In the small town of Santa Fe, having a dedicated brewery crowd is not a given. It’s something that is earned. Take it from the long-standing beer-stitutions like Second Street Brewery, Santa Fe Brewing, and Blue Corn. They’ve been at this biz a long time, and they’ll tell you, they had to fight to stay in business, year after year, until they became household names. They’ll also tell you that in Santa Fe, it’s never as easy as popping open a can and poof, a crowd magically appears on your doorstep.

On the way to similar steady street cred is Rowley Farmhouse Ales. They turn 3 this year, and they’ve earned their success all the way. With a good business model, an abundance of quality products (on the table and in the taps), and a good bunch of people to keep the wheels turning, RFA has managed to keep its doors open and even grow in the face of the city of holy faith’s fickle crowds, surviving even Santa Fe’s slowest of ‘beer-industry winters.’

I asked brewmaster and co-owner John Rowley what being open for 3 years meant to him personally.

“We’re super excited to make this landmark of being open three years,“ he said. “We couldn’t have done it without having a great team and the continued support of our local community.“

I also asked chef and co-owner Jeffrey Kaplan how he felt about being open 3 years and going strong.

“It feels good to have made it this far,” Kaplan said. “We still have a ways to go, but we are continually trying to make better beer, and improve our processes within our budgets and constraints. We’ve come a long way, but still have some growing to do. I’m really happy with our progress, and I hope everyone is happy with our beers!“

Speaking of which, RFA has an awesome lineup of rare beers ready to tap for their anniversary party. And, in true RFA fashion, they have a bunch of special bottles they’ve pulled out of their archives. Kaplan said they’re releasing Songs of Our Own, RFA’s brand-new spontaneously fermented American wild ale, which they aged in local wine barrels on tangerines. It should be noted that this is the first-ever commercial spontaneous beer made in NM.

Special draft list

Songs of Our Own — Fruited Wild Ale

Stoutish — Oyster Stout

Meier — Fruited Lemon Gose

Apercu — Fruited Mead

Body isn’t Life — Barleywine

Grandissant 4x Cerise

Raspberry Germophile — Fruited Berliner

Jose — Fruited Keylime Gose

Music lineup

Mark Dawson of Mod Orange (noon-1 p.m.) Show some support as one of our favorite bartenders performs!

El Brujo Trio (1-3 p.m.)

Clark Libbey & Kristen Rad (3-5 p.m.)

The entire event is from noon to 5 p.m., at 1405 Maclovia St, Santa Fe, NM 87505, all ages are welcome. To another successful year!

Cheers!

— Luke

For more #craftbeer info and @nmdarksidebc news follow me on Twitter at @SantaFeLuke