Over the last few days, as we worked to follow up on our recent story about the challenge of reporting on brewery closures, we learned that three places we have reported as closing for good may be coming back to life.

The circumstances in each case appear to be slightly different, but we are happy to cut back on our list of pandemic closures.

First up, Turquoise Trail Brewing owner Sean Lawson has changed his mind and will reopen the brewery at 11016 Central Ave. SE. We’ve got Maureen working on a more in-depth story about what went into that decision. It was not closed for too long, so we are glad to see that Turquoise Trail will continue to serve customers in the Southeast Heights.

Cantero Brewing shut down at the start of the pandemic and never opened again even as the other breweries were allowed to have on-site customers last summer and fall. After some reports that the brewing equipment was for sale, in the end it turned out to be the entire business that was for sale, and it has been purchased.

Lizard Tail Brewing is taking over the Cantero location in the Brewery District. It will mark a major expansion for the small brewery located in a shopping center at Eubank and Montgomery, which has long been looking for a way to grow. In addition to purchasing Cantero (there is a pending small brewer license with the State of New Mexico), it was also confirmed via Facebook post that Lizard Tail/Cantero (the exact naming setup is still to be determined) will open an offsite taproom in Nob Hill.

We will keep an eye on the progress with both of these projects going forward.

The final resurrected brewery is not one we are going to name yet, as we do not have much in the way of confirmation beyond what we (and a helpful friend in the industry) managed to dig up. Let us just say that it is located in the 87102 zip code, it appears to be a new ownership group, and whether or not they keep the name of the brewery or change it up is still to be determined. They appear to have a placeholder name of “Juno” on their pending small brewer license, but if they have moved that far long in the process to even have a pending license, it appears that the project is officially moving forward.

If anyone from Lizard Tail or “Juno” would like to reach out to us, please send us a direct message through any of our social media pages or email us at nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com.

We hope that this is just the beginning of more positive news for our local craft beer scene going forward in 2021.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister