Santa Fe, New Mexico — My friends live within ten minutes walk of the Second Street Brewpub.
Walk there, stagger back – – I used to do when the place opened some thirteen years ago. Do my friends spend evenings sharing the ambience of a pub? Are they part of the daily chatter and ebb and flow of locals meeting, greeting and putting the world to rights? Do they come in to taste the regular offerings of Brewmaster Rod Tweet?
No! Not being gregarious – them not me – I visit alone, but not for long. This is a local’s hangout.
Rod Tweet, owner and brewer has two more-than-liberally-hopped beers. I’m sure his English Mild is Ok but as I don’t touch the stuff in the UK, why bother here in the USA? Rod brews for the hop pallet challenged but hop heads – you are in for a treat. His IPA hits places that very few beers aspire to – never mind reaching. At over 60 IBU’ and reeking of Cascade Centennial and Crystal , you can’t drink just one – so walk or have a designated driver. IPA is the main seller. This tells you a lot about the sophistication of USA beer drinkers and how brewing in the USA has overtaken the rest of the world.
An evolving series of single hopped – Northwest hop beers are always on offer plus the beers we don’t speak of – you know – Kolsch and other nondescript lager types.
Hop heads and novice beer drinkers will find beers to suite
Typically, patrons are locals and egg heads who work at the Los Alamos Laboratory. Remember – that place where nuclear bombs were first developed. These geek’s don’t ever tell you just what they do but they can openly discuss hops – which is much more important .My friend works at Los Alamos and doesn’t say just what he does either but he doesn’t like hops. What sort of friend is that?
Rod started Second Street some thirteen years ago. A home brewer first as so many are in the USA. Then formal brewing training with the Micro Brewers Guild. I have seen him slowly expand this icon of brewing. Done within financial capacity so when you visit – it will be still there. His 12 barrel system –- designed himself — has enough capacity for Second Street to be opening a pub in the Rail Yard center in downtown Santa Fe.
The bar, a free flow conversational area and I’m talking with locals within seconds . No pun even tried!. I meet Darrah, CEO of Falcon Meadery and he’s drinking Second Street beer – Kolsch I think – but I was too polite to ask. More later. I tried one of his creations – a mead, too sweet directly after an IPA – as he told me it would be and that’s why he drinks kolsch – lawn mower beer. His mead was sweet but not cloying and had plenty of promise so I’m off to the Meadery in a couple of days to sample his “dry ones.” My friend – brewster and mead maker Debora in Denver, organizes’s mead judging and they know each other. Small world isn’t it? I loved Darragh,s quote from Robert Heinlein
“Beware of strong drink – it will make you shoot the tax collector – and miss.”
So pop in and educate your palate with an interesting educated clientele who are part of this unvarnished gregariously flowing delight of a brewpub. Yes – they have food – it’s filling – it tastes fine – pub grub – a little heavy for delicate stomachs like mine. Hearty ones like yours will still be filled.
Second Street Brewpub – my sort of place.
Second Street Brewery
1814 Second Street
Santa Fe, NM 87505
http://www.secondstreetbrewery.com/
Author of the Colorado Brew Guide, Geoff is a great lover of pubs. Though he hails from across the pond, he considers the USA to be the leading brewing nation in the world. He is on a one-man mission to educate the world on good beer. Geoff’s message to the world: disregard quantity - just taste the quality. U.S. domestic beers that flow throughout the world do not represent the real beers of the USA.
Currently writing the Rocky Mountain Brew and Tour Guide, he runs brew tours in Colorado. He also teaches sailing, and runs sail trips in the Caribbean. Geoff is a legend in his own mind.