With restaurants and bars continuing to go in and out of business, it’s important to make note of the successes. Downtown Albuquerque’s Bow & Arrow Brewing Co. just celebrated its ninth year in business, bringing award-winning beers and innovative business practices to the Duke City. On Saturday, March 1, fans of the popular hangout showed up for an anniversary bash featuring a live performance by singer-songwriter Brandon Post and music by DJ Corncob and DJ Garronteed. Food trucks packed the parking lot giving revelers something to fill up on, and there were (of course) plenty of beers to sample.
Bow & Arrow is stretching out the celebration beyond the birthday party, though, with the release of its newest beer, appropriately labelled NINE. The Czech-style Pilsner with an alcohol by volume of 4% is described as an “easy-going, pilsner” with a “crisp, slightly malt-forward for notes of biscuit and cracker, earthy spice with herbal, floral undertones.” The new brew is available on draft at Bow & Arrow (608 McKnight Ave. NW) and in cans at local retailers. It has already earned a solid four-star rating from a variety of users at the popular Untappd beer review website.
Bow & Arrow Brewing Co. is the love child of founders Shyla Sheppard (who serves as CEO) and Missy Begay (now the company’s creative director), who met while studying at Stanford. The two bonded over their passion for home hobbyist brewing and eventually moved to Begay’s hometown of Albuquerque, NM. They perfected their craft over the years, becoming partners both professionally and personally. The Albuquerque location of Bow & Arrow opened its doors just north of Downtown in February of 2016, becoming our state’s first (and only) Native woman-owned brewery. In the intervening (almost) decade, the brewery pioneered the use of local, Southwestern ingredients and spearheaded the Native Land Beer Project, an international effort to increase awareness in the craft beer industry of the history and contributions by Indigenous People in the United States and beyond. In 2020 the business expanded with Bow & Arrow Brewing’s 4 Corners Taproom in Farmington, making it a statewide success story.
For more info, including business hours, hit them up online.