santafebrewing.com
I had sampled this brewery's beers last time I was in Santa Fe and I was thoroughly impressed with the delicious liquids I had encountered. Needless to say, I was stoked to get out there. A buddy of mine was friendly with Leif, one of the brewers on the staff, who took us back to the brewhouse on this arid Saturday afternoon. I noticed there were a bunch of guys brewing small a small 6 gallon batch of beer with homebrew equipment I was quite familiar with. This is known as "Small Batch Saturday". Local homebrewers get together at the brewery and interact with the brewstaff and socialize over the thing they love. The brews made are stored there and put on tap in the tap house out front, pretty cool! This particular batch was a sassafrass barleywine (which you can see in the image below). Yum. It was not soon that I set foot in the brewery that I was offered free beer after free beer. This is when I discovered that high altitudes make for lower tolerances to alcohol. This unfortunately contributed to the fuzzy details which I will attempt to divulge to you now.
Santa Fe has a 30 bbl brewing system and a bottling system which processes about 120 bottles per minute. They're about to launch their new line of canned beers. I'm one of the lucky few to have experienced their brews from these cans. They have a crapload of beers rotating through their tasting room but only 5 flagship brews: a brown ale, a pale ale, a barley wine known as "Chicken Killer", a hefeweizen and my favorite a porter known as the "State Pen," which I assume is named that because of lewd and lascivious acts it causes one to engage in after consuming it. I'll start with this brew for a review.
The State Pen Porter
A multi-award winner (can be seen on the right fermenting in casks)! Poured from the bottle into a glass. Huge robust, dark and chocolatey, it pours thick and velvety, nearly opaque in color. Nice head on it. Slight hint of alcohol. Velvety and smooth mouthfeel, not so much in the carbonation department but thats no problem. Has a slight nutty taste, delicious.
6.4% ABV
Santa Fe Pale Ale
This is by far one of the best IPA's out there, hands down. It's the brew I tried in my previous visit to the south west and I have been fiending for it ever since. Poured from a bottle into a glass, its amber in color, has nice head retention and big sharp hop aromas. Huge piney, rounded hop flavor makes this beer. Underneath theres a nice sweet maltiness to round the beer out. Way way too drinkable. This needs to be available in the north east ASAP.
5.4% ABV
Honorable Mention: Chicken Killer Barleywine (incredibly dangerously good, given its high alcohol content)
Below: The fermentation tanks, Warehouse, Filter, Bottling line, Sam and I with Leif
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