The brewpubs of the New Mexico craft brewing scene have certainly endured a lot since the pandemic lockdown of 2020-21. Many are still searching for the new normal, while a few lucky ones have managed to regain a measure of staffing stability.

Quarter Celtic Brewpub is one of those lucky ones, as I learned while interviewing brothers and co-owners Brady and Ror McKeown for our Look Back/Look Ahead Series.

“It was OK,” Ror said of 2023. “Over the past year, we’ve kind of been shoring up the kitchen, so I think we’re in a good spot. It took a couple years. We’re not immune to what everyone else was having problems with, high turnover. We had new people training new people. Now we have at both locations a good group that are proud to work, show up on time, able to hustle. They’ve picked up the tips and tricks, and know food-wise what we want to go out.”

It was not, however, an easy road traveled to get back to this point.

“But, (for part of) ’22 and ’23, it was rough,” Ror said. “People when the pandemic starts were like, ‘hey, support local business.’ And then all of a sudden it’s like, ‘I’ve been a customer for eight years, cold fries, one star, never be back again.’ What? We’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got. We kept pushing and looking, and just constantly having an ad out whether we needed people or not, because we wanted to get the right people. That’s where we are now. It’s a good feeling after a whole year of just trying to get the kitchen right.”

While the kitchens at both Quarter Celtic locations were a bit up and down, the brewing side of the business remained far more stable.

“There were more medals (won in 2023),” Brady said. “We’ve been, I wouldn’t say concentrating, but we’ve tended to be focusing on more lagers. They’re fun. We’ve had that third tank now that we’ve been using for lagers, bigger batches.”

“You’ve even got me drinking lagers,” Ror added.

Capri-derhosen, a German-style red lager, brought home a gold medal from the World Beer Cup in May. Birra al gusto di Birra, an Italian-style pilsner brewed in collaboration with Palmer Brewery, won a gold medal at the North American Beer Awards in June. The year finished at the Brussels Beer Challenge in Belgium, where Vienna Lager earned a silver medal and Capri-derhosen added a bronze to its tally.

“We had some luck with some lagers this year in competitions, which is nice,” Brady said. “Our production (number of barrels) was similar. We haven’t grown too much. I think the quality is, I don’t if it’s by leaps and bounds, but I feel like we’ve been concentrating on the quality. I feel good about it. It’s been fun, it’s been focused on making the best beer we can.”

Then Ror added, “Also, Brady likes to try new things and keep pushing his skills and things like that, which segues into branching out into —”

“Oh, you didn’t tell him?” Brady responded. “Yeah, we just got our vintner’s license and we’re going to be making some mead.”

Yup, Quarter Celtic is going to have its own meads on tap in 2024. It will not overtake the beer, but it should be a lot of fun seeing what Brady and his brewing team can create.

“We’re excited to be one of the few meaderies in New Mexico,” Ror said, beginning a rapid-fire back-and-forth between the brothers.

“We’re probably not going to have five or six on tap at a time, or have a bunch of bottles,” Brady said.

“We’ll probably have a house mead and probably switch it quarterly, make a seasonal thing,” Ror said.

“I’ve been feeling the market out,” Brady said. “I’ve been talking to Mark Matheson and a few other people that make wine, (who say that) dry doesn’t sell, so we’ll try a few different things.”

“We’ll see how it sells, but we’re already themed more towards mead anyway,” Ror said. “And then, we do a sell a lot of cider, we just buy it from someone else. It will be nice to have our own.”

“We haven’t started (making) that yet,” Brady noted.

“Yeah, but that’s a quicker turnaround than mead,” Ror replied.

Beyond the mead and eventually some cider, Quarter Celtic does have a few plans coming together for 2024. St. Patrick’s Day remains a huge event, of course, and the seasonal Irish Handcuffs Imperial Stout will be back on the menu.

“We have another kind of knockoff of that, try to make it a pastry-ish stout,” Brady said. “I don’t think it’s going to be as sweet as some people expect. … It’s a raspberry and vanilla (version), we were out of chocolate.”

Quarter Celtic will also be further expanding its drinks menu.

“We will be serving spirits, we’re (only) doing ready-to-drink, RTDs, now,” Ror said. “We’re looking to get a nice whiskey/bourbon in, a few other spirits to make a couple mixed drinks. I used to be strictly just a beer guy, but since I’ve been doing all the Highland Scottish throwing games, everybody out there has a flask of great whiskey, and mead flasks.

“It’s great that we’re doing the mead, and we’ll see what New Mexico’s best whiskey is, carry that here. Obviously, we’re not able to carry anything from Ireland, but there are a lot of great distilleries in New Mexico, and some have wanted to make an Irish-style whiskey.”

There will also be an Irish-style creme joining the menu, made with some help from the folks at Palmer and Left Turn Distilling. So yes, Irish Coffee will be arriving at last at Quarter Celtic at some point in 2024.

“We’re looking forward to next year, but we don’t have any huge, grand plans,” Ror said. “It was about getting the staff back up with some great employees. We can check that off. We’re starting to see a little uptick in business, which is nice.”

A little mead, some cider, a few spirits, a few new beers, and then all the old favorites on tap and on the food menu? Sounds like a great recipe for 2024. A big thanks to Ror and Brady for the interview, and we will definitely be on hand to help taste test the mead when it’s ready.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister