STOUT-HEARTED
Invitational brings 16 NM breweries together for a dark beer showdown
Cast your vote for the best winter warmer in the state at the 2023 Stout Invitational.
The event hosted by Bathtub Row Brewing Co-Op, 163 Central Park Square in Los Alamos, will be held from noon to 6 p.m. March 11. The competition will be broken up into three sessions. Each session will last an hour and a half. The third session, when the winner will be announced, is sold out, but tickets for the first and second sessions remain available. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at nmbeer.org/events/2023-stoutinvitational.
“For every person that comes in, you get a taste of each of the 16 beers,” said Ebbie Edmonston, New Mexico Brewers Guild executive director. “You get one-and-a-half-ounces of each of the 16 beers and then that kind of gives you the flavor of everything. You get to decide what you like and what you don’t like. We’ll give you a little piece of paper, which is also your ballot, to say which one you liked the most. And then after you’ve tried them all you get a full-sized pour in a commemorative pint glass.”
Participating breweries were chosen to be part of the event using a lottery system.
“I believe we had 22 breweries throw their name in the hat,” Edmonston said. “And then we did a lottery to narrow it down to 16. This year is a little bit odd because Bathtub Row, who is our host, they’re actually having work done on their brewing system right now. So they reached out to Sobremesa (Restaurant and Brewery) and were like, ‘Hey, do you want to collaborate on a beer? So you know, we can still have a host beer.’ So technically, it’s 17 breweries, but it’s still only 16 beers.”
Competing breweries are Bathtub Row Brewing Co-Op/Sobremesa, Truth or Consequences Brewing Co., La Cumbre Brewing Co., Rowley Farmhouse Ales, Blü Dragonfly Brewing, Roosevelt Brewing Co., Thirsty Eye Brewing Co., Flix Brewhouse, Steel Bender Brewyard, Harmon Lane Brewing, Piedra Blanca Brewing Co., Hidden Mountain Brewing Co., Red River Brewing Co., Gravity Bound Brewing Co., Milton’s Brewing, and Boxing Bear Brewing Co.
The brewery with the most votes will receive a newly acquired award commemorating their win.
“I tried to be very traditional,” Edmonston said of the award’s design. “It’s gonna look like the one from actually two years ago. It’s a glass plaque and it has the engraving of the New Mexico Brewers Guild, as well as the Bathtub Row dog in the bathtub. I’m really excited to see who it goes to.”
Edmonston has had a taste of some of the entered stouts.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to go around to some of the breweries who are entered,” Edmonston said. “… I’ve been tasting some of them and there’s some good competition out there. There’s definitely some very interesting stuff. I don’t want to speak to which breweries, you know who are doing what, but there are some really interesting barrel aging techniques and wood spirals that some people are using. There’s also some tried and true classics in the mix. I think it will give kind of the whole range of what a stout can really be.”