Late last week, I made an overdue visit to Jemez Mountain Brewhouse in the village of Jemez Springs. Owners Jef Bold, Scott Johnson, and David Martinez were there to greet me with pizza, beer, and tales of this little labor of love that they have begun to build at 17691 NM-4.

This same spot was previously occupied by Second Alarm Brewhouse, which ultimately closed back during the pandemic lockdown era of 2020-21.

“I was the bartender, evening bartender, part-time, but I worked for Second Alarm,” Bold said. “I just love this place. One day they just offered it to me. They were having their own issues. Out of the blue they said do you want to buy it. I said yes.”

Bold had kept some mental notes on what he saw worked at Second Alarm, and what would definitely need to be upgraded.

“I just reached out, told them the overall idea,” he said. “As a former employee for them, I felt like I kind of knew the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for us. I did my own sort of analysis while working here. I felt like I had an idea of what could be better.”

Among the first changes were to the kitchen, which was on the small side, and the menu, which Bold said was too similar to the nearby Los Ojos Restaurant & Saloon. Jemez Mountain pivoted to being a pizza-centric restaurant. It made the brewpub a better neighbor, Bold said, but was only the beginning of the changes he implemented.

“Expanding the kitchen, switching to pizza, simplifying the menu, focusing on the beer, reducing the number of taps, that kind of stuff,” Bold said. “Simple things like that.”

Knowing that he could not do things alone, Bold convinced Johnson and Martinez to come on board. Martinez quickly jumped into his role. (As a note, Bold’s son, Eben, is also an owner, but he lives in California and was not visiting when I was there.)

“I’m also the general manager here,” he said. “My background comes from management, customer service, high-end hospitality. When Jef tried to get me on board I ran the day-to-day operations and guest services department for Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort and Spa. I ran the team that ran the day-to-day operations. During COVID they fired 90 percent of us and didn’t call many of us back. So I was helping the family out at the time when Jef called. I didn’t have any other real opportunities going on, (but) I was excited to work with Jef.”

Johnson had just retired from teaching up in Los Alamos and was looking at forming a new five-year plan for what to do with himself. He quickly drew upon his knowledge from his time working at the White Horse on Parson’s Green in London, back in 1989, and instilled a similar pub mindset into Jemez Mountain. There are no TVs to speak of, just friendly conversation over the beers and pizza.

“I’ve worked at dive bars and chain restaurants,” Johnson said. “I’ve brewed 40 or 50 batches of beer (at home).”

Johnson helped craft recipes for an IPA and a pilsner that have, to date, been contract brewed at the now-closed Mother Trail facility in Albuquerque. The brewing space is still in the works at Jemez Mountain, one of several challenges that the owners have had to learn how to overcome.

“I think we’re still learning,” Martinez said. “We’re only in for a year and a quarter. I still have a lot of plans to change things, make things more stream lined. But, I would say labor has a been a huge (challenge).”

“Being here in the village comes with some solid pros and some solid cons,” Bold said. “There’s no competition, there’s no brewery (within) at least an hour away. We are in this great tourist destination in the summer. The town just gets packed. There’s a huge opportunity.

“The flip side is there’s less than 200 as a (year-round) population. It’s mostly a retirement community, so there’s not a large labor pool. Convincing people to drive from Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Los Alamos — which we’ve had, and David comes all the way from Espanola — but it’s a long drive to do every night. Especially in the winter, at night, driving can be treacherous.”

Bold said that they have hired “just about every eligible teenager in town.”

“We do have a really good staff now,” Johnson said. “As far as the brewing part, finding a contractor has been hard.”

Jemez Mountain has all of its brewing equipment on site, but does not yet have a full cold room, nor the other basic elements such as a floor drain and glycol lines installed. The equipment is a mix of new, the kettle, plus a mash tun from Red Door, two fermenters from St. Pat’s in Texas, and some gently used serving tanks from Bosque.

“Yeah, trying to get our brewing (setup) done, trying to get a licensed contract up here has been hard,” Martinez said. “Trying to find someone just be professional has been difficult, too.”

There are other only-in-a-small-town issues that Jemez Mountain has had to confront.

