21, 2018 by cjax33 in The Week Ahead in Beer
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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 seven breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, and one in Las Cruces also joining the party.

Stoutmeister puts on his serious face to handle The Week Ahead in Beer.

Stoutmeister puts on his serious face to handle The Week Ahead in Beer.

Forget about self restraint this week, and we are not just talking about eating too much on Thanksgiving. No, Black Friday has become a beer holiday, enabling all of us sensible people the right to escape shopping madness and settle down with some delicious stouts and porters. We already previewed the awesome Blackest Friday event at Rowley Farmhouse Ales, so please click that link to refresh your memory and make that commitment to drive to Santa Fe. If you cannot leave ABQ for whatever reason, there are still plenty of local options. Starr Brothers has happy hour prices all day. Bosque is releasing its wonderful Fresh Start Breakfast Ale, a maple and coffee stout, in four-pack cans at all locations. Jubilation has its annual Black Friday cellar sale starting at 10 a.m. Line up early if you want to grab the good stuff, which will include the annual Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout release (plus variants) and should see other great beers including the ultra-rare Barrel-Aged Expedition Stout from Bell’s. I will be in line with the rest of the crazies before heading to Santa Fe. Again, though, if you are not headed to RFA, then Boxing Bear is going all out with its own selection of dark and malt-forward beers, including the release (finally) of Vantablack Russian Imperial Stout in bottles. Vantablack will also be on tap, in both the regular and 2-year-barrel-aged versions (whoa). There will also be Barrel-Aged Oso Otoño (2 years) and Chocolate Milk Stout (18 months) on tap, and yes, you can fill growlers of those. Iron Lung Smoked Porter is also back, and there is a limited supply of bottles of Barrel-Aged Standing 8 Stout available to take home as well. UPDATE: If you are headed south instead, stop at Truth or Consequences Brewing for a special release of six bottles. A kind person might be willing to pick up a bottle of the barrel-aged Truth Serum Barleywine and bring it back here for the Crew to sample.

In terms of hours, every brewery appears to be closed Thanksgiving except Blue Corn, which will be open and serving food and beer from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Red Door, which will be filling discounted growlers from noon to 4 p.m. at the brewery on Candelaria. Apparently everyone will be right back to normal operating hours Friday. As for tonight (Wednesday), a few breweries could close early if the crowds die down, so take note when heading out to fill your growlers or pick up packaged beer directly from the source.

Do not forget, all of our breweries count as small businesses, so keep them in mind when shopping on Small Business Saturday. They have plenty of merchandise beyond just the beer (our annual Merch Guide will be out soon, we promise). Marble Westside will have a holiday market at noon and Boxing Bear will have a pop up market at 1 p.m.

On the new beer front this week, there are a few options to check out. Bosque is also feeling tropical with Guavango. Bow & Arrow has a limited supply of its barrel-aged barleywine, Thief of Time, back on tap. Canteen spices it up with more Sichler Chile Lager, plus Wee Bit Loco, a Scottish Wee Heavy. Marble put Joe Pumpkin on nitro, while more cans of Imperial Red will soon be available. Ponderosa brings back Hop-Mosa, a hazy IPA, on Saturday. Sidetrack has more Railhead Red available, plus the new C4 IPA. Starr Brothers quickly got Brown Chicken Brown Cow back on tap. Steel Bender has Ich Bin Cranberry Kettle Sour on tap (for real this time), plus this Saturday will see a double-bottle release of Ned’s Sour Pail and Ned’s Sour Pail with Boysenberry, as well as an on-tap release of The Whole Shoe, a Belgo IPA. Toltec has special new beer-and-food pairings every Wednesday, and today will feature the arrival of the new Vienna Lager. Tractor brings back a seasonal favorite of ours, Turkey Drool!

Up in Santa Fe, Blue Corn pops a new porter, Black by Popular Demand.

Continue reading for all the news that is fit to blog for the week of November 19.

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