The New New Mexican Beer Scene: Day 3 / Las Cruces

Old Mesilla, Las Cruces, New Mexico

Las Cruces lies fifty miles north of the Mexican border and its influence is easily seen. During the three hour drive north from Las Cruces to Albuquerque, there are immigration check points (yes, within the US border). Of course, the stops only included a quick couple of questions for folks as pale as I am. There are around 100,000 people currently residing in Las Cruces and it is likely that I am one of the few to ever visit the city for their beer scene. In fact, there are only two breweries in town, so if you visit, I recommend supplanting your time by tasting some of the amazing Mexican cuisine.

Stop #1: De La Vega's Pecan Grill and Brewery

De La Vega's offers some of the poorest beers in the entire state. While it comes off as an upscale restaurant featuring "Surf and Turf", the beers range from severely flawed to just poorly crafted and distasteful. During my visit, I tried 12 small samples of their beers for about $10. The sampler tray covered seemingly every kind of American beer style: IPA, Stout, Pale Ale, Light Lager, Wheat Ale, and more. Their Pecan Amber was the most flavorful, but that's likely due to the adjuncts covering up some of the flaws in the beer. On the other side of the spectrum, De La Vega's German Pilsner just tasted like grassy, bitter water. It was hard not to compare it to the fine German Pilsner, South Peak Pilsner, that I had at La Cumbre the night before. Based on what I heard at the bar, the locals weren't complaining about the beer quality, but it is hard to recommend this place to anyone other than your enemies.

Beers: 1/10  |  Atmosphere: 6/10  |  Restrooms: A-

Best Beer: Pecan Amber Ale  |  Worth Visiting? Nope

Stop #2: High Desert Brewing Company

After the poor showing of De La Vega's, it was a bit hard to look forward to another brewery, but High Desert Brewing was a pretty solid place for craft beer. The brewery is housed in a bit of a rundown building, but I guess you can spin that and say the place has "character." The clientele on a Friday night was mostly twenty somethings with several hippies mixed in. Service was a bit spotty, but the beers made up for that. This is another place that has a strict "four samplers per table at a time" policy, so you'll have to track down your server every time you need some more tasters. I had ten tasters and the bill was around $15, though I believe some of the premium beers were more expensive. My favorite of the night at High Desert was their Barleywine, which is a limited offering that is only available at the brewery. It packed a serious punch at 11% alcohol by volume and did cause some retronasal burn when I tasted it, but overall, it was a tasty, richly malty, caramel-laden barleywine. Their Porter was also a pretty solid beer with a nice cocoa taste to go along with just enough bitterness to balance the beer. While those were the highlights, the restrooms were downright nasty and had more holes punched in the walls than Uncle Jerry's in Exira, Iowa.

Beers: 7/10  |  Atmosphere: 6/10  |  Restrooms: D-

Best Beer: Barleywine  |  Worth Visiting? Yes

Review: Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin

If you're looking for a solid, sessionable stout, look no further than Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin. Firestone Walker has an array of great beers, but Velvet Merlin stands out to me as one of the finest beers that is easily obtainable. A six pack runs about $9.99 in Colorado and has 5.5% alcohol by volume, one of the reasons that it is so easy to drink.

Velvet Merlin is an Oatmeal Stout that has a huge aroma of baker's cocoa, rich and fresh coffee, sweet vanilla beans, and roast. The mouth feel is very soft and silky. This beer is just packed with rich cocoa/dark chocolate flavor with some lesser fruit notes, mild coffee, and an almost brownie batter-like taste. There is a fairly nice hoppy bite to balance out the sweetness and while this beer is somewhat of a dessert beer, the flavor doesn't linger on your palate too incredibly long. At a $9.99 price point, it's hard to find a better stout to drink a six pack of on a cool night in Colorado.

Aroma: 9/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 9/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 18/20 (4.3/5.0)

My cat Lenin also tasted Velvet Merlin and found it to be adequate, rating it a 6/10.

The New New Mexican Beer Scene: Day 2 / Albuquerque

After a successful tour of Santa Fe, we departed for Albuquerque for a very packed day of beer tasting en route to Las Cruces. Albuquerque is about an hour southwest of Santa Fe and our beer tour officially began by getting lost in the northern suburbs of Albuquerque before finally arriving at Bosque Brewing.

