Beer Week Progress Report -- I Survived

Albuquerque has a Beer Week each year. Who knew? The local brew pubs and trendy night spots host events and tastings. Out-of-town craft breweries "take over" local breweries for a day and serve their stuff. The big event is a beer festival with about 50 breweries and live music and food. Apart from that big event, things are pretty low key.

Several weeks before I went to California I was part of a group of people participating in a "Beer Geek" brewing contest. The contest judging was one of the opening events of Beer Week. There were five competing groups and we all brewed a full grain recipe at Tractor Brewery in Albuquerque on different days. Our beer was a California Blood Orange Pale Ale with a heavy dose of Citra hops in the wort and also Citra dry hopped. Of course, this was not my idea but the group seemed to be happy with it.  Brewing day was mostly people standing around as one or two guys did most of the work....as usual.

We were brewing two batches of our beer so it took almost the whole day. I was mostly interested in the process of full grain brewing at a brewery because I've only been involved in a full grain recipe once before and it was a makeshift, backyard operation. Tractor Brewing has a separate and smallish grain set up that made our task pretty easy.

Last week (actually May 22nd) was the judging...the start of Beer Week.  All five beers were sampled by the five competing groups and other patrons at the brewery. Everyone had a vote...the poll tax was $7.00 but you got a full pint of your favorite of the beers.   The beers included... ours (Blood Orange Pale Ale), a Green Chile IPA (spicy Hatch chiles...and Citra), a Rye IPA (Citra hops, again), a chewy and malty Stout (ABV 8%) and a hoppy Red Ale (included Citra and hopped twice after the initial wort hops).

Guess what...the winner was the malty Stout. The Rye IPA had an aroma of cat piss (sorry Watson) and was very bland otherwise. The Chile IPA was pretty middle of the road for a chile beer and I thought it wasn't bad even though the IBU was 88. The Red Ale was hopped three times but it didn't seem to stand out and the IBU was 65...semi-pleasant but unremarkable. Our Blood Orange Ale seemed very fizzy in the mouth and the oranges and the Citra combined to make a bitter and sour beer that might have passed for a cold and fizzy Belgian sour. The Stout was malty in the nose and taste with a good mouth feel and some fruitiness....it had six kinds of malt and a high alcohol value.  So the results of this flimsy and informal test tend to support my argument that too many hops spoil the brew. I could have enjoyed a pint of the Chile IPA but I'd be happy to have a couple of the stouts. The chile beer ran smack into the local preference for spicy chiles -- one thing Burquenos love more than hops is green chiles and they like them hot.

The winning stout 

Unfortunately, I've been too busy to attend many of the Beer Week events. I missed the big festival and some of the early tastings. They had a couple sour beer tastings at a local liquor store and at one of the brew pubs. Mostly it's about new brews being introduced by local breweries or visiting breweries.




Tuesday (5/27) I went to the Stumbling Steer brewery for a California vs. New Mexico beer event. The California brewery was Sierra Nevada and the New Mexico brewery was Stumbling Steer. Not a worthy match-up. Stumbling Steer is maybe four months old and hasn't made much of an impression yet. I had Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis and nursed it for an hour or so. This is a cellar wheat beer, sort of a farm house beer from Bavaria. It is fermented in open vats like some Belgian beers. The ABV was 4.8% and the IBU was 15 --- about what I guessed. It was a honey/gold cloudy beer. It had banana flavors and aroma but not overly strong. It got better as it warmed up. It was different but not bad...just a style I was not familiar with.

Wednesday 5/28 I stayed home and drank my own home brewed beer, Amber Rye. I haven't really described the beer. I'm coming down to the wire on this batch, it was bottled on November 2nd (Day of the Dead) and I'm running out. The ABV is about 5.3% and the IBU is 44. Hops were Warrior, East Kent Golding and Crystal in that order. I would brew this beer again. It pours dark amber thanks to a little chocolate malt...you could call it a brown ale. The head is pale tan/cream, firm, rocky and cavernous as the bubbles merge. My beer is bottle conditioned so there is some variation in carbonation from one to the next. This one, in a spring-top bottle, sounded like a champagne cork but carbonation was fine.  Aroma is light grassy. Taste starts off malty with a hint of maple sweetness and a little pepper (rye?) and then goes for a long (piney) hoppy finish. Mouth feel is chewy, something that I was striving for because a lot of my beers seem too thin in the mouth. There was a slight chill haze. I think the flavors come out more as it warms a little. This was a salvage brew. The ingredients were purchased a year before I brewed it and were moved twice. My yeast failed in the starter but everything else was great and it is good to know that the grains and extract have a decent shelf life. The hops were in the fridge the whole time as was the yeast.



Thursday 5/29 was Lagunitas Brewing's turn to take over Stumbling Steer. I had two beers. Hop Stoopid is a huge IPA  -- a double or Imperial with an IBU of 100+. I had one at my cousin's so I was trying to remember it while I was drinking. Maybe we are tricked by our memories a little because I expected something a little different. The color was lighter than I remembered. It is all about hops but not as much citrus as I remembered. Maybe a little floral and pine. The mouth feel was good and heavy but, for me, it was a little rough in the throat...maybe my problem. A strong, hoppy beer with not much of a malt presence.  I liked it and could have a couple -- if you drive.



The second Lagunitas beer was Cappuccino Stout. I like coffee and I like beer so I figured this would be right up my alley. This is strong coffee at 9.2% ABV. Color was a pretty, dark ruby brown. The head was not remarkable. I have no idea what the IBU is but it is probably low. Carbonation seemed low. Mouth feel was good, not too much either way. It was malty but not too sweet and it had a long bitter finish. I thought I'd like it more than I did but the coffee eclipsed everything else.



Friday (5/30)  was my last day to do anything for Beer Week. I went to Marble Brewery's west side tap room where they were having a cask ale night. Marble Brewery is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, craft brewery in Albuquerque. They were the brewers who introduced craft brewing and because of that they pretty much defined the taste preferences for folks just coming into craft brewing. When other craft brewers opened up after them they had the dilemma of having to produce beer that resembled Marble Brewery. That's how regional tastes develop. Marble Brewery produces good beer but it is heavily hopped with Citra hops. Most of the beer tastes like a variation on grapefruit juice. They have a good following so that is my opinion.  A voice crying in the wilderness....to coin a phrase.

But I digress... This was my first visit to Marble in about three years.   I walked in and sat at the bar and said I wanted a taste of their most malty beer. That stumped Bob, the bartender. He finally poured me a sample of Marble Red and it was over-hopped and very citrussy. Bob thought for a minute and got me a sample of Oatmeal Stout and Wildflower Wheat.  Both were good, malty beers. The stout was pretty standard but good and better than I expected. The wheat had malt and honey and was refreshing and a good summertime beer. I got a pint of stout.

I struck up a conversation with my neighbor at the bar. He has the same opinion that I have about hops. We hit it off. Turns out this guy is Juan Carlos, the king of Spain...actually he is named after the king of Spain. His mom is from Madrid and named him as sort of a protest against Franco. The "king" just goes by the name of Carlos so no one is confused. He was  drinking a Double White ale that he said was like the wheat. Actually it is a mild Belgian brewed light with coriander and orange peel. I tried it and it was a good, refreshing and light-bodied hazy beer. We had a good conversation about beer and then strayed into a host of other topics. I had a pint of the Wildflower Wheat.  Carlos next opted for a pint - half wheat and half white - and said he liked the mix better than either by themselves.  The cask ale that Marble was featuring turned out to be a beer brewed by a committee. Local brewers joined together to brew the cask ale and each one contributed something. Well, that's an idea, but not a good one. It tasted like a beer brewed by a committee. It's best quality was that it was wet.

I talked Carlos into going over to Kaktus Brewing so we struck out across the desert, heading for Bernalillo.  It is a fairly long drive and Carlos had never been that far north in the local area.   Kaktus was having a jazz night so there was a four piece combo playing out on the patio.  We sat at the bar and introductions were made. Dana, the owner was there and there was about 25 patrons scattered inside and out. Their newest beer is a Czech Dunkel, which I got. Carlos sampled a few and got a pint of Hefe. I got a phone call and ended up talking for about a half hour outside. When I got back, Carlos, who was just bounced out of his second marriage, was scouting out the single women in Kaktus. Kaktus draws a few women because it is quiet and off the beaten path and they also have troupe of belly dancers there every Sunday night...really. Carlos came up short in the date department but said he'd be back. I had a London Porter and Carlos had a second Hefe.  Kaktus has an 80 IBU Jaberwocky IPA but everything else is about 35 IBU or lower. That's not necessarily by design...that's what they have on tap today. Next week it will be different. Kaktus, like Bernalillo, closes early. We were closing the place down at 10 PM.  I headed for home. Carlos was still on the prowl. This was Friday night so he headed off to try his luck somewhere else.

Saturday, May 31st is the end of Beer Week. The last events take place exactly when I have to be at the New Mexico Architectural Foundation's annual meeting. That's OK. This has been fun and I tried a few new things. There is a lot more beer out there. I think I might have a glass of wine.