It’s nice and warm today, hanging low in the sky as its only February….
FALSE START
Never one to let a draft go to waste, I’ve decided to follow through on the premise of dim light and only faint hope of the summer warmth again. We’re past the worse of the weather, hopefully, but the future is filled with uncertainty as the political situation in this country has been thrown into the mass of thresher. For those younger than me, that’s basically a machine that sucks a bunch of stuff up and spits out grain, if only the result of this was as wholesome as a food source.
Right now, the machine is chugging along, just devouring the normal situation while people sit by and watch. There’s not much we can do, beholden to a bunch of oligarchs and an unelected president billionaire intent on destroying the system as it stood. The real, elected president is playing word games and doesn’t seem too interested in the results of his literal actions, but that’s not a surprise coming from a verified liar. None of these things is normal, none of them good, and most people seem ready to just accept the fuckery from above. It’s really troubling to me.
I don’t ever sleep, I just go on Standby
Watching things unfold, I know in my heart that it’ll make my life more challenging, and the first thing I’ll notice is the spike in beer prices we’re about to experience across the industry. Everything in the process of brewing involves some steel, and the final product is shipped to the consumer in aluminium, of course it’s going to cost more when suddenly those two staples of our economy are 50% more expensive. The specialty grains and malts are all international products, as brewers and consumers have gotten accustomed to the kinds of recipes that wouldn’t have been possible just a few years ago, mixing ingredients like a farmer would crossbreed plants for a better yield. All of these things are highly dependent on the thing we used to call free trade, and now we’re hoping to be paying more for all of it. Let’s gooo, I’m so excited about the near future collapse of our economy for no real reason except chaos.
Let’s be clear, none of the folks sowing this chaos has any grasp of the damage they’re going to do if they remain unchecked. The complete collapse of our government is not off the table at this point, with recession already baked into the program they’ve written. This is beyond partisan, it’s basic economics as understood by the people who were previously trying to keep this whole thing ON the rails. I don’t think you could find a legit economics professor or business analyst that wouldn’t cringe at what’s been set up if you’d have told them the factors even last year.
Pour some green beer on it, it’ll get better
This has basically become a chronicle of the last few months as I move through the various beer spaces of ABQ. Whenever the sun is out I want to get on a patio and suck down some brew, and the proximity of Steel Bender has made it my go-to of late. It is the 17th of March and it’s headed for low 70’s outside, with a stiff breeze probably. It’s April and May weather, with frosty 30 degree nights, so I can’t plant any clones yet and you need to layer up when you leave the house in the morning. The altitude makes things extra crispy, and from the west side of town I often see how the east foothill got a dusting of snow.
The Old Man Beer Club is meeting in Bernalillo this afternoon, a short 15 mile drive to the more northern reaches of the ABQ Metropolis. It’s a national drinking holiday, but I don’t know what to expect from Bosque Brewing’s big northern location, except maybe some fried green chili strips and a fat burger. The menu is the same at all their locations as far as I can tell, so it’s all about the location…
If you don’t know
Bosque Brewing started up in Albuquerque a number of years ago (cursory research has not been performed for this article). My perception of them is rooted in a rapid expansion, moving taproom and brewing operations into a number of new and exciting locations, while also doing a cursory amount of canning and distribution to cover the local ABQ area. They’ve even moved into distressed brewery locations, saving the former Lave Rock Brewing building into their most western outpost, which does serve a significant demand on the west side.
The spot we’re going to today used to be a Jackalope, which is a southwestern yard junk store of great repute. It sits on top of a hill overlooking the Rio Grande as is wanders south into the valley, and has served as an exit point for my crew when ‘yakkin’ on the Grande, as it’s on the very northern edge of actual development along the river itself.
I know they’ve got a lot of brewing capacity here, but don’t know much more. I’ll poke around and ask some questions before the boys show up, see if I can’t get an impromptu tour of the brewery itself. Turn the old charm up, because I’ve never met a brewer that wanted to tell the world about their amazing beer. Lol. That’ll be the basis for my next post. See you next time!