A little while ago, a couple of Crew members heard rumors that a northern brewery was for sale in New Mexico. The rumors proved to be true, as we found out via ProBrewer, where the breweries for sale list now includes Blü Dragonfly Brewing.

Blü Dragonfly opened in the summer of 2018 in Cimarron, with its first beer reaching taps in September of that year. Eventually, it outgrew the small space in the town near the Philmont Scout Ranch, and relocated brewing operations to a former National Guard armory building near the Raton Airport in late 2021. The Cimarron space continued on as a taproom/restaurant before closing last fall.

In recent months, Blü Dragonfly has been sharing posts of its beer being tapped or sold in cans at bars, restaurants, and stores throughout Northern New Mexico. For all intents and purposes, business seemed to be booming, a rare new entry into the packaging and distribution market.

It seemed entirely possible that the goal was to build up and present a thriving business to sell, and that is exactly the case here. We reached out to Blü Dragonfly owner Colin Tawney for comment via email, and he didn’t just confirm that the brewery was for sale, he went into great detail as to why he made this tough decision. Here is his written response, in full.

“Thank you for reaching out. I don’t mind explaining at all:

“(Pagosa Brewing’) Tony Simmons is someone in the industry I truly respect and admire; just like him, it’s time (for me) to do something else.   

“Truth of the matter is, it’s time for a life change and this always had somewhat of a finite timeline for me. 

“When we opened as a small brewpub in Cimarron in 2018, I always said this would be a five-year project. We’d build it up and let someone else take it to the next level. We also never really envisioned us outgrowing the brewpub space and going to a bigger system. We have struggled year-after-year to keep our original location staffed. The revenue was also very top-heavy in the summer so distribution also became a way to help smooth out the cash flow curve. At the end of last summer, we offered that location to our taproom manager, but she was ready for a change in life and career. So, we went to work focusing on outside distribution with no plans to reopen the Cimarron taproom for this year unless something extraordinary happened.  

“I’m 57, which means I’m a bit of a senior citizen on the brew floor. I’m still in great shape minus a few arthritic issues, but the grain bags and kegs are getting heavier. I’m also part-owner in two other businesses which really need my attention, and I have an elderly parent living out of state. As I get older, I need less commitments and want to spend more time outdoors, which was a driving factor in us moving to New Mexico six years ago in the first place. I simply cannot give my 100-percent best effort to all aspects of my life and businesses when I’ve kind of over-booked my time. 

“I had a good brewing assistant leave last October. I originally planned to replace him, but realizing I was getting closer to selling the brewery, I didn’t think it fair to hire someone with the possibility they might lose their job down the road if a new owner had a different idea in personnel. We’ve been running with a small crew of part-timers while I seek out a buyer.

“I’m going to keep on trying to grow our customer list and keep on investing in equipment as-needed to increase the value to the next owner. We’ve got two complete brewhouses to give us flexibility on recipes, 99 barrels of cellar space, and a state-of-the-art canning system. We are on a 6.5-acre property with 1.5 acres licensed as a beer garden that we can do concerts or other outdoor events in. We’ve got space for a taproom and meeting room in the building, plus, we still have the lease on the Cimarron property if someone wants to gobble up as much Philmont Scout Ranch business during the summer, as well. That was always a fun part of the year, serving staff beer (and) food, and scouts who have been on the trail for a couple of weeks tasty food. There’s a ton of upside for whomever becomes the next owner of Blü Dragonfly Brewing. Raton is a great business community, and Trinidad is an under-served local craft market just waiting for someone to jump all over it. 

“Let me know if you have any other questions, I’m more than happy to answer best I can. Any help the Dark Side Brew Crew could give us in getting the word out is appreciated.

“Cheers!”

Hey, we understand that at a certain point, most people would like to retire and step back from the day-to-day grind. That is what’s happening with Pagosa Brewing in Southern Colorado right now, as Tawney mentioned above. Its owners likewise intend to retire from the brewing industry and have put that venerable old pub up for sale, as well.

It is something that could happen more and more in upcoming years around New Mexico, as many brewery owners who have been in the business for a long time seek to retire. There is no guarantee that any brewery will be passed down to the next generation, which could lead to more and more sales on the horizon (not that we have heard of any others at this time, so nobody go and panic that local breweries are suddenly going to be sold en masse to new owners, or worse, just close down like Hair of the Dog in Portland, Oregon).

The Crew was invited to visit Blü Dragonfly when it was in Cimarron (there was an AirBnB next door), but we never made the trip for various reasons, leaving us with a bit of regret there. We are trying to figure out a time in the coming weeks to visit the breweries in the Raton area. If we do make the trip up there, perhaps we will get to meet the new owner(s) of Blü Dragonfly.

Until then, we can only wish Colin luck in finding the right person(s) to take over, and we thank him for being so forthcoming about the reasons behind the tough decision he had to make.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister