Bosque Brewing

Bosque Brewing is arguably the best brewery in town. How's that for a opening line of a blog that is supposed to tear Albuquerque's breweries limb from limb? There has always been the same few breweries at the top of the list, trading places and fighting for the hoppiest IPA or the crispest pilsner, and those long-standing breweries are fading into the background now that Bosque has joined the ranks and beat the competition with several awards over the past couple years. It took them a little while to climb the ladder, but they have finally reached the top and it doesn't look like they'll fall any time soon.

Bosque Brewing has two locations, one in the northern region of the city off Alameda and San Mateo and the other located in Nob Hill. We stopped by the Alameda location which was under renovation expanding their strip mall suite into a good-sized taproom. The Nob Hill location is also very new and nicely decorated with the bar styled like a Cottonwood tree in the Bosque and has a great patio. Both locations tend have the same seasonal offerings as well has a newly introduced, full menu.

We started with a flight of the regular beers which are offered consistently throughout the year:

Bosque Lager

Elephants on Parade

Rilverwalker IPA

Brewer's Boot Amber

Scotia Scotch Ale

Driftwood Oatmeal Stout

The Bosque Lager was crisp and had a good flavor to it. Lagers are generally very light in color and a great way to end a work day. It was very easy to drink and overall a quality beer. This a good beer for a beginners palate, but typically we would recommend a wheat ale if available.

The Elephants on Parade was a bright pink-colored raspberry wheat beer. The color and flavor make this the ultimate "chick" beer, but it takes the right woman to enjoy this beer. The raspberry flavor is great and not too sweet or tart, it tastes like a raspberry.

The Riverwalker IPA tastes like a double IPA but at 6.5% ABV it won't knock you out like one. This IPA is very smooth and full of hop flavor but doesn't have that bitter bite that a lot of American style IPAs tend to have.

The Brewer's Boot Amber is a very mild-flavored amber and is very easy to drink. The typical malt flavor is prevalent, with a slight coffee taste. This is a great beer to help your palate expand from the lighter beers into drinking dark beers.

The Scotia Scotch Ale, at 8.4% ABV, tastes like a heavy, strong ale. It was very creamy and malty but not too sweet. You can taste, and feel, the alcohol in this beer, but it also has a great scotch ale taste that leaves you wanting more.

The Driftwood Oatmeal Stout was an absolutely great stout. It had the smokey, coffee flavors one would expect of a stout, but neither was overbearing or too weak, it was just right. The oatmeal lent a creamy factor that enhanced the overall taste of the beer and made it very smooth.

We were also able to try six of Bosque's seasonal offerings which added a whole new level Bosque's beers, a delicious level:

Azacca Smash Pale

Sunshine Stout

The Last Straw Hefe

Dunkel-What?

The Usual

Huell Melon Smash Pale

The Azacca Smash Pale was so smooth and creamy, it was a perfect blend of hops. The hops were very citrusy and almost had a clementine flavor, slightly sweet but not too much. A fantastic smash pale, and definitely for the more advanced palate.

The Sunshine Stout unfortunately didn't taste anything like a stout. It was a good beer, just not a good stout. The golden color is not typical for a stout but certainly can be done and done well, this particular one just wasn't up to par. It had a flavor close to kettlecorn/popcorn and was sweet yet salty. An interesting beer to say the least.

The Last Straw was bananas! Literally, it tasted like bananas, as is typical of a hefeweizen. This beer was crisp and sweet and very heavy on the banana flavor. Overall a good hefe.

The Dunkel-What? was similar to the Last Straw with the banana flavor but much more toned down and combined with a caramel malt flavor. Still crisp and sweet and banana-y, the malts really helped turn this beer in a delightful dessert beer.

The Usual was an imperial session India pale ale, quite the detailed description in itself. Imperials are basically the same as doubles, meaning the alcohol content is much higher. Sessions are usually a milder hop, very mellow and easier to drink. IPAs are typically strongly hopped beers that have a bitter, hoppy taste. This beer was all of these things in one. The taste was very sweet and very hoppy and it almost had a chewiness to it that felt like hops were just floating in the beer. This beer was surprisingly easy to drink and just slaps a smile on your face. Again, this is a beer for a very developed palate.

The Huell Melon Smash was a toned down version of the Azacca Smash, still smooth and had a melon-type flavor to it. The hops were very mild but still present and the sweet melon flavor helped make this beer very easy to drink and more of a medium palate range.

Megan's overall opinion: I love Bosque, they've grown so much since my first visit several years ago when they first opened in the strip mall way across town. I'm glad they've opened a taproom in Nob Hill and very excited for their expansion of their original location as well as the rumored Bernalillo move. I don't think there was a bad beer on the list, but I would have to say my least favorite was the Sunshine Stout only because I'm very partial to pale stouts and coffee stouts, I was just a little disappointed in this one. My favorites were definitely The Usual and the Elephants on Parade; The Usual was just so unusual but still familiar, it just had all the right things going. The Elephants on Parade was perfect, I love raspberries and this wasn't a from concentrate kind of beer, it tasted like the real thing. We will definitely be going back to keep checking in for new seasonals and to get more pink elephants!

Randy's overall opinion: There is a reason why Bosque is at the top of everyone's list; this place does not disappoint. The regular menu is extremely solid and the seasonals are always top notch. Bonus... they have a really good food menu also, not just a chips and salsa kind of thing. I had a lot of favorites but the primo for me was the Sunshine Stout. This looked like a lager but tasted like a coffee amazingness! Next was the Scotch Ale which happens to be one of their most popular. It was hard to rank them as every one was good. Bottom for me was the Elephants on Parade, it was good for what it was, but it was a total chick beer. Not really my style. Bosque is arguably the top brewery in New Mexico at the moment and it is easy to say why. They do their beers so well! 

http://www.bosquebrewing.com/