La Cumbre Brewing (2022)

I visit New Mexico basically every year and always return home to Illinois with a bunch of cans from La Cumbre. Bow & Arrow surely won't disappoint, and if you have time, Ex Novo's outpost in nearby Corrales is also worth a stop. Rowley Farmhouse Ales is my favorite for beers in Santa Fe.

There's no shortage of great food options in most of the areas you'll be headed. A couple delicious and reasonable breakfast spots I like to hit up include The Pantry in Santa Fe and The Range in ABQ, with multiple locations. For lunch or dinner in ABQ, Cocina Azul and Mary & Tito's are solid for New Mexican food, and I love Peruvian chicken spot Pollito Con Papas.

Santa Fe is a little tougher for food, but only because there are so many terrific options. I think a lot of people still head to The Shed based on reputation, but I've eaten there twice over the years and swore it off after the last time. Maria's has decent enough food and a margarita list that will blow your mind. Loyal Hound is supposed to be great, but I haven't made it over there yet. The Ranch House is quite good. And though I haven't been to it in quite a few years, Rancho de Chimayo has been a great place for a meal with some pretty spectacular scenery on the reasonable drive from Santa Fe.

Bummed to hear El Paragua is closed. Hopefully it's only temporary.

 

Since this seems like the only New Mexico thread on here, I'll just keep using it.

We're headed there a month from today. Four nights in Santa Fe, one night in Taos and two nights in Albuquerque at the end. I've got the ABQ breweries figured out (Bow and Arrow, Marble and La Cumbre) and I'm definitely hitting Rowley in Santa Fe. Since I'll be in Santa Fe much longer, which other breweries are worth my time? Bosque? Others? I think the brewery in Taos will be closed when we're there mid week. Also any bottle shop recommendations would be awesome.

 

In Santa Fe, I think Second Street is making the best variety of beers right now. Fire and Hops usually has a nice mix of local/national taps. Draft Station overlooking the Plaza is all NM taps.
In Albuquerque, I would add Gravity Bound, just a two block walk from Marble. A small tap list but they've been making some fun stuff and recently started canning and you'll only find those cans at the brewery. Boxing Bear has a taproom downtown that is a very short Uber from the other downtown places you are visiting. They're usually IPA heavy and do well in that regard but I always get their Body Czech Pilsner. The owner/brewmaster of Boxing Bear was the assistant brewer to La Cumbre founder Jeff Erway back in the Chama River days so you know he had a great mentor! Good call on Marble, La Cumbre, and Bow and Arrow. B+A has the most prolific sour program in the area. Marble Pilsner is an underrated 6 time medalist at GABF/World Beer Cup and is my daily drinker. And La Cumbre is doing pretty much world class everything. Around the corner from La Cumbre, Canteen is worth a stop. They quietly make some really nice stuff as well.
I think you'll find the distribution at local stores underwhelming compared to other states as far as number of brands. It's very local centric here. Jubilation is the best independent and is always staffed with people happy to help. I have to say Total Wine does have a great section dedicated to singles of NM brewed beers and that section seems to have the freshest dates.

 

I'm really only interested in drinking local stuff, not gunning for out of area beers. IPAs, pales, pilsners/helles/lagers and saisons are my thing. Thanks!

 

Hopefully when you get here there will still be cans of La Cumbre Lager Softly Kellerbier and Bow and Arrow Lavaland Zwickelbier available, both are really good. Also, Marble has Dupy's Dunkel in cans for the first time.

 

We fly in late on the 8th (I debated ordering online at B&A and doing a pick up, but might be too late after grabbing food) and head up to Santa Fe initially. I won't be in Albuquerque until five days later so hopefully it hits distro or is still there.

 

It's been a while since I've been in Santa Fe, but will be heading down this coming weekend. Planning brewery stops seems easy enough (there are WAY more than there used to be), but what about stores? Susan's was the best option years ago, but I've read that's no longer the case. Anyone have good recommendations? Not looking for RAR's or anything like that. Mainly just want fresh "normal" NM beers I can drive home with.

 

Well heck, I can pick up whatever you want and hold it in the beer fridge for you if you'd like. Feel free to send a DM.

You're going to find the biggest selection at Total Wine off of Cerrillos Rd. They do a good job of carrying all the NM brands. Santa Fe is still a wine-centric town and there aren't bottle shops to speak of. I like to go the extra mile to Kokoman Liquors just to see beer on the shelves I had forgotten existed and to get food from El Parasol next door (also one off Cerrillos Rd., definitely worth stopping in).

 

Thanks for the offer, but I'll be cool with whatever is available. How are B&A's Foederland saisons?

 

Worth trying for sure. I think that the Saisons and sours are Bow and Arrow's biggest draw and you won't find many other breweries in Abq doing them on a regular basis. I know I wrote about individual places to check out earlier, but in a nutshell the places I'd seek out first for the following styles:
Hazies: Gravity Bound, La Cumbre
WC IPAs: La Cumbre, Boxing Bear, Ex Novo
Saisons, sours: Bow and Arrow
Lagers: Marble, La Cumbre (and if Quarter Celtic has their Dortmunder on, go get it)
Overall Variety: Marble, La Cumbre, Bow and Arrow
But so many breweries are doing good things and it's hard to leave some out when making lists. For example, my favorite place to actually sit down and enjoy a beer because of the vibe is probably Sidetrack Brewing downtown. Hopefully you'll find time to enjoy something in many breweries while you're here.

 

Bow & Arrow is my #1 brewery for the trip, mostly because they're native owned and I love seeing indigenous representation in the beer industry, especially when they make good stuff. We're staying pretty close to B&A (at the Painted Lady) which is handy as well. Otherwise gonna try to hit La Cumbre and Marble and maybe another, but we're only in ABQ for two full days/nights at the end of the trip so we'll see.

If you see a guy with a Floodland hoodie and a early-90s era Mariners hat, it's likely me.

 

Ahhh, welcome to the neighborhood. You'll be close to Sawmill Market, which has lots of food options but also houses Paxton's taproom, with around 40 taps of NM only breweries. You will also be very close to Ponderosa Brewing. If you have time you should stop in and try their 2021 GABF Gold winning Italian Pilsner.

 

Sounds awesome. I’m SeattleBeerPenguin on Untappd if you use it, looking forward to checking in beers down there next weekend.

 

Are they gonna reopen El paragua or not? I'm planning to head that way soon, hiT Mass at The Santuario, and was hoping to get some carne adovada at El paragua. But it sounds like it's closed.

 

Yeah, closed since Covid but as Erway mentioned, the same family owns El Parasol and they have an Espanola location. I asked the one person who might know if they were going to reopen but she didn't know, sorry.

 

Just got back and I was extremely happy with the beer selection at Total Wine. I wish more of it was stored cool, but I know that's just how the chain operates. They had basically everything I wanted selection-wise, though. I really, really miss having Marble Red around.

On the beer front, Santa Fe's scene has developed really nicely. For a long time it was basically just SFB (which I do still love) and the Monk's Ale beers. Now there are breweries and taprooms all over the place. A pile of them are right off the plaza, too. If you're willing to make a slight detour into town, Rowley's bottle list is among the best I've ever seen anywhere.

 

Rowley is really the only brewery I'm dead set on hitting in Santa Fe. We'll be there four days so I'm open to other suggestions.

 

Also, is there a good spot for local single cans/bottles in Santa Fe? Thinking about having something back at our AirBNB in the evenings.

 

This past weekend my wife and I visited Second Street, Chile Line, and the Bosque satellite taproom in addition to Rowley. For taprooms, we did Paxton's and Draft Station. All were good, but Second Street was my pick for the best stop. We didn't order a full meal, but their appetizers/snacks were great, too. Chile Line was the least polished of the bunch, but they had both green and red chile rauchbiers, which is something you don't see every day. They were actually pretty good, too. Their other items were fine, but you'll find better takes elsewhere.

 

I am 100% ready for NM chile rauchbiers. One. Hundred. Percent.