I spent a long weekend in Santa Fe for a good friend's wedding.
There's something about Santa Fe that is unique to that city. It's a feeling more than a style. Everybody I meet in Santa Fe seemed to be really at ease with themselves.
Anyway, I digress. I visited Blue Corn Cafe and Brewery, which is one of my favorite places to eat in Santa Fe. I had an IPA, which was pretty damn good. It had a nice hoppy aroma and a strong hoppy taste that almost made me sneeze. That's just the way I like em.
I noticed that there was also a beer called "Identic-Ale." The description said that eight breweries in New Mexico all brewed the same beer, but each one used a different variety of yeast (I said hop earlier- sorry). I would like to see some of the Denver-Boulder breweries do something like that. I thought maybe I could convince some of my homebrewing buddies to do it too. I'll keep you posted.
Some other things I like about Santa Fe:
You can buy liquor in the grocery store, which leads me to Trader Joes.
We bought a case of wine for $33 at Trader Joe's. You may have heard about "Three Buck Chuck," it costs $2.99 a bottle and from what I've tasted so far, it's not bad.
And then there's the reason I wanted to go to a grocery store on vacation -- Trader Joe's Scotch. I bought the 11-year (I'm poor) for $20. It's distilled by Macallan. There was a 14-year for $31.
Here in town I pay nearly $20 for a medium size bottle of Johnny Walker.
It's almost enough for me to move to Santa Fe.