It was a good year, but it was a tough year over at Nexus Brewery. Kinda like how the food is challening to make just right, but oh so delicious when you finally get to eat it.

Well, it was something like that, and pardon us for always getting our brains stuck on the delectable menu at one of Albuquerque’s top brewpubs. I got to indulge in a little of that food after sitting down with owner Ken Carson and head brewer Randy King for our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series interview. We caught up with how the past year went and how 2024 has started out, including with another big win at a competition for one of their top seasonal beers.

First up, however, we had to go over 2023, which Carson said was a more difficult year than most customers probably experienced.

“I would say it was challenging,” he said. “It was challenging from a standpoint of employee retention, and hiring, and working people back in. It was just a revolving door almost all year. It seemed like we grew, our sales grew, and the barbecue place did really well, it basically grew 40 percent. Unfortunately, because of all the changes and the things that happened during the year, it was a tough year. It was a year that I don’t want to go back to again, honestly.”

Fear not, though, as 2024 is rolling along in a positive way.

“However, this year has started off pretty good,” Carson said. “We’ve started finding some people that seem to know the business really well. I’m moving a little bit away. I’m getting, I hate to say it, older. I guess all of us are, right? So my daughter is taking a larger role in the business, Reina, a lot of people know her. We continue to do well at this store. It’s just nonstop, continuous good sales. Nothing to complain about. I expect this year to be the biggest year ever for us.”

Things are certainly off to a great start on the brewing side of the business. King and his assistant brewer, Tim Sanchez, are still basking in the glow of winning a second silver medal in the last three years for Beam Me Up (Higher) Scotty at the World Beer Cup. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the Craft Brewers Conference in Las Vegas on April 24.

“I’m really proud of our brewing team,” Carson said. “Winning an award with 9,000 breweries compared to the 2,600 that we had back in 2012 when we won our first award, that’s quite an accomplishment, I feel. I think it’s Randy’s attention to detail, the hard work they do. Tim has been a great addition to our brew (team).”

“I mean we’re constantly trying to improve our recipes and our process,” King said, ever humble about such things. “I just glanced at that Beam Me Up recipe and it actually has three grain modifications from the last medal.”

As we talked about the beer, King did ask Carson if the plan was to still hold back the last of the batch for the Nexus anniversary party that usually takes place in late May or early June. Carson replied that he is pushing back the anniversary while a new management team is getting acclimated, so yes, Beam Me Up (Higher) Scotty is now available on tap at Nexus.

While that win was nice, it was not all smooth sailing for Nexus on the beer side. Like so many other breweries in town, equipment issues seemed to be the unfortunate theme of 2023.

“We had some challenges in the brewery as well,” King said. “The glycol chiller has been a battle. We’re looking at possibly replacing that. We’ve got a lot of things that we could replace. Our boiler was down, so that caused some production issues. We put in a new boiler, so that’s nice.”

Carson gave a shout-out to Turtle Mountain owner Nico Ortiz, who at one point was going to loan his not-yet-used new boiler to Nexus. Though ultimately the equipment did not match up, Carson said it was still a sign of how close the members of the brewing community are to one another.

King said that with the boiler fixed, he has also started looking at the possibility of redoing the floor and drains of the brewing area, noting that after 13 years, it could use a bit of fixing up. That was a lot of his focus during CBC.

Then there is that one beer on tap that King can never seem to keep on tap, which is one of those good/bad things.

“Our (Oralé) Mexican Lager has been a lot of fun this year,” he said. “The popularity of that beer, and it was a seasonal, and now it’s (almost always) on the menu. We keep running out of that beer. People will text me and be upset about it. Customers come in and they’re upset that we don’t have that beer on. I keep ramping up production, and I don’t ramp it up enough. That beer has gone from a seasonal to our number one beer, volume wise. That’s a lot of fun, as well.”

The good news is that Oralé is on tap and available in cans right now, so no need to panic.

“Still canning, doing a good job on that,” Carson said. “We are changing our distributor and looking for a new one. We’re still going to get a few restaurants (for keg distribution) on a regular basis, and maybe a few cans out there, depending on who’s the right fit. We’re not going to become a big production brewery. But, our plans are to move forward with that.”

While the Mexican lager sales continue to climb, King said that like most of the industry, Nexus has seen IPA sales flatten out.

“The state of the industry is interesting, IPA has leveled off,” he said. “It’s still a huge category, but it’s no longer growing.

“But, speaking of IPAs, that is one of our next things to do. Our Frio Cold IPA series, where I feature a different hop each time I brew it, we’re going to bring that back probably in June. It’s not on the brewing schedule yet, but it’s in the plans.”

Other plans in the works or even already in the table include Nexus bottling two of its popular barbecue sauces for sale out of the Blue Smokehouse. Beyond that, Carson said that they will expand the menu at Blue, adding popular dishes like gumbo, and red beans and rice, from the original location.

“That probably won’t happen until midyear,” he said. “Other than that, I think everything is good.”

We will make sure to keep everyone updated once those anniversary party plans are set, and with anything and everything else to come at Nexus for the remainder of 2024 and beyond. A big thanks to Ken and Randy for the interview, and for the late lunch afterwards, of course.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister