Balloon Fiesta celebrations land at multiple local breweries and taprooms

As any Albuquerque resident knows, the first week of October belongs to the Balloon Fiesta. The morning skyline is dotted with those familiar (and some not-so-familiar) floating shapes, balloon-themed merchandise dominates the shelves of every corner store and coffee shop in town, and the tourists, well, they are everywhere. Whether you choose to take part…

New Sidetrack head brewer paid his dues at Chama River and Steel Bender

After seven years in the trenches, so to speak, Cordell Rincon is finally getting his own command. Rincon has taken the reins at Sidetrack Brewing, succeeding David Kimbell. I caught up with Rincon this week before the brewery opened for the day. “Oh, it’s great (here),” he said. “I always told myself that if I…

Great NM Beer Festival holds a first competition between local breweries

For the first time in a long while, an all-New Mexico breweries competition was held in advance of Saturday’s Great New Mexico Beer Festival. Local breweries competed for three medals in each of four categories, with a different brewery claiming gold in each category. Well, almost, since no gold medal was awarded by the judging…

ABQ Beer Week: Breweries keep things quite cozy on a quaint Day Seven

After Tuesday featured just one event, things snap back to normal with multiple events today (Wednesday). A Los Ranchos brewery comes to the Sawmill District, Marble rolls out a new beer in cans and on draft, and Tractor and Brew Lab 101 have some of their regular events in the evening. Featured Event Every day…

ABQ Beer Week: Seeking the truth without consequences on Day Two

After a busy opening day, Beer Week mellows out a bit with just three events today (Friday). Considering how busy holiday weekends tend to be, that is just fine with us. At least one or more of us will be hanging out with the owners of a certain out-of-town brewery who will be here for…

ABQ Beer Week: Everyone pucker up on Day One as sours take center stage

And, we’re back! ABQ Beer Week kicks off today (Thursday) with an actual kickoff party, plus a special tasting/tap takeover, a beer-and-cheese pairing, a beer dinner, a fundraiser, and more. Let’s get right to it, shall we? Featured Event Every day we will pick what we consider the biggest, most interesting, most unique event. This…

The Week Ahead in Beer: Follow the Spring Runoff to casks and charities

Wind, oh, wind, please just go away. Our sinuses cannot survive much more, even with La Cumbre bringing back a fatherly hop bomb this week. We also have a new charity brew from Steel Bender debuting Thursday, followed by some big events on Saturday including the Spring Runoff, a celebration of beer and the outdoors…

Steel Bender and NMDSBC team up to create Spring of Deception Maibock

After six years, the Dark Side Brew Crew and Steel Bender have finally collaborated on a seasonal beer. We woke up way too early (for me, anyway) Tuesday morning on a proper German weather day and trekked over to Los Ranchos to team up with director of brewing operations Bob Haggerty on creating the lightest…