New Mexico Visit Beer Report
It’s been a busy summer, but Mike and Jesse were able to take their wives on a little weekend away to New Mexico! It was actually 4 days, and we visited Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Time was, as it usually is, short, and we didn’t get to sample nearly as many craft breweries as we wanted, but here’s our report on what we did sample.
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First off, Sandia Hard Cider is really good! We sampled quite a few flavors and were pretty impressed. We first ran into them in Albuquerque, but then found them in a liquor store in Santa Fe as well, so we were able to stock up for the trip back. We are enjoying a black cherry in the video, we particularly loved the Watermelon while we were in New Mexico.
https://sandiahardcider.godaddysites.com/
https://www.facebook.com/sandiahardcider/
We also sample a Blue Corn Lager from Steel Bender Brew Yard during the filming.
https://steelbenderbrewyard.com/
As well as “Social Hour” by Santa Fe Brewing company, a hazy wheat with Tropical Fruit.
https://santafebrewing.com
Our first brewery visit in New Mexico was Ex Novo in Corrales. It’s really a great location, separate tap room and outdoor area separated by the parking lot. They know how to make some amazing lagers! We were really digging their Mexican lager, Helles, German Pilsner, and the other non-lager beers as well. Really a top notch brewery with a great location.
http://www.exnovobrew.com/corrales
The next alcohol related stop was Casa Rondeña. This is a winery that we enjoyed quite a bit. Very traditional looking building, and a lovely outdoor setting. So lovely in fact, they host Weddings and private events. The wines we had were terrific, and even though Mike is pretty new to wine, he quite enjoyed them.
https://www.casarondena.com/
That morning we went to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and Technology, great place to visit! It’s overflowing with displays, to include aircraft and nuclear missiles in the yard, very interesting displays about the first tests, and a collection of artifacts relating to the period. If you like museums, you should make sure to visit.
https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/
We were hoping to visit the statue of Walt and Jesse from Breaking Bad that’s at the conference center, but they were closed for the weekend. We also wanted to find a Los Pollos Hermanos, but Google maps lied. It shows several locations, but none of them are really there. Although you can visit the Twisters location where the restaurant shots were filmed.
We made our own little pub crawl that evening, hitting several breweries.
Marble Brewing – We were really impressed with Marble, the beers were terrific, and the venue was welcoming and very nice. They had an outdoor area for entertainment, and it served as a beer garden /patio. Marble’s beer was all over the place in New Mexico, and deservedly so.
https://marblebrewery.com/
Gravity Bound – Most excellent selection of well made craft beers. Again, their lagers were terrific, and there was a smoked beer called “Smoke Beers not Trees” that may be one of the best smoked beers we’ve ever had. The smoke character was very mild and didn’t override the rest of the beer’s character. Mike’s wife loved the “Mango Layer”, a Mango Coconut Coffee Sour, it was terrific beer, and each flavor was distinct. Mike even reached out to the brewery to ask if they would be willing to share the recipe. So far he hasn’t heard back.
https://www.gravityboundbrewing.com/
We swung by Red Door Brewing Company, but they didn’t have any of their beer on tap, we heard later that they may be having an issue with their brew house and are getting it repaired. Maybe next time we visit we can swing in there.
Boese Brothers was our last stop of the evening in Albuquerque, they had some great beer as well, and we spent quite awhile there watching folks cruising up and down the street.
https://www.boesebrothersbrewery.com/
Next Stop was Santa Fe. We didn’t have a whole lot of time in Santa Fe, and spent much of it checking out the Santa Fe Plaza. A really neat area with he typical tourist shops you would expect, and there’s also a park area with a gazebo where you can watch some Native American dancing and demonstrations. A wide range of lovely jewelry and other hand made items were on display next to the park. If you’re a fan of the southwest jewelry style it’s an excellent place to spend some time.
While in the plaza we stopped at Desert Dog Brewery and Cidery. They didn’t have any beers of their own, and it looked like some construction was going on, but they had a great selection of beers, and it was a nice place to sit down and hang out.
We had breakfast at the 66 Diner, which was amazing.
https://www.66diner.com/
The only other beer stop we made was at Rowley Farmhouse Ales.
The outside area was really nice and breezy, and it had great atmosphere as well. They have a very interesting menu, and it seems that many of the dishes and sides integrate brewing or the brewing process like spent grain baguettes or pickles that may have been fermented rather than pickled with vinegar, really unique and flavorful stuff.
Take our experience with a grain of salt, because evidently, we picked a bad night to visit, they were under staffed, and the only people able to change kegs were the manager and owner, both of which were offsite and unavailable. We have some friends here who may have oversold us on the brewery, and maybe our expectations were too high.
They have a big list of really good saisons, but the only one that really stood out for us was “Ceremony” which, and this was a good thing to us, smelled and tasted like bleu cheese. It was really interesting, but if Bleu cheese isn’t your thing, then you’re not going to enjoy it. We don’t want to cause you to shy away from them, so please do visit.
https://rowleyfarmhouse.com/
Do you have a favorite place in New Mexico? Do you have suggestions for places we should go out here in the West? Let us know.
