Santa Fe Beer and Food Festival combines history and hops

When it comes to the beer festival scene, simply setting up some tents with good food and drink is often more than enough incentive to get people to come out in droves.

While there’s nothing wrong with that concept, the Santa Fe Beer and Food Festival aims to provide attendees with a little something more. For one, this particular event is held on the grounds of El Rancho de las Golondrinas, an outdoor living history museum boasting 500 acres, 34 historic buildings and more than 100 volunteer interpreters.

“We take history out of locked cases and put it in the hands of our guests to get them hands-on with history,” Daniel Goodman, museum director, said. “We want them to experience it, and it’s a different, unique way of learning and engaging with history.”

Typically, the emphasis is on the Spanish-Mexican territorial periods in New Mexican history. But for these two days in August, guests will get a crash course in Hops 101 as well as some of the state’s rich brewing history.

“New Mexico, and Santa Fe in particular, has a longstanding brewing history and culture that began in the late 1800s, and it’s been a big part of New Mexico history ever since,” Goodman said. “There are beer festivals, but people aren’t talking about and celebrating the history in that way at a historic site, so it made sense for us.”

Las Golondrinas is more than a museum: Three different types of hops — CTZ, Chinook and Sterling — are grown on the property. Some of those are used to create a brew in collaboration with Beer Creek Brewing called Golondrinas Gold “La Vieja,” a Dusseldorf altbier that people can sample at the festival. The museum staff and brewpub have worked together on a number of variations in recent years, and Beer Creek utilizes the rest of the Las Golondrinas hops in some of their other recipes.

This relationship ties directly into the Beer and Food Festival, because those who purchase a ticket will get to have an up-close-and-personal experience with the harvest.

“We will bring all of our vines to the top part of the property … and our staff will run the vines through the hops harvester,” Goodman said. “Then as those hops come out, we will put them onto a sorting table, where everyone who’s there will get a chance to get hands-on to help us sort the hops.

“Everyone leaves knowing that they helped sort hops that are going to go in the next batch of Golondrinas Gold and in future batches of Beer Creek beers.”

It’s not all about manual labor, of course. Those aforementioned tents will be present with plenty of beer and food options. All told, there will be 11 New Mexico breweries on hand at the event. There will also be a variety of vendors as well as live music acts throughout both days.

“Our artisan vendor market features locally made, hand-crafted gifts, treats, art and more, with everything from leatherwork and customized accessories to handmade candles and jewelry,” JC Gonzalez, event manager, said. “Expect a fun variety of food-based vendors including jerky, artisan sauces and more.”

Admission comes with five tickets to receive samples from the participating breweries. Full cups and other beverages can be purchased separately. There’s also a VIP ticket available that will provide special access that might prove welcome on a hot weekend.

“They kind of transform one of our indoor spaces into a very cool five-star hotel lobby type of experience, and there’ll be little appetizers served there,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a really nice place to cool down because there’s AC there.”

Additionally, attendees will be able to walk the entirety of the museum grounds, though alcohol can only be carried in designated areas.

“Whenever we have our festivals, the entire historic property is open, so all of our buildings are open (and) we have our costumed volunteers out there who are sharing the history of New Mexico, and of Las Golondrinas … We don’t do guided tours on festival days, but you can self-guide,” Goodman said.