Turtle Mountain Brewing

Turtle Mountain Brewing is one of the older breweries in the Albuquerque area, located in Rio Rancho to the north. This brewery is more of a restaurant than the usual brew pubs and has a full menu to pair the beers with. This venue, being a restaurant, doesn't have a whole lot of entertainment going on and is very dark inside. Good thing the beer was so good! As per usual, we started with the flight:

McDay's Cream Ale

Heidelberg Helles

Oku Amber

Parasol White IPA

Hopshell IPA

Stauffenberg Stout

The McDay's Cream Ale was very refreshing and creamy indeed. The very slight citrus hop lent a great flavor to this easy-going cream ale. This is a great beer to start a palate with, and can also be enjoyed with a more developed palate, just one of those beers anyone can drink.

The Heidelberg Helles was also a light and refreshing beer, though it had more of a wheat-forward flavor that teamed well with the creamy taste. Another great palate starter or refreshing beer after a long, hot day.

The Oku Amber had some bold flavors that made for a very interesting, and delicious amber ale. There were coffee flavors as well as that bread flavor that is typical of malty beers like this one, and that full-bodied mouth feel that just makes the beer that much better.

The Parasol White IPA tasted very fresh and had a great pine/juniper flavor from the hops. Like an IPA should, this beer had a bit of a bitter bite, but also like a White ale should, it was a very smooth and easy to drink beer.

The Hopshell IPA was an all-around great IPA, from the color, to the smell, to the mouth feel and finally the flavor. This ale had a great hop flavor, not too bitter or strong, and had that almost warm, smooth, creamy taste of a double IPA. Very good beer.

The Stauffenberg Stout was lighter in color for a stout but smelled of all the flavors a stout should have; chocolate, coffee, and meat. The coffee flavor came through the most in tasting as well as a slight nuttiness, but there was an overbearing carbonation to the beer that took away from the stout.

There were also a few seasonal beers that we added to the flight:

Bien Tu Helles Bock

Session Red

Pollywog's Pride IPL

Konventional Kolsch

The Bien Tu Helles Bock was a great depiction of a light bock, as the name would entail. It was malty and full of flavor, but still light and wheaty at the finish. This is somewhat of a more advanced palate's beer, but could still be enjoyed early on in your craft beer explorations.

The Session Red was very mild and lacking in flavor compared to the rest of the beers thus far. Sessions are typically more mellow, so the style was right for the flavor, just not as enjoyable as the rest of their flight.

The Pollywog's Pride IPL was also not up to par with the rest of the menu; this beer started with an off-smell, almost that of sweat. The flavor was also very weak and bland, and very smooth for a lager.

The Konventional Kolsch was a step in the right direction, smelling sweet of pears and other fruits, this kolsch was not only conventional but delicious! The wheat flavors were accented by the pear and made for a very refreshing beer.

Megan's overall opinion: I was happily surprised by the quality of Turtle Mountain's beer. This brewery is a hidden gem out in Rio Rancho that deserves a lot more credit than it seems to get. There were really only a couple beers I didn't care for (the Session Red and the IPL), but the rest were plenty good to make up for it. My favorite beer  was the Konventional Kolsch with the Helles Bock as a close second. We may have to go back with growlers!

Randy's overall opinion: Only been to this one a couple of times so far. This was actually my first brewery back in the day so I won't count that time cause I didn't know what I was tasting. This time I do and would have to say I was pleasantly surprised! There were so many beers on this list that I liked that it was hard to rank them so I'll say the ones I didn't care for much.... the Session Red and the Helles Bock. They were still decent beers but compared to the lineup, they just couldn't be at the top. Cream Ales are my thing right now so that was number 1 but the entire list was very enjoyable. It's a little bit out of the way for me but it is good to know there's quality in Rio Rancho and it's worth the trip.

http://turtlemountainbrewing.com/