Journey to New Mexico with Rio Grande & Sierra Blanca Brewing Co.

In the second week of January, I took a trip to New Mexico.  A few years ago, my grandma bought a house in Ruidoso, up in the Sierra Blanca Mountains.  It’s a nice place, very quiet, but also very close to the Ruidoso mid-town with shops and restaurants.  The rest of my family has been up there several times, but I’ve only been once during the summer, due to school obligations.  This winter holiday, I was lucky enough to get to go with Mindy and my mom.  It was a fun-filled four days: we went snow-tubing, rode a mountain gondola, won some cash at blackjack, and ate like royalty.

After a 10 hour car ride, this pizza joint is always our first stop.

Since I rarely get the opportunity to go out of state, I jumped on the chance to find some New Mexico resident beers that don't have very wide distribution.  Ruidoso just recently saw the opening of a new Irish pub called Grace O’Malley’s; we decided to have a late lunch there one afternoon.  The bar did all they could to make the experience authentic like importing wood from pubs in Ireland, carrying all sorts of Irish whiskey, and serving their fish and chips with vinegar.  One thing I knew I could count on them for though, was serving several kinds of New Mexico beers.

The first beer New Mexico beer I tried there was Sierra Blanca Nut Brown.  It had a nice nutty roasted flavor, just a hint of floral hops for balance, but my big complaint with the beer was the weak body.  It seemed a little watered down, and I was a tad disappointed.  It did pair well with my very spicy Guinness BBQ chicken sandwich, because the sweetness cut the burn and it wasn’t too filling.  After the meal, I couldn’t bring myself to order another beer because I was happily stuffed with food.

Two days later, my mom decided she wanted to go back to the pub to get out of the house and have a quick evening drink.  She and Mindy had their minds set on “adult hot chocolates” while I set looked forward to some more NM brews.  We saddled up to the bar this time, about two stools down from a group of cheerful middle-aged men discussing Irish stouts.  This time I ordered a Rio Grande Desert Pilsner.  I didn’t have any real complaints with the beer; it was a very common pilsner, soft hop bitterness that was soon washed out by a corn-flake like grain flavor.

About half-way through the beer, one of the gents at the end of the bar leaned over and shouted to put the beer on his tab.  Confused, I told him that he didn’t need to, and asked why we wanted to buy.  He said he was just glad to see I ordered it, because he was the sales rep. that sold that beer to the bar.  Suddenly, it made sense.  I let him know that I planned on trying their other beer there, and he decided to cover that bottle too.

The second beer I was so graciously given to try was the Rio Grande Pancho Verde Chile Cerveza, a green chile beer.  I was excited for this one, because not many chile pepper beers exist, and there’s hardly anything more New Mexico than the green chili. The beer was very similar to the Desert Pils in color, just a slightly paler shade of gold straw, about a finger of clean white head.  The nose on this beer was a strong pepper aroma.  It smelled some like green chile, but surprisingly it smelled more like ripe jalapenos.  When I tasted the beer I got more of what the aroma promised.  It tasted like Diablo-corn, which is a recipe where you take corn and diced jalapeno and mix it will some melted cream cheese.  Most of the pepper heat is cooked out, and you’re left with a savory flavor, only a little warmth on the back-end. The beer was very smooth, and sessionable, if you’re a big fan of peppers.  It was exactly what I was expecting.

On my crude little rating system, I give Rio Grande Pancho Verde Chile Cerveza 3.5 out of 5.  I can understand the novelty appeal of a chili pepper beer, and I would definitely say it’s worth a try, but I would rarely have an occasion to drink this.  If I had a big, gooey, loaded up plate of beef & cheese nachos I could see myself having this beer again.  Or, if I was going for Southwestern flavors, that could work too, however I’m a Texan, and I’m a tex-mex kind of guy...

...and I like my pintos beans fried in lard.

End note:  Just to prevent any confusion, Rio Grande & Sierra Blanca are a joint brewing company, so each brewery link took you to the same site.