Stop #1: Bosque Brewing

Bosque Brewing just opened in Autumn 2012. It has a neat little tasting room with what appears to be some killer sandwiches. These sandwiches appeared to be pretty popular based on the number of phone in orders that were taken while we were at Bosque. Based on the brews that I tasted, it seems that Bosque still has some kinks to work out in their beers, as I tasted DMS (Dimethyl sulfide) in several of their beers. This off flavor is noted by a cooked vegetable flavor and aroma. The beers I tasted were Bitter Brit (3/10), Brewer's Boot (4/10), Cumulus White IPA (4/10), Mellow Brit (5/10), Oatmeal Stout (5/10), and Old Bosky (4/10). Strangely enough, the shitters also had an odd aroma that was also kind of reminiscent of cooked vegetables despite being immaculately clean.

Beers: 2/10  |  Atmosphere: 7/10  |  Restrooms: B-

Best Beer: Oatmeal Stout  |  Worth Visiting? No at the current moment

Stop #2: Chama River Brewing Company

Beer touring is so much fun!
(Translation: Hurry the FUCK UP!)

Our second stop of the day was Chama River which features some of the better beers in New Mexico. The atmosphere is an upscale restaurant and they did have taster trays available. When we arrived at Chama River, I asked for tasters of everything, but the waitress informed that we were only allowed 24oz of shared alcohol at the table at a time per New Mexico state law. Huh? Most all of the beers were easy drinking and flavorful. I tasted Class VI Golden Lager (4/10), Broken Spoke Honey Wheat (6/10), Rio Chama Amber (4/10), Rio Lodo Brown (7/10), Jackalope IPA (8/10), Sleeping Dog Stout (8/10), Centennial Pale Ale (6/10), Shadow Boxer Black IPA (6/10), Copper John Pale Ale (5/10), and Me Llamo Lodo (5/10). My favorite of the stop was Sleeping Dog Stout, which was a Milk Stout with delicious notes of chocolate, vanilla, and light coffee. Luckily we skipped lunch here, as I tasted some of the finest tacos of my life at a random stop after Chama River. Their beers are only available on location. 

Beers: 8/10  |  Atmosphere: 7/10  | Restrooms: B

Best Beer: Sleeping Dog Stout  |  Worth Visiting? Yes

Stop #2.5: Taco Cabana

Holy shit, these are THE best fucking tacos of my life!

Stop #3: Nexus Brewery

After some of the most scrumptious tacos of my life, we proceeded to Nexus Brewery which is a bit hard to find on a frontage road next to Interstate 25. Nexus is also a very new brewery, opening in 2011. The service was fantastic here, the beers were decent enough, and the restrooms were decent enough. When I visited, the following ten beers were available: Maximus IPA (5/10), Imperial Cream Ale (5/10), Chocolate Porter (6/10), English Barley Wine (5/10), Belgian Wit (4/10), Cream Ale (5/10), American IPA (5/10), Scottish Ale (5/10), American Red (6/10), and American Stout (5/10). If you're in ABQ, then a stop may be warranted but there really aren't any stand out beers.

Beers: 5/10  |  Atmosphere: 6/10  |  Restrooms: C

Best Beer: Chocolate Porter  |  Worth Visiting? Maybe

Stop #4: La Cumbre

One of the neat tables at La Cumbre

At this point in the day, the sun was already going down, as we ventured to one of the best breweries in New Mexico that featured 11 beers. La Cumbre was a rocking place with a lot of fun people and a fun atmosphere. They are well known for their Elevated IPA, which is an über-hoppy IPA with tons of notes of ganja, pine, and citrus. It's a real palate wrecker which is the reason that the staff recommend tasting it last. Elevated IPA was such a killer beer that I picked up a case of La Cumbre Elevated IPA to bring home and share with friends. A four pack of 16 ounce cans of Elevated IPA runs $10.49. It can either be found at the brewery or at a few select liquor stores in New Mexico. Unlike Chama River, La Cumbre had no problem serving me 11 tasters at the same time. Besides Elevated IPA, their South Peak Pilsner was very authentic and tasty. Also on tap during my visit was their 2nd Anniversary Stout, which was a delicious Imperial Stout aged in red wine barrels. A taster tray during my visit included Jefe's Hefe (7/10), South Peak Pilsner (8/10), Pyramid Rock Pale (7/10), Mal Pais Stout (6/10), Pecos Porter (7/10), Hot Shots Rauch (7/10), Trout English Pale Ale (5/10), Pater's Pale (6/10), 2nd Anniversary Stout (8/10), Noche De Paz (6/10), and Elevated IPA (9/10). 

Beers: 8/10  |  Atmosphere: 8/10  |  Restrooms: C

Best Beer: Elevated IPA  |  Worth Visiting? YES!

Stop #5: Marble Brewery

Though we made an extended stop at the Marble taproom in Santa Fe the night before, we did make a quick stop to try three beers at the Marble location in Albuquerque that weren't available in Santa Fe. Pumpkin Porter (7/10) had a really nice toasted pumpkin flavor, Brown Porter (7/10) had a delicious nutty flavor in addition to some roast, and Daisy Mae (6/10) was an interesting experimental sour. All of these beers are only available in the tap room. Honestly, this location is preferable and more fun than the Santa Fe location and probably the number one beer stop in New Mexico.

Beers: 8/10  |  Atmosphere: 9/10  |  Restrooms: B+

Best Beer: Pumpkin Porter  |  Worth Visiting? FUCK YEAH!

This was the most intense day of our New Mexican beer tour and in total, I tried 40 beers during the day. After Marble, I was due for a long nap as we made the haul three hours south to Las Cruces.

The New New Mexican Beer Scene: Day 1 / Santa Fe

Just after New Year's, Rachel and I headed to New Mexico in search of good beer and even better tacos. We succeeded on both accounts. In total, we stopped at 15 breweries across the state and I rated 109 beers in total. New Mexico has some really fun breweries, so without further ado, let's take a journey south of the (Colorado) border. (Note that my ratings of each beer are listed in parentheses.)

Stop #1: Santa Fe Brewing Company

Heading to Santa Fe, New Mexico

It's about a six hour journey from Denver to Santa Fe, straight down Interstate 25. We arrived around 6pm and began our night at Santa Fe Brewing Company. Santa Fe is one of the larger breweries in New Mexico and distributes several of their beers to Colorado, mostly in can format. Taster trays weren't offered in the tasting room, but they did offer me a couple of free samples regardless. I stuck to the beers that I hadn't previously rated and tried their Dirty Blonde (5/10), Nut Brown (5/10), and Black IPA (4/10. None of the beers were that exciting but their other beers which I did not taste on this trip are pretty tasty. My favorite beer from Santa Fe Brewing is their Imperial Java Stout, which is available in cans in Colorado.

Beers: 7/10  |  Atmosphere: 6/10  |  Restrooms: B

Best Beer: Imperial Java Stout  |  Worth visiting? Yes

Stop #2: Blue Corn Cafe and Brewery

After Santa Fe Brewing, we headed to Blue Corn Cafe and Brewery (Southside location). Blue Corn is a brewery restaurant with two location in Santa Fe. For dinner, I had enchiladas smothered in red and green chili sauce and was pretty happy with my selection. I tasted eight beers here including Atomic Blonde (5/10), Atalaya Amber (5/10), Road Runner IPA (6/10), End of the Trail Brown (4/10), Gold Medal Oatmeal Stout (5/10), JB's Log Splitter (7/10), Golden Strong Ale (6/10), Imperial Porter Reserve (6/10). All of the beers were decent with the JB's Log Splitter Heller Bock being my favorite, which unfortunately is a limited release only available at one of the brewpubs on random occasions.

Beers: 6/10  |  Atmosphere: 7/10  | Restrooms: B-

Best Beer: JB's Log Splitter Heller Bock  |  Worth Visiting? Maybe

Stop #3: Second Street Brewery

Refreshed after dinner, our next stop was Second Street Brewery, located near the old Santa Fe train station. This place was a bit hard to find and was full of hipsters. I tried seven beers that were mostly mediocre: Kolsch (3/10), IPA (4/10), Tres Equis Lager (4/10), Rail Runner Pale Ale (4/10), Pajarito Pale Ale (5/10), Alternator Doppel Alt (5/10), Barley Wine (7/10). The Barley Wine was the standout beer, which was a very limited release and only available at the brewpub.

Beers: 4/10  |  Atmosphere: 4/10  |  Restrooms: B

Best Beer: Barley Wine  |  Worth Visiting? No

Stop #4: Marble Brewery

Marble Brewing

The final stop of the evening was also the most anticipated: Marble Brewing. Marble was started in Albuquerque, but now has a tasting room in a mall in Old Town Santa Fe. It's a little tricky finding the place, as it is at the end of a hall at the top of an indoor mall. If I remember correctly, tasters were available though they were somewhat large. Marble distributes beer to Colorado and I have been impressed with many of their offerings, particularly their Imperial Stout, which is aged in Bourbon barrels. I savored the five beers that I tasted: 111 Pilsner (6/10), Amber Ale (6/10), Red Ale (7/10), Imperial Stout (9/10), Brewer's Cut Volume I (6/10). The Imperial Stout was hands down the winner of the tasting and I ended up picking up four bottles to bring home. It may see some limited distribution to Colorado (I've never seen it here), but your best bet is to pick some up at one of the Marble locations or trade for it. The atmosphere was about as good as you could expect from an indoor mall. The restrooms were difficult to locate down a dark hallway on the other side of the mall.

Beers: 8/10  |  Atmosphere: 6/10  |  Restrooms: D+

Best Beer: Imperial Stout  |  Worth Visiting? YES!

'Tis the Saison

"Saison is Life." -Master Saison critic, Ernest C. of Boulder, Colorado

While it is extremely hard to pin down what exactly characterizes the beer style Saison in today's eccentric beer market, historically, Saisons are a bit easier to classify. They originated in Wallonia, a region in southern Belgium, where they were brewed for farm hands in farmhouses. Their utility lied in providing potable water in a time when clean water was not necessarily adequately available. Since the goal of drinking Saisons was hydration rather than getting blasted while farming, it was a necessity that Saisons have low amounts of alcohol (generally, 3-3.5% ABV). As a style, these type of Saisons also tended to be refreshing, very dry, and could exhibit characteristics of the terroir such sourness from wild yeasts. Today, Saisons can (and often do) have an alcohol content up to 10% ABV, sometimes have additional spices (such as Coriander or Black Pepper) added to compliment the natural spiciness from Saison yeast, and are occasionally aged in oak or wine barrels.

For the holidays, I reexamined many of my favorite Saisons, including a couple of traditional, Old World examples and a couple of new age, American-made Saisons. For a beginner to the style, I highly recommend trying the world famous, Saison Dupont Vieille Provision. Saison Dupont Vieille Provision is usually referred to Saison Dupont, has 6.5% ABV, and runs about $8.99 for a 750 mL bottle in the US. It is brewed in Tourpes-Leuze, Belgium and can be easily found in most specialty beer shops. The carbonation is very apparent after the initial pour, both interspersed in the body as well as in the long lasting white head. There's a really refreshing, tangy lemon juice note and effervescence to the aroma in addition to notes of black pepper, herbs, and flowers. This is really an inviting, refreshing nose. The first taste exhibits some of the same lively, refreshing carbonation with notes of zesty lemon and citrus peel followed by an herbal, dry, fairly bitter, floral hoppy element. Acidity is present to a certain degree due to the carbonation and really makes this a refreshing, easy to drink beer. Saison Dupont is truly a world-class brew that anyone interested in beer should seek out to get an introduction to Saisons.
Aroma: 9/10, Appearance: 5/5, Taste: 9/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 17/20 (4.4/5.0)

Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux has long been one of my very favorite Saisons. Like Saison Dupont Vieille Provision, Avec les Bons Voeux is brewed by Brasserie Dupont in southern Belgium. Unlike Saison Dupont, this beer has a fairly high alcohol content at 9.5% ABV. It is released in the wintertime and can be found at most beer specialty shops for around $10.99 for a 750 mL bottle. Avec les Bons Voeux has a very hazy yellow-orange appearance with a really nice, creamy white head. There's almost a ginger-like spiciness in the nose along with a fair amount of black pepper notes. Bread is also noticeable in the aroma along with a fair amount of citrus, but not as much as the Saison Dupont. In addition to a fairly citrusy/lemon zesty flavor, there is a fairly dry, straw grainy taste apparent. Some acidity exists from the carbonation leading to it being pretty easy to drink despite the high alcohol content, but there's an even more extensive bitter, floral hoppiness to the beer. This is really a nice beer to share at the holidays.
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 5/5, Taste: 9/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 17/20 (4.3/5.0)

While the two previous Dupont Saisons are some of the more popular Belgian versions of the style, I also recently tasted two of my favorite American-made Saisons. Anchorage Brewing was opened by Gabe Fletcher, who formerly brewed at Midnight Sun Brewing in Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage Love Buzz Saison was one of the brewery's first releases and is among the most highly rated American-made Saisons. Love Buzz has been released twice since 2011, runs $17.99 for a 750 mL bottle, and can be found on a limited basis in the western United States. As with other Anchorage releases, it tends to sell out quite quickly due to growing popularity of the brewery. Love Buzz is brewed with some additional spices and is aged in French oak Pinot Noir barrels and it pours a cloudy dark orange appearance with an off white head. I found the aroma to be especially zippy with a big vinous element along with some dark berry, herbal, and spicy notes. The flavor is pretty funky with a white pepper-like spiciness. Some grape sourness also exists in the flavor with a dry oaky element that really takes over. While the wine barrel really provides a lot in this beer, there are a lot of other nice spicy, herbal elements to the beer. As with all Anchorage releases, this beer is fairly pricey, but it is well-made, complex, and very delicious to drink. Hopefully Anchorage will see expanded distribution in the near future!
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 16/20 (4.0/5.0)

On Christmas Day, in addition to Anchorage Love Buzz, my brother and I also tasted two of my favorite Saisons released by Hill Farmstead: Art and Flora. As with most Hill Farmstead releases, these are extremely limited and are generally only available at the brewery in northern Vermont. Unless you live in the New England region and don't mind driving multiple hours to Hill Farmstead's releases, the only way to obtain these bottles is through the legally dubious, highly addictive hobby of beer trading. While I won't go into details on the intricacies of beer trading in this post, it will suffice to mention that obtaining Hill Farmstead beers is difficult and usually requires you to trade the most limited beers in your beer cellar. Hill Farmstead Art is a Saison aged in white wine barrels and retains some of the more white fruity elements like apple and pear, but the true winner of our Saison Christmas Day tasting was Hill Farmstead Flora. It pours a fairly hazy, golden orange appearance with a white head and has decent head retention. A tropical fruit bouquet (mango, pineapple, passionfruit) dominates the aroma and is beautifully complemented by some of the vinous elements from the French oak wine barrel aging like oak and vanilla. To me, the key element of the flavor is a fruity tartness that makes it so quenching and delicious. The tropical fruity elements just dominate your palate along with a lesser, dry wheat malty note. Super delicious and easy to drink. A truly beautiful beer and among my twenty favorite beers. Fuck yeah.
Aroma: 10/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 10/10, Palate: 5/5, Overall: 18/20

Good American-made Saisons are not necessarily easy to come by, but the aforementioned Hill Farmstead Brewery, the Fort Collins-based Funkwerks, and the Colorado Springs-based Trinity Brewing all produce some fantastic Saisons. Some other delicious Saisons worth seeking out include Trinity Farmhouse #57 (Saison Provisional), Boulevard Saison Brett, Cigar City Guava Grove, Upright #5.

For further reading, check out Ernest's great article, Saison is Life, and the book Farmhouse Ales by Phil Markowski.

New Year, New Blog

Welcome to my long awaited blog on the Colorado beer scene! Sure, there are plenty of Colorado beer blogs out there (I recommend The Colorado Beer Girl, Napa of Beer, and Fermentedly Challenged), but I will be providing a few additional features including

• Gonzo-style beer ratings
• An introduction to various beer styles
• Inside the lives of beer tickers
• Some of the more interesting local tastings
• Feline beer ratings

For the past two plus years, I have been rating (in beer geek lingo, "ticking") beers on RateBeer. Today, I stand at 5,343 beer ratings and have finally decided to take the plunge on creating a beer blog. I have also served as the alco-political correspondent on Festung Europa and I am hoping to contribute to a variety of like minded blogs in the coming months, as well as having some guest correspondents here at Schrödinger's Cat.

A couple of my first features will focus on two beer scenes, the state of New Mexico and the city of St. Louis, and one of my favorite beer styles, Saisons. In the mean time, here's my notorious cat, Lenin, tasting one of the world's most popular Double IPAs, Bear Republic Racer X.