‘A BITTER RIVALRY’
IPA Challenge grows, with more entries and bigger venues
The New Mexico Brewers Guild IPA Challenge has grown to bigger proportions, which means more entries and bigger venues.
It all starts at Duel Brewing in Albuquerque, which will host the elimination round that will determine which IPAs stay and which go.
“It’s going to be huge this year,” said John Gozigian, executive director of the New Mexico Brewers Guild. “Last year, we had 28 or 29 breweries that submitted IPAs, and this year it’s up to 39. So we’re going to do what we did last year, which is have an elimination round. So for the first time, the elimination round is going to be at Duel Brewing’s taproom here in Albuquerque. … What we are going to do is have all 39 IPAs there and we will split it up into three flights and it’s 13 IPAs each. So each attendee that comes in will get one of those flights and they will get to taste those 13 beers. … You choose which one you like the best and vote for that, and then you get a pint full of it (in a commemorative glass).”
From those 39, the top
15 will move on to the next round, on July 19 at Picacho Peak Brewing Co. in Las Cruces. Attendees will get flights of the 15 beers, vote for their favorite and receive a pint of it. The next event will be on July 22 at Second Street Brewery’s new taproom on Rufina in Santa Fe. The format will be the same as at the Las Cruces event.
The final stop will be on July 29 at Steel Bender Brewyard in Los Ranchos, where eventgoers will get the same 15 beers, vote for their favorite and get a pint of it.
“The cumulative total from all the rounds, except the elimination round, will determine who wins,” Gozigian said. “At the end of that one, we will announce the winner of the IPA Challenge.”
This year’s theme is “A Bitter Rivalry,” and the guild had some fun with the promotion at the playful expense of Bosque Brewing Co.’s co-owner and head of brewing operations, John Bullard, and Boxing Bear Brewing Co.’s co-owner and head brewer, Justin Hamilton.
“For three years in a row, John Bullard won first with Blue Corn (Brewery) and twice with Bosque,” Gozigian said. “But then last year, Justin Hamilton at Boxing Bear won, which lent itself to the poster. It’s a picture of Hamilton and Burr in the duel. So it’s this engraving of Hamilton-Burr, you know their famous duel where Burr shoots Hamilton. In this one where it says Burr, we just crossed that out and it says Bullard. And his hand’s behind his back and we put a beer in it. They’ve got a history, and they’re good friends. You know the title is, for this year’s IPA Challenge is ‘A Bitter Rivalry.’ But it is really not.”