Santa Fe Brewing Company - Santa Fe Pale Ale

This winner of multiple gold, silver, and bronze medals from various competitions pours brassy in color with a sedimentary haze provided by a small amount of yeast left in the bottle to naturally condition the beer. Expect a big cappuccino-like frothy head when poured with vigor. On the nose, look for notes of honey and floral qualities, with some citrus notes, leaning toward tropical fruits and a fair amount of spicy hop character. Expect a rather nectary flavor, with floral, honeyed notes and a mild-to-moderate bitterness balancing caramel malt flavors. Finishes spicy with a candy orange flavor in the linger, with the faintest suggestion of butterscotch. Overall, very easy to drink and leaning toward a more floral, perfumy hop profile rather than pine-and-citrus-heavy offerings. The hop spiciness will cut nicely through fattier meat dishes such as braised breast of duck – give it a try. The brewery also recommends spicy foods, particularly green chile enchiladas, as well as shellfish, fried chicken, and pizza. Cheers!

Santa Fe Brewing Company can trace its spiritual lineage as far back as the year 1892, when a brewery by that name was first incorporated. Back then, refrigeration technology was not always reliable, and transportation was not always rapid, so perishable products like beer didn’t typically travel far from their points of origin. Consequently, there were a large number of breweries throughout the United States (somewhere in the ballpark of 4,000) dedicated to serving their own local communities. Santa Fe was certainly no exception. An impressive variety of beer styles were produced in this era of American brewing, not unlike today’s vast numbers of great microbrews. Sadly, most of our country’s breweries had no choice but to close down due to Prohibition, which threw our beer culture into a sort of “dark age” from which we are only recently recovering. By 1983, there were only 80 breweries operating in the U.S., but thankfully, those days are long gone. According to the Brewers Association, over 3400 breweries were in business by 2014.

The current Santa Fe Brewing Company was founded in 1988 – still relatively early on in the U.S.’s craft brewing revolution. Like a number of other brewers, Santa Fe has embraced an environmentally-friendly culture for their business: vegetable oil powers all of their delivery trucks, their packaging is sourced from 100% recycled materials, and they capture the CO2 released during fermentation to help grow algae for bio-fuel. And, being the oldest microbrewery in New Mexico has given them plenty of time to perfect their brewing skills. Their solid lineup includes around a dozen year-round and seasonal brews, made with pride from specialty malts imported from Britain and hops shipped direct from growers in Washington State. For info on brewery tours and their two Santa Fe tasting room locations, visit them at www.santafebrewing.com or call 505-424-3333.