All These Drunk Weeks Are Making Me Beer (With music update)

----Quick Music Update for the Big Belgain Beer Bash: Back Alley will have a reggae band called Shamani. If you know me you know I effs with reggae and there's not much in Albuquerque, so I'm hype for this. ----

Yeah, that's right. I ain't been on here for a minute. I know. You ain't gotta tell me. I can read my own posts and dates and all that. But I have a good excuse which is "Fuck you!"

Nah, but for real, a week of writing about beer and drinking a ton of the liquid gold for Albuquerque Beer Week wiped me out. After the Blues and Brews Festival, which saw me trying around 50 different brewkowskis in a four hour time frame, I think my body assumed that like three months of drinking had just taken place and assumed I hadn't slept that whole time and knocked me out like some Nyquil. Yup. Woke up with my clothes on, baby going ninja kicking me in the face as she woke up right next to me.

Anyways, I survived the week, took a week off and now we got American Craft Beer Week? WTF? More drinking? Well, unfortunately for everyone except my homie Liver, apparently New Mexico's brewers ain't get the memo. The only ACBW events I see for the week are up in Santa Fe at Blue Corn Brewery. They got a few good beers up there, but I'ma have to pass.

HOWEVER, Back Alley Draft House, aka possible ROOKIE-OF-THE-YEAR on the Albuquerque beer scene is having a nice little event on Friday called the Big Belgian Beer Bash. If you recall, or by reading here, I visited them two weeks ago for the Tower of Sour tasting with different sours on tap. For like six bucks I got to sample four sours and then for $4 more I got my favorite in a goblet. Shit was a steal though.

I suspect this Big Belgian thing (no Jason Collins) gonna be on par, plus they supposed to be pairing with some local chef for some Belgian eats including the frites and all that. Maybe a Belgian waffle just to be really stereotypical. Personally, I think we need more bashes like this cuz right now St. Patty's Day and Cinco de Mayo got a stranglehold on that whole let's-degrade-an-entire-culture-and-use-it-as-an-excuse-to-get-wasted-and-fight-the-cops-andpuke-in-the-streets shit show. I'd actually like to see a day where we all pretend were Aussies and drink that Foster's piss, wrestle alligators, get bit by snakes and yell "Krikey" at each other the whole day. Who's down? OH, AND FYI-I'M NOT A FRAT BOY, NEVER VIOLATED A FRAT BROTHER'S REAR, I just have an affinity for ignorant celebrations that involve alcohol. Got that?

I'm not going to write all the details for the Belgian Beer Bash as my homies over at Yelp got that covered. If you're interested, visit Yelp's Big Belgian Beer Bash page HERE.

I should be there and hopefully there'll be some of that really trashy techno music that Belgians love so we can all really act a fool. Of course, I don't know what Belgians really listen to or how they dance, but I imagine they not effing with this dude (he the nicest):

Until next time, mamasushis.

Albuquerque Beer Week Day 5

No Beer Week for me yesterday.

Fortunately, I have a stockpile of beer from my Arizona trip, from my weekly visits to Jubilation, and from just generally being a crackhead with a need when it comes to beer. I get that itch just driving by certain places. I fed my habit by cracking an Alaskan Brewing Winter Ale and Left Hand Good Juju, both of which I had for the first time. I don't care if it's spring, that Winter was dope. The spruce tips added to the brew created a sweet berry taste with a piney stickiness that felt great in my mouth, no George Takei, you feel me? The Good Juju is laced with ginger and the smell and taste are dominated by it, though it's not a bad thing. I could sip one occasionally but wouldn't go out of my way for this. This beer's kinda like that girl you got in your contacts but don't call until you've been rejected by a few others first.

Anyways, I would've liked to hear some bluegrass at Marble Brewery yesterday, but asi es la vida.

On to today, Day 5 in this glorious week of excuses to drink more beer. Here's what's poppin:

Marble Brewery Beer and Cheese Pairing (Time: 4 to 7PM)- I've already posted about this a few days ago so I'll let you bums scroll down a few and do some heavy lifting. But this should be awite. I mean, I'd prefer some barbecue or some burgers or tacos or some shit a little more filling, but I've never objected to cheese. I guess my big concern with this event is what type of herbs such an event might attract. I never been to a wine and cheese party and there's a reason why: I'd probably have to choke out one dude for describing why my view on dealing with all the bums that line Central (get them the eff outta here) is Hobbesian or Lockesian or whatever the fuck, then I'd have to smack some other dude for insisting that there really isn't a classic American novel, some other mamaguevo would just be looking at me contemptuously with his waxed moustache and Paul Bunyan outfit and then I'd just have to hope a stray bullet hit me and put me out of my misery. Marble Brewery, can you assure me I'm not gonna have to put up with the same ridiculousness? Either way, there's some good beers on tap and I'd recommend that 505-2013 while it lasts, plus The Abbey, the Stout Americano and The Double White. Rock solid beers to steal a quote from the Marble heads.

Five Star Burgers Sliders and Suds (Time 6 to 9PM)- I was just talking about burgers and fwakata! here's a burger and beer event. This could be good. La Cumbre Elevated IPA, Marble Stout and Wheat, and Monk's Wit (brewed up at the monastery by Abiquiu, for those that don't know, now you know, ninjas) paired with different sliders. According to the ABQ Beer Week site, it's three different burgers (green chile, greek, and Taos) and jalapeno caps and 5 ounce samples of the beers for $20. Pretty sweet deal actually. Only problem, I have no idea where this Five Star is---I hit B2B on Central for my burger and beer fix---so I'ma check the Yelp link here.

Yeah, so this is at Wyoming and Academy which is the sticks to me, but if you live up near the mountains, you may wanna check this.

Other than that, it's mostly just tastings around town:

Deschutes is doing a sampling at O'Niell's Nob Hill, which could be cool if they were bringing The Abyss , but chances are it's just gonna be the same shit you see around town any day of the week. Plus, I went about a month ago for a Rogue sampling and it was the most pinche samplings outside of a Total Wine store I'd ever seen.

Two Fools will be tapping Odell's Treeshaker Imperial Peach IPA, which sounds cool if not being the biggest gimmick in New Mexico since that other brewery started slapping "Isotopes" and "Alien" all over their beers to turn them into the Disney World of New Mexico craft beer. I'm all for adventurous beers, but are you just throwing some liquid peach flavoring in the mix or using real peaches? Cheap bastards.

Of course, Sunner is still on tap at Desert Fish, Gecko's still has the Lips of Faith taps, and Nob Hill Bar and Grill still has the Lips of Faith Smores Porter on tap, so if you need a beer, this ain't the prohibition era.

Finally, a reminder that the one event you don't wanna miss is the Blues and Brews Festival on Saturday to sample a ton of beers and hear---surprise, mothafuckas!!!---blues music. Also, if you Twitter and Instagram savvy, follow @albrewquerque to stay in the loop or like the Albrewquerque Facebook page.

Hasta la proxima, cabrones.

Cerveza y Queso at Marble

The information keeps coming in for Albuquerque Beer Week and I'm happy to pass it along to whomever.

Marble Brewery shared their menu for next week's beer and cheese pairing here.

I'm no expert on cheese but some of these look banging. You got goat and cow and sheep all in the mix. You ask me it's a recipe for a heavy night of farting and belching. Pretty awesome actually.

Of the beers, I've yet to try the Framboise though I was at Marble just yesterday and the 505-5, which doesn't come out until tomorrow night. For those that don't know, the 505-5 is a collaboration between a number of local breweries Marble, Nexus, La Cumbre, Il Vicino and Turtle Mountain. I moved to ABQ last year just as last year's version debuted and found it highly enjoyable. If my memory serves me, it was a beast of an IPA.

This year I'm hoping they tried something different as I often tire of the abundance of IPAs and Pale Ales (ahem, La Cumbre) debuting month to month at the local breweries. I'd love to see barleywine to be honest.

Anyways, I digressed majorly and will say the other offerings at the Beer and Cheese pairing are a mixed bag. I do enjoy the oatmeal stout for it's creamy, roasty, malt flavor and good drinkability, but I can't say the same for the Triple. This beer is why we all should bow down to the nicest of the Belgian brewers---Affligem immediately comes to mind with their outstanding Tripel--- , for their ability to create a perfectly balanced Belgian again and again. Marble's is heavy on the alcohol in the back end and doesn't quite mesh the wheatiness and malts to create a smooth, enjoyable beer. So yeah, I can't vouch for that shit.

Overall, this event seems cool but there's probably gonna be more pretentious Williamsburg transplants or aspirants than average Joe type motherfuckers that you'd actually wanna start a conversation with. Come Monday I'll give you my opinion on where you should really go that evening. And you will heed my advice.