We figured there would be some interesting answers to our three questions for the current edition of the Look Back/Look Ahead Series. We did not figure that the first two questions about a brewery’s biggest challenge and biggest accomplishment would produce the same answer. Leave it to Turtle Mountain Brewing owner Nico Ortiz to pull…
Tag: Turtle Mountain Brewing
The Week Ahead in Beer: TMBC strikes with Thunderbolt
A little while back, myself and Franz Solo went over to Turtle Mountain North on a brew day for a Belgian-style tripel. He had helped in the recipe construction along with members of the Worthogs homebrew club. The TMBC brew team handled the hard work, and it all went smoothly. Well, now they are releasing…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Rejoice for the brews are back at Turtle Mountain
A little while back we received the good news that Turtle Mountain had received final approval to fire up their relocated brewhouse next to the North taproom. The two locations had gone far too long without any house beers. This week, we got the even better news that the beers are flowing again, with three…
Turtle Mountain finishes brewery move and prepares to fire it up
The move is complete, the construction dust is out the door, and now only a few finishing touches remain before Turtle Mountain can fire up the brewhouse again and start churning out Hopshell IPA and Wooden Teeth lager again. I caught up with owner Nico Ortiz and head brewer David Pacheco last week to tour…
Beer Notes: Turtle Mountain makes progress, Worthogs gather and more
The news is a little slow at the moment (not that we’re trying to jinx things into ramping up around here) but we had a couple things to share, so Beer Notes shall make a triumphant return. First up, while enjoying lunch at the original Turtle Mountain Brewing last week, I bumped into owner Nico…
Statewide Oktoberfest Guide: Every event celebrating the best season
There are a baker’s dozen Oktoberfest celebrations still to go this season in New Mexico, so we decided to round ’em all up to help you best plan out your weekends for the rest of this month and much of October. From Red River to Ruidoso, from Carlsbad to Bernalillo, from Rio Rancho to Moriarty,…
Turtle Mountain prepares to celebrate a quarter century of beers and bites
Years ago, Turtle Mountain Brewing owner Nico Ortiz told me a story about when he first opened his brewpub in Rio Rancho back in 1999 in a building that used to be a laundromat. Sometimes, people would walk in the door with a basket of laundry under their arm and stare in wonder at what…
Fate of the Fests: Brewery staff members discuss future of off-site events
The times, they are a changing, particularly when it comes to off-site beer festivals. We picked up on it pretty easily just by attending events around Albuquerque this year. The 2022 enthusiasm for the return of festivals was pretty obviously tilted towards the beer drinkers, and not the beer producers. It was an aberration, right?…
The dandy dozen breweries attending the NM Brew Fest bring their finest beers
As we promised in our preview of New Mexico Brew Fest earlier this week, we reached out to the 12 breweries attending this Saturday to acquire their beer lists in advance. We got 10, which is a lot better than none, and if any more late arrivals pop up in our inbox, we will add…
Bear Fest roars again at Boxing Bear’s Firestone location
While one big beer festival did not return for this Memorial Day weekend, another is back in full force as Bear Fest will once again take over the back parking lot at Boxing Bear’s Firestone taproom and brewery. The event runs from noon to 6 p.m. this Saturday, featuring five guest breweries and one distillery,…