Well, here we are again, time for our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series to commence as we talk to the breweries about how 2023 went and what they hope 2024 will bring. To kick things off for the second year in a row, I sat down with Tractor Brewing events coordinator Jeremy Kinter and head brewer T.J. Frederich to recap all that was and preview all to come.

Things started off, as they often do, about the beer.

“We kind of came into 2023, and I look at 2022 as my first real full year as the head brewer here, and ’23 was about getting more feedback and really dialing in a lot of our brewing processes in the back,” Frederich said. “My ultimate goal with my plan was coming into ’24 we’d be doing some exceptional things. We’re still on pace for that.”

Frederich said that one big issue from 2022 — hiring and retaining brewery staff — was not as big of an issue this year. His current team has been together all year.

“From my perspective, it’s the best brew staff we’ve ever had,” Kinter told Frederich. “From what I see, they’re amazing. The way that you guys work together and then we (up front) work together, it’s very simpatico, very nice.”

With that issue out of the way, we discussed the overall picture for Tractor, and the local brewing scene in general, where it felt like the post-pandemic-shutdown momentum of 2022 slowed quite a bit in 2023.

“The momentum of 2022 to 2023, I will say this. I thought in some ways it did carry over, in other ways it did not,” Kinter said. “It carried over in that there is a certain consistency amongst our customers, especially in Nob Hill.”

A good way to measure the current momentum of the industry has been through brewery-hosted events, and Tractor has long been known and well regarded for its sheer variety and volume of unique events. In 2023, there were some unexpected ups and downs.

“I’ve seen a bit of a downturn in big events,” Kinter said. “When comparing (years), one of my big meters is our biggest event of the year, the Stranger Things Arcade Carnival. There’s an over saturation of events, especially around big holidays. The meter has turned down just a little bit with what I anticipated. (This) year, I thought we’d continue to build on that momentum.”

Kinter said there was far more competition this year for customers during big holiday weekends like Halloween, with seemingly every brewery hosting some sort of themed event.

“When everyone was coming out of 2022, it was a very positive influx,” he said. “Now, there’s more competition. I think everyone anticipated it being a stronger year than it actually was.”

On the brewing side of things, Frederich said 2023 actually felt busier than the year prior.

“I can’t necessarily speak for the taprooms, I can speak for packaging,” he said. “We’re brewing more than we have the last couple years.”

Frederich noted how Blood Orange Cider remained the top seller among Tractor products, with a strong demand from taproom customers, as well as from other breweries, restaurants, and bars purchasing kegs, along with the cans being distributed by Premier.

“Blood Orange continues to be the driving force in a lot of the things we do,” Frederich said.

Kinter also wanted to circle back to the previously mentioned staffing issues of 2022 now being a thing of the past.

“There was some positivity in that he had mentioned staffing, and the staffing issues that were generally happening during the pandemic, and a little bit in 2022,” Kinter said. :I’ve never had this many resumes before. That’s really positive. To be able to hire quality people to run our taprooms has been a big plus, instead of just getting a warm body. That is no longer the case.”

Tractor has also had more time for things like staff training, which also better serves the customers. Part of that training on the other side of the bar has been the further integration of a product line that Tractor introduced.

“Last year, we did launch a new brand, which was a new adventure for us, which was All the Things, cocktails and mixers,” Kinter said. “We serve ready-to-drink cocktails. They’re in bottles. Cold-pressed juice, some pure cane sugar, and our Troubled Minds spirits.”

Those are now distributed through Southern Glazer, and also for sale over the bar for customers to take home.

“It has elevated our cocktail program,” Kinter said. “That’s something looking ahead is we’re standardizing all of our cocktails in terms of the general menu and the seasonal menus as well. We never used to have them in Nob Hill, we just had a really basic menu when we brought spirits there. Now they will be having the full seasonal menus that you see in Wells Park, Westside, and Los Lunas. Serving up really good craft cocktails has been a real focus of ours moving into the new year.”

Getting back to the events, Kinter highlighted some of the big hits this year, all of which will return in one shape or another in 2024.

“Events wise, last year there were some successes in trying new things, (and) also some failures, because that’s what I do, I try new stuff,” he said. “Of course, Goth Night has been an out-of-this-world hit every month. Looking forward, I’ll be doing a magic and burlesque night quarterly. Also, what I tried out this year that was successful was the Ghoulastic Book Fair, and then bringing back the unplugged (music) series. That went really well. We did it with Fred Mascherino from Taking Back Sunday, and No Manners opened for him. It was insane. That was so much fun.”

Kinter said monthly events like the Desert Darlings’ Hops & Dreams and the First Fridays Comedy Contest will certainly return. There will also be quarterly events like Space Disco with DJ Ren and shows by Amped Owl Drive. He is also hard at work planning out a second book fair, this time with a Christmas theme.

Moving on to 2024 in brewing, Frederich said one of this year’s surprise successes among the seasonal offerings has offered up some inspiration in more ways than one going forward.

“One of the things that we did really well, and it wasn’t intentional, was during our Pistachio Cream Ale release for Beer Week,” he said. “That was a beer that we were just going to release as a (regular) seasonal. … It’s something that allowed us to really change the way, not necessarily how we make beer in the back, but it gave him (Jeremy) time to market it. It generated a lot of interest before we ever released the beer. Maybe there’s something to this, maybe we need to plan out releases a little better.”

Frederich and Kinter are already starting to work on a seasonal release calendar for 2024, to keep things better organized, better promoted, and just overall freshen up the menu.

“Our theme (this) year in the brewery was be bold,” Frederich said. “Tractor’s been around since ’99 and sometimes it’s really easy to get into doing the same thing you’ve always done. We’re always going to release Turkey Drool, we’re always going to release Traktoberfest, we’re always going to release Javi Lager. I really like to look around and see what we can do different.

“I think there’s some room for us to do some things differently, that maybe haven’t been done in the past, or try some different flavor combinations. We’ve discussed planning out for the year, what seasonals are for which month. That just allows us to plan more accurately to make sure we have everything on hand and gives him a chance to have more time on the marketing side. Then there’s not any surprises.”

Examples of that ranged from the aforementioned Pistachio Cream Ale to doing a Pumpkin Porter this year instead of old standby Jack the Sipper. Expect more variety in 2024.

“The first half of next year, we’re going to try a couple things that are going to be different,” Frederich said. “The second half of next year, there are going to be some serious flavor combinations in different beers that we haven’t tried before.”

Kinter had some additional ideas for events in 2024.

“I would like to do more cocktail-focused events, especially around Balloon Fiesta,” he said. “We didn’t see Lift Your Spirits this year, and that’s with the Distillers Guild, and I’d like to do our own thing. A week of cocktail-focused events around Balloon Fiesta time.”

Even with October just in the rear view mirror, Kinter is already plotting out how to further energize that very busy month from the Balloon Fiesta week all the way to Halloween.

“You can’t avoid October,” he said. “I think it’s the busiest month for everyone. Where we did capitalize this year was in the events leading up to Stranger Things. There were some new events. They worked out really well. I guess focusing more on those events during the week leading up to big weekends, spreading the butter a bit more.”

The biggest move is in the very early planning stages, with the Arcade Carnival likely to adopt a new theme next year and move away from its tie-in to Stranger Things, which is preparing to film its final season anyway for Netflix.

“I will be doing a new concept for the Arcade Carnival,” Kinter said. “I did, by the way, want to move away from the Stranger Things concept, but I was convinced otherwise. It’s hard, because it does have name recognition.”

While Kinter is working on that, he also has some plans for the annual kickoff to summer that is ABQ Beer Week, which Tractor has always played a big part in years past.

“Also, of course, we’re going o hit ABQ Beer Week hard,” he said. “I don’t know where we’re at in terms of Blues and Brews, which didn’t happen this year, and that did impact everything overall. But, no matter what, we’re going to do a Beer Week.”

All told, I got the sense that while the industry as a whole might be sputtering a bit, the staff at Tractor is feeling pretty positive about how 2023 went and quite optimistic about an even better 2024. That, to me at least, is a good way to kick off this round of Look Back/Look Ahead articles.

A big thanks to Jeremy and T.J. for volunteering to go first again. And, of course, for the pour of Turkey Drool, which is quite exceptional this year if you have not stopped by to enjoy a goblet yet.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister