Back when I interviewed the Bow & Arrow Brewing staff about their new canning line, co-owner Shyla Sheppard said that the forthcoming Rambler Taproom in Farmington has been placed on indefinite hold. It made sense, not having a patio and all, but it ended up getting all of us in the Crew wondering about what other places that were expected to open in 2020 have been frozen in place by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gravity Bound Brewing was supposed to open in late March, but had to delay that until things began to open up again, and is now going strong on Third Street north of Lomas. Other future breweries and offsite taprooms have remained in limbo amid the shifting rules that come with each public health order. Here, to the best of our knowledge, is where all the forthcoming breweries and taprooms are right now.

Fully open

In the pre-pandemic days, the Crew had been invited to check out the B2B Garden Brewery on Comanche, just west of Wyoming. We never set a tour date before the coronavirus arrived, and the soft opening was followed by the brewery shutting down for a while. Well, it turns out the brewery is open again, with patio seating outside, a taco-heavy menu, and fresh beer on tap.

So yes, we will be heading over there to take some pictures and review the space in the near future.

Partially open

Boogie’s Brewery and Distillery in Deming is open, well, sort of open. So far the staff there has been hard at work on producing hand sanitizer for Southwest New Mexico, but that’s about it. There may be some bottled spirits coming in the next few months. It will be a while before this place is fully open, but kudos to the staff there for helping their community.

Making slow but steady progress

Based on the pictures we have seen on social media, Sobremesa on the west side and ReSource Brewing on Eubank north of Candelaria are both slowly but steadily pushing ahead. We get that opening in the midst of this entire situation is not ideal, but it appears they will not wait too much longer. We are in touch with both breweries and should have stories lined up when they are ready to have us visit (or revisit, in the case of Sobremesa).

Painted Lady Bed & Brew in the Sawmill District is also adding a small brewer license to its setup. This unique bed-and-breakfast has plenty of time to set itself up for a post-pandemic world, so we have been told they are in no hurry.

Up north, The Nuckolls Brewing in Santa Fe is making progress as well. Set in the Railyard, this new place is from the same folks who brought nearby Violet Crown Cinema to town. Once Luke gets back from taking a well-earned vacation (well, staycation in this age), we will have further updates. A recent article in the Santa Fe New Mexican also said that the Bosque Brewing taproom in the Railyard is moving closer toward opening, but there is no pending offsite license for that spot yet, so we have to assume it is still a ways off.

Out to the east, social media pictures show Bandolero Brewery in Clovis is also making progress towards opening. With the Roosevelt Brewing taproom now open and Red Door’s taproom going strong, this eastern town is starting to develop a genuine beer scene.

Down south, Baca House Brewing in Socorro is apparently moving along as well. It will be located in the same building as past tennants Twisted Chile Brewing and Sourdough Mine Restaurant and Brewery, with the difference being that the building owner will be directly operating the brewpub instead of leasing it out to someone else.

Mysterious mysteries

We do have to point out that on the state’s licensing website, unless a license is withdrawn or cancelled, it can remain listed as pending indefinitely. This is our way of saying everything below is mostly speculation as to whether or not these projects will still happen.

There are two places with active licenses that we know nothing about. Piedra Blanca Brewing in White Rock, near Los Alamos, and Public House 28 near Anthony do not have any social media presence or even their own websites. If anyone out there has information on either place, please drop us a line.

As for the other pending small brewer licenses, we do not know the status of Albuquerque Distilling’s attempt to add beers to its lineup.

The last time any of us checked, there was no progress on the construction of Bosque’s future west side taproom and secondary brewery.

Electric Cafe, which has an 87102 zip code attached, is an unknown spot to us located somewhere downtown. We speculated this could be the rumored brewery looking to move into the old Burt’s Tiki Lounge space on Gold, but there is no confirmation of that.

Hippo Milk, the odd codename (?) for the 505 Central Food Hall’s apparent in-house brewery, is still listed as pending. The food hall is still under construction per social media photos from owner/architect Mark Baker, a part-owner of High and Dry Brewing.

We have not seen any recent updates on Wanted Brewing and Distilling in Las Vegas. Best known as the place that bought the old Duel Brewing equipment, they appear to be waiting out the current situation, though if they post updates on social media, we will share them in a future story.

The Desert Valley taproom on San Mateo south of Osuna appears to be frozen in place for the time being. After the taproom on Wyoming closed last year, there was talk of Desert Valley abandoning the San Mateo location as well, but the pending license remains for now.

Other than the fact there is a pending license now, we do not have any updates on The Taproom at Old Town, the new joint venture from Palmer Brewery and Left Turn Distilling in the old Candy Lady store location.

As always, if anyone out there has more info for us, please send it to us via direct message on any of our social media pages, or email it to nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister