New Mexico Beer Guide 2016 updated

We had 7 or 8 of our own beers on as of last night. We've got a lot of beer in our pipeline now, including all the barrel aged bottles bottle conditioning on honey right now. Those are at least a month out, but as for draft offerings, our new Fields of Rye - Spring 2017 version (Citra dry-hopped, ABV reduced over the winter variant) is about to go on, and our "Zero" IBU IPA is dry-hopping now. It tasted super tropical before the dry hops went it so I have high hopes for this beer. We also have a Meyer Lemon Gose finishing up now and I think we will have this at Bearfest on the 17th. We also brewed our IPA Challenge version of Agent Scully yesterday, which we will be using the current Simcoe/Amarillo combo but we are going to experiment with some YCH Citra cryo powder in the dry-hop. We also have a bunch of small batch mixed fermentation saisons in the fermenters now (earl grey teabagged, blue corn, Japanese themed with green tea, NZ themed with all Nelson on sauvignon blanc lees) as well a lime kolsch, which we should also be bringing to Bearfest.

Lots on the way. Thanks for the kind words...

 

Following this thread in preparation for an early July trip to Santa Fe...can't wait to try so many new and excellent sounding beers and think I'm most looking forward to visiting Rowley Farmhouse Ales!

 

Went to Rowley yesterday and enjoyed the Boysenberry Berline. Will go back to get a couple cans to take back to Houston to share with friends. May hit up Fire and Hops and Draft Station tonight. Try to Second Street today as well.

 

Not impressed with Draft Station in Santa Fe. Service was horrible. Tried to charge me $54 for 1 beer and they were running around with their heads cut off, place wasn't even busy. Expected better. Beer at Second Street was underwhelming. Rowley is the place in Santa Fe.

 

Bosque has their first attempt at a New England IPA on tap and, unsurprisingly, they nailed it.

 

Don't know if it was their first but we really enjoyed El Jugo at Cumbre which was in the NEPA or NEIPA style.

 

Yeah, El Jugo remains my favorite local NE style IPA, personally.

Bosque's (All The Rage) and Marble's (Blonco Bronco) are my 2 runner ups.

 

Wasn't impressed with All the Rage. Juicy IPA, yes. NEIPA, no. Also had Bronco Blanco. Flavor was lacking, needs to be brighter.

 

I think the Rowley owner or brewer already chimed in but I'll add some impressions about Rowley as we really enjoyed that spot and were delighted it was right near our motel. If I recall they had about 5-6 house brews on when we were there (first two nights in NM), we tried all of those and liked each one. Not a boring beer among them, no flaws at all, would have loved even more house made options; however, the guest taps that filled out the 20-25 tap beer list were also really well selected. Just a great place to drink beer. Second night we basically closed the place down and ate food and the food was stellar too. I had a crayfish etouffee and they made their vegie risotto vegan for my friend. Really friendly staff and owner, and the bartender was super attentive, as he prepared to close up he was meticulously cleaning everything. The only problem with the spot that I could see was that when it is cold outside everyone wants to come inside and there is not that much room. But we managed to squeeze in both (cold) nights, would love to enjoy their beer and food on the nice patio in warmer weather.

Really enjoyed our visit to Canteen too, super easy walk from Cumbre, and not crowded at all, got to talk with the staff a fair bit, try some samples, good beers but not quite on the Cumbre level. Really enjoyed their pilsner which apparently is a bit of a specialty of their current brewer. At least one of the staffers we spoke to was a bit bummed that their beers did not get the love they deserved, felt that maybe ownership could have invested more and kept their 'first mover' advantage.

 

FYI, El Jugo cans released today. Should be around for a week or so. We have another batch on the way. Have a great weekend everybody. Cheers!

 

Very cool. I already had a visit to the taproom today planned to try that Kolsch I saw posted your Facebook page.

 

Let me know your thoughts on the kolsch.

 

I had All the rage last week. About on par with Bosques other IPAs (4-4.25ish). Not crazy WOW worthy. Just very very solid. Nothing seemed to stand out as being NE hazy. Scale Tipper is hard to match I guess.

@erway Congrats. I think you hit El Jugo out of the park.

Now this is only impressions from having it on draft today. But I saw 4 improvements that make this a frickin home run.

1. Aroma seems more lively
2.Softer mouthfeel, less of a co2 sort of coca cola bite
3. Less of a chalky yeast flavor
4. As mentioned on prior pages, there was this heavy handed dull bitterness that seemed to come out in prior batches. The phenolic bitterness seems nullified here

When you add all this together, this may be on par with some of the best IPAs around.
Thanks for going through the pilot phases and not just selling that in cans right away. Some loved the first edition months back, and I did too. But I feel this is on a package sale can worthy production scoop.

I'll get to some cans tonight (sales seem on par or higher than Nelson releases).Do you mind sharing what types of hops were used? And yes, please release this in cans again and again.

 

I have never been a kolsch fan but really enjoyed Boxing Bear's New MexiKolsch a couple months back. Since then I have noticed a new openness to the style. Re: Miles from Cologne....I really dug it and will definitely be back for more. I went with the 7 oz pour as promoted.

Drinking a can of the El Jugo right now....I like it but preferred the last batch to this one, personally. This is a bit sweeter to me and less bitter....which I imagine is more on point with the style, just not my preferences?.....then again, I did also just have an Elevated on tap and that could very well have fucked with my taste buds.

Right now, if I had a choice between another Miles from Cologne and El Jugo I would easily go with a Miles From Cologne...which is all about me really enjoying Miles from Cologne.

 

Ditto, but kolsch is one of my favorite styles, and this is the best one we've ever made. I think both comments on El Jugo are accurate, though I do like this one better and most of our staff would like to see the bitterness backed off even further.

 

Meridian, Centennial, Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin and Citra. Thanks. Glad you liked it.

 

So with the Kolsch on, this is the first time that I have seen brewers from around town drinking something in our tap room other than BEER. The stange is certainly a novelty. I love the Kolsch. I love the Helles. But we only have so many taps. We would get a lot of push back if we didn't have room for seasonals... BEER is the best selling pale clean beer we have ever made, so that's what we went with. I think we will start looking at expanding what we can with our labeler, but can't really comment on what exactly those beers will be as I would be speaking for our whole staff. I don't like making decrees, I'm a much bigger fan of being democratic about what we release so that successes and failure are all of ours. Cheers.

 

More La Cumbre Helles would be a most welcome thing...especially canned, but even if not. I think I have tried a couple helles from LC now and thought all were great.

What I would love even more? South Peak Pilsner.

 

No surprise. El Jugo in cans is just as good as draft. I actually had to return to get a second days opinion of the draft. Aromas seemed to open up. I could smell the mango tropical fruit aromas from 3 ft away. Otherwise, opinions stay the same. Amazing!

I did get a mug club of the Kolsch before jumping into the postmodern ipa. I'm not too keen on exact differences in ingredients and styles between that and the BEER beer, but they remind me a lot of each other. Kolsch may be a touch more dry and to my liking to be honest.

For years, I felt they've always done the German styles very well. From the slice of hefen, to the bigger weizenbock, to the dunkel, to your VMO renditions, each one of those could be canned for sale and would be up there among the best available. Kolsch would be no different. What German styles haven't been masterly crafted by them yet? Helles is another favorite of mine. From what I remember, a drier crisper beer beer, much like the Kolsch. Very nuanced flavor profiles all around for the lighter German styles.