Albuquerque Beer Week- Day 2

Damn, I'm a failure. Nah, I really do suck at life. I was unable to get away from the house last night and attend any of the Day 1 events. I mean, most of them wasn't shit anyways, but I woulda liked to try a few European beers and get some relief from the hop-heavy American craft. Oh well, I took solace in some beers I'd picked up during recent visits to Tucson and San Francisco, sipping away last night on a San Tan Brewing Sex Panther and a 21st Amendment Brewery Lower De Boom.

The former is a double chocolate porter that, like most beers I found in AZ, has an ABV a bit lower than you'd expect from a double (it was a bitch-ass 6.8%). But almost every AZ beer I've had to date, the beer was smooth, creamy, and pleasure to drink. A good aroma of malts and dark chocolate prevailed and remained in the taste. I could easily have downed a six pack.

As for the Lower De Boom, this beer looks like some shit some clubber would be washing his molly down with since it comes in a slim little can that looks more like a shitty energy drink than a beer. Fortunately, looks deceive and this wasn't the stuff of sweaty EDM dancers. What it is is a barleywine style ale done well. A good nose of raisins and mild malt give way to a sweet grape and hopped up taste with a mild alcohol hit at the end. The beer is well-balanced and drinkable. Anyone could enjoy this one.


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ALBUQUERQUE BEER WEEK CHAT STARTS HERE FOR YOU IMPATIENT MUFUCKAS
Anyways, that's how my beer week started off, but I wanna give my assessment of today's jumpoffs.

I'll go ahead and tell you right now my plans, which are to hit Back Alley Draft House straight from work for their Tower of Sour event and follow that up with a visit to Marble or La Cumbre to try the 505/2013. But if y'all wanna be dumb and go to some of these other bullshit events, here's what's cracking across the city:

Greenflash and Ska Brewing at Imbibe Cigar Bar- Ayo, did I mention fuck this place. Two respectable brewers that I'd otherwise check for, but I'd rather sit in a classroom listening to people drag their nails across the chalkboard while having the FBI stuff splinters under my nails while pigeons peck out my eyeballs and Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" plays on repeat then go to this piece of shit bar.

Beer Flights and Beer Brats at Sandia Chile Grill- This spot is a little seedy stuck in that shitty strip mall way out in Northeastbumblefuck Heights, but they got some legit beers. The father-and-son combo here put in some work and I respect that. I have had a few beers here and enjoyed them so I wouldn't mind hitting this up, but the only problem is I gotta book a flight, cross through customs and shit just to get to this part of the world. I'll stick to homebase.

Anderson Valley Tasting at Total Wine- Yeah, so Total Wine aka the Wal-Mart of the liquor game aka the Britney Spears of the liquor game aka they still ain't shit with that massive selection got a damn good brewery giving tastings. I really like Anderson Valley. Their Oatmeal Stout and that Boont and their Winter Warmer were dope. That last one was probably my favorite winter beer this past season. But I ain't diving to the wackass West Side and passing by a million other good beer events just to peep them. Plus, they'll be at Jubilation tomorrow so blow me Total Wine.

Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee Stout at Two Fools Tavern- I kinda hate on Goose Island because they got bought out by AbInBev and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they cheapen up their formula and all the beers start tasting like a watered-down version of what you'd imagine or remember a good beer to be, but for the moment, I still fuck with them. Had that Bourbon County in NYC around Christmas and it is most definitely crack cocaine. Coffee stout sounds like they just threw some crack on top of the original crack. And Two Fools is a cool spot, even if it's a wannabe version of the shittiest type of bar ever, the Irish Bar. I think of Irish bars I think of drunk white girls rocking out to Bon Jovi or just white people in general standing around and talking and shit while loud music is in the background. No respect for the music and no impulse to dance. That's fucked up though.

Of course, there's also the two weeklong events I mentioned yesterday at Gecko's and Desert Fish, but this day two yo, those shits is played out already.

So,

Tower of Sour at Back Alley Draft House- Besides that really homosexual name ---yeah, I'm probably gay too because I imagined a penis--- this gonna be a good event. Back Alley is a gem that few beer drinkers know about hidden behind that shitty pizza place that claims they make NYC style pizza. Fuck them. Anyways, Back Alley stays getting some good ass beers on tap; they're always some beer you never see anywhere else in town. I asked the brewer/bartender (yeah, they got some of their own brews, plus some from this dude name Majin or some shit who is really nice with his) how they got all these brews I never see elsewhere and he explained that he goes in the distributor's coolers and snoops around instead of just listening to them say what they got. I respect that. So anyways, they gonna have a few sours, mostly Petrus, which is disappointing because I've had them before and wanted some new exclusive shit. But I still fuck with this event and these guys for being original.

Finally, yeah, so the 505 collaboration drops today. A big old monster of a beer it should be, although my instincts tell me that it's gonna be some hop bomb when they shoulda gone for a different style to give us some relief. We already got La Cumbre with their Elevated IPA and the seven million pale ales they do, plus Chama River with their complete bite of Elevated called the Big Lebrewski, and Marble's DIPA, did we really need another motherfucking IPA?

FYI- Some good events tomorrow, I'll post about em later today cuz there's no way I'll get to it tomorrow.

Peace my ninjas.