A little while back, we heard that there was some big news coming out of Red River. It arrived in our inbox a couple weeks ago, we sent some follow-up questions that were soon answered, and now, at last we had a day where we could run this story.

It certainly counts as big news. Red River Brewing, which had squeezed a distilling operation into its production space, is growing with the addition of a separate distilling facility.

The brewery utilized LEDA (Local Economic Development Act) funding to support this expansion.

“LEDA is a vital funding mechanism that assists businesses in their expansion efforts by providing financial resources to spur growth and job creation,” the brewery wrote in the original press release. “With this grant of $150,000, Red River Brewing Company and Distillery will be able to establish a new distillery and enhance its existing brewery operations. This expansion is expected to lead to increased production capacity, create new employment opportunities, and attract more visitors to the area.”

The new distillery building is located at 619 E. Main Street.

“It’s an existing building that has been MASSIVELY renovated to meet our needs,” RRBC co-owner/general manager Michael Calhoun wrote in an email response to our follow-up questions. “It’s located about a half-mile east of the original location.”

RRBC has been winning awards for its spirits, so the demand was definitely there. Plus, this will free up lots of space for the brewery.

“We outgrew our first production facility, where we made both beer and spirits, so we built the new facility to house distillery operations,” Calhoun wrote. “Now we’re making spirits in the new facility, and beer in the original facility. The new facility provides space for much larger, brand-new equipment. We now have a 1,000-gallon kettle and 1,000-gallon still, and four 30-BBL fermenters, plus a modern automated bottling line and warehouse space. This gives us about 20 times the spirits production capacity we previously had. 

“We’re opening a tasting room there later this fall, as well. Now that we can keep up, we’re distributing our line of spirits throughout New Mexico via Southern Glazers. We may finally be able to keep up with demand for our spirits! Also, because the brewery is no longer sharing space with the distillery, our beer production capacity has about doubled.”

This naturally led us to ask if there are any plans to join the packaging-and-distribution list of breweries.

“The increase in beer production capacity has allowed us to begin distributing our beer in kegs throughout New Mexico via a partnership with Admiral Beverage Corporation (ABC),” Calhoun wrote. “We don’t have immediate plans to begin canning our beer for distribution. We’ll have to see if we can keep up with demand for beer in kegs, first. Maybe cans later …”

In a year in which growth has not been the name of the game for many breweries, it is heartening to see that at least one is still able to aim upwards. Congrats to RRBC on their expansion, and a big thanks to Michael Calhoun and his marketing director, Keegan Hoeffler, for keeping us in the loop.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister