The times are good on South Hill Road up in Bernalillo.

Kaktus Brewing is preparing to celebrate its 10th anniversary after seeing some surprising growth this year. I caught up with owner Dana Koller to learn a little more about how things have been going, with the potential for even more growth in 2024 and beyond.

“It’s been good, actually,” he said. “We are going to be celebrating our 10-year anniversary December 16. That’s not our actual anniversary date, (but) we’ve been busy, so we’re going to do a celebration/Christmas gathering for the weekend. We’ve got some nice entertainment coming in for the weekend, that Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”

The 10-year mark is a big one for any brewery or restaurant, Koller said, noting that in many ways, Kaktus counts as both.

“(After) 10 years if you’re not adding a new product or new location, you don’t see dramatic growth normally, but, we have,” he said. “We’ve had a really steady new growth in year 10. We’re extremely excited.

“We haven’t done anything significantly different. People have just heard of the quality of the food, the beers, and the staff. In Albuquerque the Magazine we got best pilsner and lager beers. We were voted best entertainment. I don’t know if we’re in the staff running again, but last year we were voted best brewery staff. I think those organic articles and write-ups have drawn a lot of attention here.”

Even during Balloon Fiesta, Kaktus saw more customers than in years past.

“People really went out of their way to come visit us,” Koller said. “We’re on people’s radar a lot more without having to do any real marketing. I think people just know about us, the Kaktus Brewery in Bernalillo, where to go for entertainment and good pizza.”

While Koller is typically an upbeat and optimistic person, that did not mean that 2023 went smoothly in all aspects. There were still challenges to overcome, starting first and foremost with staffing. Bernalillo has a far smaller pool of prospective employees than Albuquerque.

“We actually were forced to shift a lot,” Koller said. “I was talking about Balloon Fiesta, we ran that entire week with one cook and me. Because we’ve kind of lost everybody. We went through a huge transition with our staff. It’s really been a struggle to find quality staff, honestly.”

Koller said that it caused him to have change his line of thinking about staffing. He had always been afraid of losing people, which he said in turn meant he did not hold his employees to a higher standard. Once they all really did leave, it forced him to pivot.

“It forced us to do some very innovative approaches on how we do service so we can handle more people with less staff, and it has actually been a lifeline,” Koller said. “We now operate on a skeleton crew, always, and we prefer it. The value of that is because we have on average about four less employees than we used to have, but serving more people, we’ve taken that hourly savings and pushed it over to the staff. We’re now paying much, much higher than the average. It’s making everyone a little happier, which is good, but we’re also able to hold our staff to a higher standard.”

It also helped Koller increase pay for his staff, with a starting salary of $7.50 plus tips, which is higher than the Sandoval County minimum and instead in line with Albuquerque wages.

“Then they have the opportunity to move up from there,” he said. “Operating on a skeleton crew, everyone is doing really well on tips. I would say that my staff is doing well compared to the industry average.”

While staffing has now stabilized under the new model, the brewery also had to deal with a sudden rash of equipment issues back in September. Koller said some of the equipment was 10 years old, and when the air conditioner went down in the brewery portion of the building, it stressed out other equipment, and soon a refrigerator went down, followed by the glycol chiller, and then the septic system overflowed.

“It was like that 10-year flood, where everything happened, but now I feel like we’re operating in a new place because everything has been repaired,” Koller said. “Everything is solid now, just super solid. Everything is operating really, really well. Even though it was a hard transition, it was a good way to end the year. We did about $30,000 in repairs in general. It was a bite to take, but you have to do it.”

Koller also said it was a good year at UN-17, the Albuquerque speakeasy that he owns.

“We’re still a membership-based organization, so we don’t advertise like most places,” he said. “We try to keep it very exclusive, and because of that, people really respect the excitement of that environment. We’re about 180 members strong and growing each week. We’re not even a year old yet. We officially opened in January. It stays out of the brewing industry, really. It’s more craft cocktail focused. We try to push beer as much as we can. It’s not a direct tie to Kaktus Brewing, so we do carry other people’s beer, too.”

Big developments in store for 2024

Kaktus has certainly pushed its pizza-centered menu to the forefront, and Koller said that in many ways, it has drawn in customers even more than the beer.

“But, with that said, we are excited for 2024 because we are going to be doing a big push with some new beer products that are going to launch,” he said. “It might actually encourage us to do some true distribution for the very first time for Kaktus Brewing Company. For the first time since we’ve opened, you might see us on the shelves at supermarkets and places like that. It’s a very, very exciting time for us.

“Our pizza has kind of been n the forefront of things, but in 2024, I think it will shift and once again be our beer products as we’re coming out with some new stuff that makes sense to distribute.”

Koller said he is looking for a larger brewery partner where they can contract brew, since Kaktus does not have the physical space to add a canning line or anything of that sort.

Of course, when it comes to making room, things are going to be changing both on the immediate property and across South Hill Road.

“Sandoval County bought the land across from us,” Koller said. “They’re going to be building new infrastructure on the 22 acres. It’s going to bring more traffic to us. It’s also going to bring city utilities. We’re still on a septic, so we’re going to have city sewer (installed), and that’s a game changer for us. That’s what’s held us back from some growth. Now that that’s coming in we’re planning on some extreme growth. So that’s why we’ll probably go into distribution for the first time.”

Koller has also made a big purchase that could change the physical shape of the brewery and everything around it.

“We’re buying the property that we’re on, which is really exciting,” he said, noting that it had been owned by his father. “So that’s also going to be able to help us make new decisions about whether we put new buildings on (site). We diversify into other revenue generation streams. We’ve always been looking to do farm to table. We’ve been always talking about moving more aggressively into sustainability, and for some reason things have held us back, so we’re hoping to get more aggressive with that. We’re expecting another 20- to 25-percent increase in gross revenue between now and the end of 2024.”

Positive growth in this day and age? We love to see it. A big thanks to Dana for taking the time to meet up (on a Saturday, no less), and of course for a pint of London Porter and a crowler of Helles Lager to take home (it is still the best seller on tap).

If you have not made it to Kaktus Brewing at this point, after 10 years, it is about time to take the drive up to Bernalillo and enjoy a pint and a pizza.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister