Thursday, May 28, 2020

Stay and Drink at Home Extended

Want a stranger rubbing you down for an hour? Come to a New Mexico massage parlor. Want to breathe heavy around other people breathing heavy in a closed environment? Come work out in New Mexico. Want to drink at a brewery in New Mexico? Whoa, you have a fricking death wish or something??? This is not an opinion piece, but like our governor, I try to use science as a guide. Can you explain to me how either of the two scenarios I listed are safer than drinking a beer at a brewery (besides the alcohol not being great for you part, lets not think about that ever)? Doesn't the gov know we have a Beer Week going on right now?

Luckily, there are things planned to get us through even if we have to do it at home. And now you can get your beer delivered curbside, nearly a month after peak infection numbers in the state. Hey, sometimes it takes a few days to read everything in the capitol suggestion box. And if you really want to see other people drinking around you and talk about beer, take part in the NM Brewers Guild NET SESH FEST II on Friday, May 29th from 5-7ish. Don't know why they have to yell the title at us. The fest hosts a number of local brewery people who will cover a variety of subjects, give presentations, tours, give some dirt on the breweries they don't like* (*they won't). It all happens from the comfort in front of your computer screen. The Guild asks that you show up with beer that is from a NM craft brewery if you're going to be drinking. Durango beer doesn't count. Show up with something from Utah and your info is sold on the dark web. Presenters are as follows:
Nate Jackson (Marble Brewery)
Bert Boyce (Santa Fe Brewing)
Zach Guilmette (Canteen Brewhouse)
Dana Serio (Red Door Brewing)
Ted O' Hanlon (Bow and Arrow Brewing)
Bill Arnold (575 Brewing)
Rob Palmer (Palmer Brewery)
John Rowley (Rowley Farmhouse Ales)
Tickets are available here

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Your Saturday Beer Week Options

How's your Virtual Beer Week treating you? Ex Novo has to be pretty happy with it so far, as their Dress Code cherry pie kettle sour was a quick sellout. Hopefully their All Together take on Other Half's open recipe lasts longer.

In other Corrales Beer Week news, Casa Vieja Brewery is hosting a digital guided tasting from 1:30 to 3 today, the catch being you have to get out there and get a four-pack from the brewery in order to participate. Head Brewer Gary Socha will lead the tasting.

This sounds fun: Tractor Nob Hill is hosting a mystery beer contest from 2-6. Participants purchase an unlabeled four-pack of beer and are given the ABV and IBUs of the beer as the only clues. Participants are then given one hour to pound the beers and try to navigate their way out of the taproom. No? That's not how this works? My bad. It seems that participants have until Monday to try to figure out the style of the beer and then write a description of it. The winner gets to name the beer and also wins a Tractor prize pack. Great way to get people involved. Beer Week in dire times may leave fewer options than TV channels in the days before cable, but there are some very creative events.

Thursday, May 21, 2020

The Show Must Go On, Sort Of

In a decision that we figured was coming but weren't prepared to face, GABF has been cancelled for 2020. The Brewers Association is planning an "immersive online experience" for October 14-16, but come on. What can compare with that Thursday evening excitement when they unleash the thousands of people on the Colorado Convention Center with the bagpipers playing and 4,000 samples awaiting you? GABF had been scheduled for Sept. 24-26 (and everybody knows that September GABF is better because the weather is better) but the Colorado Convention Center is one of the alternate care sites slated for Covid 19 overrun. The BA's plan for a tweaked version of GABF is still in planning, but will feature "Beer tastings, conversations with brewers, local brewery activations, and at-home food and beer pairing deliveries" according to the BA's press release. I'm most interested to find out just what the hell a local brewery activation is. And for the beer tastings, will I be allowed to pour more than a one ounce sample?

In more jovial news, ABQ Beer Week, the city's longest running celebration of all things beer, returns largely in spirit this week. We could call this To Go Beer, Week 8: A Continued Celebration of Drinking in Solitude, but at least we've got something going on. Beer Week this year consists mostly of special releases around town, including a few today:
Marble releases Marble Porter today, a style that is often requested but rarely made by Marble. Ask, and Beer Week giveth.
Road trip? Red River releases Desperado Mexican Lager today. Red River: come see our street.
High and Dry is listed to be releasing Bruised Knees IPA and Helles in a Handbasket but these beers have been on for a few days now.
Finally (finally?), Kilt Check is releasing Lockdown Lager today.
Events will run through June 3rd.