New Mexico Beer Guide 2016 updated

John, you should've hollered at me before you went to Santa Fe. I could've saved you alot of time and effort and told you all of this. Probably could've arranged a tour/intro with Mr. Rowley himself too.

 

Great informative thread. Read through all 14 pages and have been keeping a watch on posts over the past month. Making my first trip to NM on Saturday and staying for 5 days in Santa Fe. Any additional tips would be much appreciated!

Landing at ABQ around 5 pm Saturday. Suggestion for quick but good beer/dinner, ideally in the same stop on the way to Santa Fe? Noticed Marble and LaCumbre have food trucks only? Are their packaged beers easy to find in Santa Fe?

In Santa Fe, staying about 20 minutes outside of town, not too far from Rowley Farmhouse Ales. Of course, looking to go there, Second Street, Fire and Hops, Whole Foods from the posts I've been reading. Any events/releases (even out of town distro) coming up next week? Any new places or restaurants/bars/happy hours worth hitting or places you'd recommend avoiding (owner/menu change, etc)?

Thanks in advance and look forward to lots of new beer ticks (...and exploring NM too)!

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

Thanks @ONovoMexicano ! Can't wait for my vacation to start!

 

@HeartofMiami, if beer is a focus on your trip I would highly recommend giving Albuquerque an overnight, or at least a day. With a focus on beer, I don't see how you come to New Mexico and not visit La Cumbre and Marble. A quick stop in to check them out isn't doing either place justice, I'd go in with the ability to relax and check their catalogs out. Albuquerque also has Bosque.....right now they don't have any hyped pilot/special release on tap but they do have their flagship Bosque Lager going and I was just in earlier and this batch is quite possibly the best batch they have turned out since i have been living here. As @ONovoMexicano mentioned, Canteen has some nice offerings going on. I stand by their Exodus IPA as being one of this state's best offerings. Bow & Arrow has also begun to win me over and I am a huge fanboy for their Radical Aim IPA and I think their brewery is one of the nicest set ups for drinking beer in this state....plus, they have some other nice releases right now like their Dessert Dynamite IPL, which I am also a bit of a fanboy towards.

I am also with @ONovoMexicano in regards to the food....Santa Fe is where its at, Albuquerque not so much. He didn't mention it, as beer isn't a focus, but I Iove Jambo up in Santa Fe.

Also worth noting, IMO, is that Albuquerque will offer a very different flavor to the state relative to Santa Fe. Less than 1 hour a part but 2 unique experiences.

 

I should probably clarify...by fanboy I mean I probably enjoy the beer more than I should/more than the rest of the crowd.

 

You do know there is a Jambo cafe in ABQ now right?

 

No, I absolutely did not. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Just as good as the SF location

 

We were in Santa Fe for 8 days back in April.

Fire and Hops was close to where we were staying, and it was a favorite.

Chili Line might not get much love, but after walking by it often we said why not? It had some excellent Rauchbiers, and as people who frequent Bamberg Germany, we went back again.

We walked by Radish and Rye, wished we would have stopped from your recommendation.

Meow Wolf was fascinating. Will stop at Rowley next time.

Next time? We are planning a month next April. Plenty to see and do in NM. Edit - Jambo is on the list now.

 

@erway

I just saw your FB post about the double July release of Hibiscus Quercus and Persica Quercus, both identified as sour farmhouse ales. Do they have brett or just kettle soured (Is that the proper way to phrase that question?)?

 

Brett was not used, but that's not what sours beer. Pediococcus, Lacotbacillus, and Acetobacteria are what sour beer. This beer was kettle soured, fermented with our saison yeasts, then barrel aged.

I decided long ago to never do barrel souring in our current facility. As much as I might love them, I know of far too many breweries that have all but gone bankrupt trying to chase these bugs out. For better or worse, I built the brewery around clean beers and I intend on keeping our beers 100% clean.

 

As one of those weird ones who prefers a nice clean beer to a wild one, I personally have no qualms with your current strategy. I mean I would love to see you guys put out some wild ales (because I do enjoy them) but I would even more love for you guys to continue throwing out the stuff you are...especially your lagers. Every time I see you guys have rotated in a new lager onto your taplines, I make an effort to hit your taproom up. I would hate to see that get interfered with in any way.

I do recognize its that trio of bacterium that are the actual souring agents...though I only was aware of only the lacto and pedio. Question related to that....and maybe I should be taking this to another thread...what is the difference between the different types of bacterium? Do they influence the beer in different ways? I would have to imagine they would, right?. Honestly, I have never paid attention/considered that aspect in sour beers.

 

Lactobacillus - most commonly utilized souring bacteria used by American brewers, not hop tolerant, produces lactic acid from sugar. Some strains are heterofermentative and can produce both EtOH and lactic acid, but the bulk are homofermentative and only produce lactic acid.

Pediococcus - souring bacteria used more by European brewers such as Fantome, but does have some fanboys here in the USA, such as Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River. Some say it makes a rounder, less sharp lactic character, but it tends to form polysaccharides (aka ropiness) so it may take a lot longer to resolve than a typically used lactobacillus strain. Pedio tends to tolerate IBU's a bit more than lactobacillus. All pediococcus strains are homofermentative and therefore only produce lactic acid from sugars.

Acetobacter - spoilage species for beer, makes acetic acid in the presence of oxygen. Acetic acid is commonly known as vinegar. Some Senne River Valley spontaneously-fermented beers will have a bit of acetobacter and it is tolerated in small concentrations in Flanders Reds and Oud Bruins, but I personally hate the stuff. If you want an acetic forward beer, drink a Duchess de Borgonone at room temperature. That's not lactic acid sourness. Makes for a good base for a vinaigrette salad dressing.

Brettanomyces, as mentioned earlier, is a wild yeast, not a bacteria. It will however produce acetic acid in the presence of oxygen, but at a much slower rate. You could theoretically have a sour beer made only with Brett, but it would take many years to get to that point. Lambic producers sometimes save these beers to blend in to younger years' vintages, but generally a beer like this is the result of someone forgetting about a barrel in the far reaches of a barrel cellar.

There are other lesser used and lesser known souring mechanisms, but these are the big three that Jeff mentioned in his earlier post.

 

That answers that. Thanks!

 

So Santa Fe's new 7k IPA ( a 7% WC style IPA) is right up my alley. They may be 5 years late to the party, but I feel it compliments the other core IPAs that are in and around the city. They've finally saddled up to the big boy table in what I like to call near 4 out of 5 core IPA range..

Freshness does have some influence I feel as it has a BEST by of 10/25 (it was likely canned 6/25). Exodus is hard to find fresh. Bosque IPA, there is only a canned on date inside the cardboard on the cans. So you never know what you're getting. Plus their contract brewer is doing them no favors.

This one fits right in with some of the better core offerings around IMHO

Way less piney and caramel malt flavored, it falls within the same general flavor ranges as Marble IPA, Elevated, and Bosque IPA. I have heard it's a new year round. So thats a plus for having more quality choices.

It was my first SFBC purchase in months. I'll give the other cans a go this weekend for more impressions to see if my first impressions hold up. It may not totally be worth a post, but since they are fresh and on sale ($7.99/sixer), why not promote this quality change of pace from SFBC