“That brings us to infrastructure, too,” Martinez said. “Finding reliable internet, electric goes out constantly. Especially this time of year with the monsoons, we can lose power at any given moment. It shuts down our POS, we lose our fridges. In the wintertime, you get a heavy snow, the same thing happens. Little things like that.”

Later Friday, after I had driven back to Albuquerque, Jemez Mountain posted on Facebook that they had lost power and were closing for the night. Mother Nature did not need to prove Martinez right, but she is a fickle entity.

“This is a historic building, built in 1951, it was the original firehouse,” Martinez continued. “When we inherited it, all the plugs were still two-pronged plus. It was all grandfathered in. The walls are a solid concrete block, you can’t even drill into it. The acequia runs right underneath the building, so we have water flowing straight through, which clogs every once in a while. We’ve had floods in the basement. We’ve had the full gamut.”

Despite all of those challenges, Jemez Mountain has quickly built up a strong word of mouth. The space is comfortable and inviting, the lineup of guest taps is quality, and above all else, the pizza is drawing in folks from hours away.

“We get most of our customers from Los Alamos, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Bernalillo,” Martinez said. “They’re coming from all over. We have some that will take the drive, two hours, just to come see us. We planned the day to come to you, and then we’ll do something.”

“In probably 25 percent of our online reviews, people actually mention that ‘I drove an hour plus, and it’s worth the drive,’” Bold added. “It’s for the pizza, that spicy red sauce.”

Yes, Jemez Mountain has a homemade red chile marinara sauce, in addition to a traditional sauce. I ordered the Carnivore with the less spicy one (heartburn happens when you are 45), and it was just as delicious as I had been told by other friends and some of our readers.

“I’d say the Carnivore is our second most popular pizza,” Martinez said. “It’s the Hatch, the Carnivore, and the Jemez.”

You can find the full menu at the official website.

As for the beer, neither of their contract brews were available the day I visited, but the owners are still holding out hope that they can be brewing on site before the end of the year.

“I wouldn’t put a (date) on it, but the equipment is (on site), we’re just looking to get a contractor,” Martinez said. “It’s licensed, we’ve started the work to build the cold room, the (floor) drain, all the little things you need to make it work. You can’t set up any of the equipment until those things get done.”

The staff has been keeping track of which styles out of the guest taps have been selling the best.

“IPAs, ciders, light beers sell really well, like a nice lager, a nice blonde,” Martinez said. “There’s still those Budweiser drinkers. But, IPA is number one here.”

Bold said that the Tractor Blood Orange Cider is hugely popular, so that one may remain as a semi-permanent guest tap.

“We always need to have a dark beer on, a stout, porter, brown,” Martinez said. “A nice red would be nice. A black IPA would be fantastic.”

Johnson said they ultimately have not settled on which styles to brew just yet, as they would first prefer to just have everything set up and ready to go first. The team has reached out to other breweries for advice, and credited the recent technical conference hosted by the New Mexico Brewers Guild at CNM for helping them network out beyond Jemez Springs.

Bold also added that the aforementioned acequia will be beneficial to the brewing.

“One of the neat things is it’s natural spring water flowing under the building,” he said. “We’re filtering it, but it’s still some high-quality spring water.”

One other aspect that I felt that Second Alarm was never able to truly utilize, the beautiful outdoor setting, is something that Jemez Mountain will take advantage of in the future.

“We’re going to get rid of that front parking lot here, and add a patio,” Martinez said of the east side of the building that faces NM-4.

Johnson said the dream is to also have a patio on the west side of the building.

“One thing at a time,” Martinez replied with a smile.

Jemez Mountain Brewhouse is definitely a labor of love for the owners, and yet still a work in progress. If you need a weekend getaway, even if only for a few hours, head on up and check it out. The pizza and the vibe are top quality, and when the brewing room is finished and the beers start flowing, we expect that it will only get better.

A huge thanks to Jef, David, and Scott for the interview and the pizza, and especially for being patient with my fluctuating schedule that kept delaying my visit. I will return, likely with some other Crew members in tow, when those first beers brewed on site are tapped.

Keep supporting local statewide!

— Stoutmeister