Santa Fe, for when you want out of state fun

Isn't she lovely? Went down to Santa Fe for the weekend with Eric a few weeks back and ran our very own, unofficial brewery tour. Of course we started out at Santa Fe brewco. Their beautiful beer display didn't take away from how awesome their selections were. I was partially to the sour and the white, if I can remember that correctly. The visit did a good job of removing the oddly bad taste of their octoberfest from my mouth that I had bought in cans on Friday. 

Our favorite brewery in town was Marble who had sprung up a tap room near our hotel. While not technically a Santa Fe beer I have to give them props on how drinkable and delicious all their beers were; even the wheat beer which I don't usually enjoy. 

Down by the train station more delicious options resided. We stopped at second street brewing for dinner and a pint and were pleasantly surprised by an awesome live, one man band up from Austin, Texas. 

Some notes on Santa Fe: if you are in town, there is almost no way to go wrong with food. Go try a frog at Tomasitas, the best Santa Fe style breakfast burrito of your life at Chris' cafe, and pretty much anything off the menu at Dr. Field Goods ( although some of their fare can run into the more odd but still awesomely tasty.) I had a blast, and enjoyed just about every flight of beer, burrito, and assorted snacks we tried. Just don't visit that city while in a diet, for your own good. 

Hooray Beer!

This is an old one, but I have quite the backlog of beer to catch up on! I picked up this delicious bomber ages and ages ago. Unfortunately, I brought it to sauna night planning to share it with people who turned out not to like IPAs all that much. Whoops. Learned my lesson on that one.

This beer is STRONG (although i can't say too much about my tolerance) but DELICIOUS! The beer weighs in at a hefty 9.4%. Its not made for little girls like me. Its a seasonal special so you probably wont find it anywhere right now. You will have to be a good little beer drinker and wait to see if it comes back out next year.

Now on the beer notes: This is not your average overhopped IPA. Enjoy by 4.20.14 IPA is citrusy and well balanced. Yes, its damn hoppy, but in the best way. I would have bought more than one, but half way through, on my butt in a sauna, i wasn't feeling too great.

Remember kids, hydrate before you Hydrate.

Cheers!

Steamworks, again

This past weekend was one of my lazy in town weekends, leading to a Saturday afternoon lunch at the local brewpub, steamworks which I have previously mentioned. In town they are one of the most consistently good, moderately priced pubs. They have plenty of vegetarian and otherwise Rachel friendly options. Plus lots and lots of really good beer to choose from. 

When I go I like to pick something new, well most of the time anyways. This week I gravitated towards the Lizard head red. This friendly and mildly hoppy brew went really well with my pub fare and conversation. It was a little on the alcoholic side at I believe 5.9 abv. I would rate it a solid 4. 

Can't wait to see their new spring seasonals! Happy daylight savings, everyone!

Telluride! Not just a ski town... well... mostly a ski town

I am actually really excited that i was too freaking lazy to post this image when i first had this beer, oh, maybe 6 months ago. In general, I'm a fan of Telluride brewing company. There stuff tastes pretty out of the two beers i've tried. Plus; its just really freaking cool that every interesting little town to visit in Colorado makes their own delicious local brew.
Above you will see the cans for the Tempter IPA. Mmmm... this highly rated brew is a little on the cloudy side, but comes chock full of aromatics that really scream Colorado IPA. I like it, wouldn't say its my favorite beer, but would definitely enjoy it again. I'd say 3.5/5 overall, since its tasty, but priced pretty much where all the Colorado local IPAs happen to be.
Best when consumed after coming down from Telluride's glorious slopes!

Not my best picture, but this town is so amazingly beautiful.

The best margarita I have ever had.

Have you ever met... the one...
That drink that you could never replicate in a million years, no matter how much you want to?
Well i have.

I am not a fancy person. I rarely go to fancy restaurants, eat fancy food, or drink fancy drinks. Some days, however, you do, really need to go off the deep end. In downtown Durango, there is a quaint little restaurant dominated by a wood fired stove in back, and a bar along the left side. A few weeks back (I know, i know, i'm wayyyy off my blogging game) I went out with a few coworkers. We initially sat up at the bar, until more people came.
If you haven't been. You should probably go. The bartender was a wealth of knowledge about all things prohibition, mixed drink, and beer. It was pretty much a free show to watch him mix his awesomely blended drinks.
My order, the Cucumber Jalapeno Margarita (and i apologize if i don't' have the name just right) took the cake. Our awesome bartender muddled together cucumber, fresh jalepeno, lemon juice and i think some fresh herbs, topping up the drink with really, really yummy tequila. The drink was fresh, refreshing, had a spicy kick, and was filled with little cooling surprise chunks of cucumber. While i'm not a fan of overpriced cocktails, this one was totally worth the 9 dollars. Especially if you are me sized, and that's pretty much all you need.
I've heard, at Chimayo, which is the home to this perfection, that the pizza is also pretty darn good.
I would say consider one, once you've gotten your drinks.
Cheers!

(No i don't have a picture.... low light and it was pretty much too delicious to put down)

Happy New Year! I do realize i'm running behind schedule...

While the name of this wine means "sea breeze" making it sound like a shitty cologne, it was actually pretty tasty. It was a dollar cheaper ( in colorado) than my absolute favorite Vinho Verde, Casal Garcia, so i decided it was worth a try. It was my substitute champagne for the New Years Celebrations.
Speaking of the champagne, what're your thoughts? I generally find it too dry, if its real imported champagne, or just bad, if its pretend American "bubbly white wine". Overall, its usually too fizzy for me. Vinho verde is as fizzy as i go and still enjoy.
Back to Brisa do Mar-
This tasty vinho verde (see previous post if you are confused about what that it.... its my alltime favorite!) is a great inexpensive choice that pairs well (so i've heard) with fish and other seafood. Its light... its bubbly... its tasty... drink more of it! 4.5/5 for yummy and for under 7 bucks a 4/5 for value.
Cheers!

Just a little whip on top

Sometimes you just need large quantities of whip cream on top of your beer.... Ok... That's probably just me. I worked hard for my whip cream, too. Up in Boulder on my recent adventure a pit stop post hiking took us to Twisted Pine Brewing co. Sadly, they were out of the Mr. Brown Pumkin ale I was looking for which normally comes topped with, you guessed it. Whipped cream. Our server suggested the Chocolate Peanut butter stout. At first i thought she was kidding, but then i decided to give it a try. Yeah... its not your every day beer, but she eventually conceded to giving me a pint topped (or halved as it looks in the picture) with yumyumyum. I just wish there were sprinkles. 

Overall, the stout was rich, chocolatey and had only a slim aftertaste of peanut butter. The whip cream made it feel like the desert it was, rather than a beer. Honestly, i don't think i'd sit down to a six pack of this, but it was awesome to try this topped. The real heavy weight of this brew house was the Pearl Strret Porter that came in Eric's flight. Definitely worth a try. 

This brew pub offered yummy food (we also destroyed a super cheap ($4!) plate of breadsticks), reeally well done beer, in a tidy little environment that looks like it turns into some sort of venue once in a while. If you happen to be up in Boulder, this would should make the list for a brewery to check out.

Also- for you kids out there that like swag... cool stickers!

Magic beer on arrival

What are good friends for?
My awesome friends had a mixed case of Left hand deliciousness ready when i arrived in Boulder last weekend. My favorite may have been the 400 Pound Monkey, a very delicious IPA. The Black Sack Porter could hold its own, though. Later on we used the classic and always delicious Stout to make beer floats. Yumyumyum. If you haven't tried these, do it! Left hand knows how to make an amazing beer. I'd say overall they are a 5/5.