New Mexico Beer Guide 2016 updated

Bear knuckle made it pretty far in the ipa challenge. That should've been in bomber . I think overall, prices are out of control. I may pick up a one off stout or a gabf type winner. But an everyday dipa for $10? Hell no. I'm not even sniffing at their Baltic porter either. I'm sure it's all decent. But I have to take a stand somewhere. These traditionally seasonal $10 full growler beers are being pawned off for 3 times the price. I don't like it.

 

Thinking about. Beats the hell out of the other events. I'm still leery of dropping $25 for what is essentially 2 pints of beers. I can go to Bosque during that time or marble, have 3 pints and take home a growler and still be saving money.

I didn't go last year.

What I miss was when marble did their marble fest, I think in 2011. About 12 breweries. Unlimited sampling, but an option to buy pints. The rail yards had an event where they tried to limit sampling. It's tough because I realize it's an event meant to have fun, but I hate feeling ripped off. We also don't know what they will be serving.

Their page mentions exclusive beers. But I just don't know. All these fests seem to care about is the "new" craft beer fan and how to grow in that manner. I can't blame them but wouldn't it be awesome to see a small batch of full nelson make a early appearance at one of these fests. I'm talking maybe a bbl.

It's not feasible for many of these production breweries, who may be already working on their limitations, to go out of their way to make specific small batch stuff. Maybe 3 batches of various cask Project Danks showing various hops all together. That little stuff goes a long way. I'd love a small batch fest. But trying to sell that concept to brewery owners may be tough. "Let"s make beer that I then can't sell in retail form, because it's a small batch". Most breweries want their core beers at fests so they can be bought or requested at grocery stores.

I liked when Il Vicino (canteen) went into their cellar for their 20th anniversary. I know La Cumbre holds onto some stuff year after year. Just thinking out loud here. The common fest theme here in NM is not normally what I go for anymore.

 

After getting caught up on this thread I'm so bummed I'm only going to be in ABQ for 1 day while in NM.

 

@teamwiggum Which day? What are you planning to do? A full day? A drive through? I think we can help you out. First post is real nice and concise. Other releases may be around in current times though.

@ONovoMexicano As far as pilot systems, in the back of my mind, I feel every smallish brewery has a 15 gallon converted keg homebrew stand for recipe creations/testing. I'm not sure how big or small some places want to go. Santa Fe has/had a small batch Saturday where they basically brew up 10 gallons on a homebrew stand sort of set up (with a blichman plate chiller). Tractor has a $7 grand brew magic stand. 10 gallons could get you about 300 4 oz. sample servings.

The best thing we have going right now is the NM IPA challenge, so it's not all bad. Most places want to brew what they can sell (not give away in fest form), so it's really a pipe dream I am thinking up. Thinking of a unique/wacky homebrew-esque beer fest (but brewed by professionals).

 

Will be in NM the last week in June. Haven't set a specific day to hit ABQ, I need to see what other stuff the fiancée has planned and what days we're already tied up. We're staying in Santa Fe so we'll most likely be hitting La Cumbre/Bosque/etc during the daytime hours.

 

I'll keep you posted!

 

Did she have an accent and arm pit hair?

 

Trust me, the real homebrewers in Santa Fe made much better beer than the employees ever did during the Small Batch heyday.

 

There were a lot of bad ones, mostly towards the end of the run. But at the beginning and in the middle of the run when Phil the Younger was all up in it, there were some stellar beers that came out of that program. It fell apart after Kendra's tenure was up. For awhile there, it was a vibrant and exciting time with mostly solid experimental beers coming out of there.

I think opening it up to any Tom, Dick or Harry that wanted to brew was the death knell of the program. It really only worked when somewhat experienced brewers were doing it. I liken the end of the program to drinking Kelly's homebrews, which weren't much to talk about. Everyone's first homebrew isn't great, and it takes time to get your process down.

 

I am stoked with the path Bosque has taken recently, they really seem to be shaking the scene up on the ABQ beer front which has become a little stale, IMHO. Don't get me wrong both La Cumbre and Marble continuously make excellent beers, but both seem to be in a bit of a rut when it comes to creativity. Marbles anniversary gose was a rare miss for me and I personally love gose's. La Cumbre hasn't done anything exciting in a while, that was draft only that made me feel like I needed to get to the source. As our local distribution gets larger and larger, our local breweries are competing with some of the big national top breweries. I have faith that our scene can compete 365 days a year with these breweries, but I'm still anxiously waiting for one of our local breweries to come out with a game changer. It's hard for me to want to pick up a Malpais or even Marble anniversary stout when beers like Avery Tweak and Uncle Jacobs, or BCBS are sitting on shelves, or being poured locally. Give the beer nerds what they want... Every brewery here in town basically has the same rotation of beers, while no-one is making a BA adjunct stout, or these tropical Fruit bombs like the Eastcoast breweries. I may be completely off basis, but it doesn't seem to be that hard to throw some coffee, vanilla, coconut...etc - in a small batch of a stout and release it locally in a small amount. In the mean time I will continue to go to bosque and drink these delicious tropical IPA's that are fruity and something that are a refreshing change of pace. I know that we are #blessed with such a great local beer scene, and I love to support local but lately feel that I haven't been drinking enough local beer because there isn't enough local beer that excites me. Step your game up ABQ