The majority of breweries in New Mexico decided to stay open during the early days of the COVID-19 shutdown, offering their beers and/or food for takeout only. A few, however, decided to close their doors and wait things out. As breweries return to having customers inside and on their patios at 50-percent occupancy, now even…
Month: June 2020
Steel Bender and other brewpubs still facing their own unique challenges in reopening
While much of the attention over the last several days has focused on the many breweries getting to reopen at last, the brewpubs (which we define as any brewery that offers food made on site) have been navigating the 50-percent occupancy waters for some time now. Their kitchens may have granted them that privilege of…
The Week Ahead in Beer: A Dank on draft helps us all get at least halfway to normal
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, one in Silver City, and one in Truth or Consequences also joining the party….
Albuquerque’s two biggest breweries survive the initial onrush of returning customers
Over the course of the next few days and weeks, the Crew will be catching up with as many breweries as we can to see how they survived the lockdown, how things are going with customers allowed back inside and on patios at 50-percent occupancy, and what additional changes and developments are afoot. To kick…
The tumultuous times and tribulations of the first Santa Fe breweries in the 1800s
As we have traveled through the distant past of New Mexico’s brewing history, from wild shootouts in Albuquerque to the growth of the biggest pre-Prohibition brewery, to the small-town brewing outposts of the 19th century, and finally to the ill-fated rebirth of local brewing in the 1930s, there is one place that we have conspicuously…
All breweries eligible to reopen patios Friday and indoor seating Monday
Good news came down from Santa Fe on Thursday afternoon as Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is allowing all breweries to reopen their patios to 50-percent occupancy Friday and then indoor seating Monday. Two weeks ago, the governor permitted breweries with 50-percent or greater food sales to reopen, but that left many breweries big and small…
High and Dry makes best use of its time to install bigger brewing system
Much of the work going on at breweries these days is happening behind the scenes. Some of it is geared to preparing to reopen to onsite customers, for those still limited to takeout only. In other cases, such as at High and Dry Brewing, it is a wholesale upgrade to a bigger brewhouse and new…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Steel Bender kicks off summer a couple weeks early
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, one in Silver City, and one in Truth or Consequences also joining the party….
The small towns of 19th century New Mexico were home to a surprising number of breweries
To kick off our series on New Mexico beer history, we have initially stuck to the tales of the breweries in Albuquerque, from wild shootouts to the creation of the biggest brewery to the short-lived efforts to restart brewing after Prohibition. This is a big state, though, so there was brewing still going on in…
Beer Creek brews up a little New Mexico history
Last week, I was summoned out to Beer Creek Brewing Company because the guys said they had some news for me. They had done something historic, owner and founder had Rich Headley told me. I was intrigued, so I took the bait. After a few minutes down Highway 14, I pulled into the empty parking…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 