For some, 2023 was a cozy fireplace in a mountainside cottage, full of warmth, bright beginnings, hope, and good cheer. For others, it was an absolute dumpster fire of a year. For Rowley Farmhouse Ales, though they may have lost their supply trailer to a devastating fire back in May, they were determined not let their year be defined by one crack torch. For the resilient team at RFA, 2023 was about rebounding and moving forward, one step at a time.

Recently, I sat down with owner and brewmaster John Rowley and brewer/cellarwoman/front-of-house supervisor Jennifer Arvizo to chat about how the small brewpub made it through 2023, and what they’re looking forward to in 2024.

“Business is down overall,” Rowley said. “I think there’s a lot of focus on NA (non-alcoholic) beer and people are just not drinking beer in general. It seems like I saw a post recently from the Ale Apothecary, saying that the currently beer-drinking (rate) is at an all-time low. I don’t know if it’s true or not. I mean, people are still drinking beer, but we’re just not seeing the same volume of it.”

Whether it’s due to the economy, inflation, or a change in consumer buying habits, the fact remains that people are not going out to eat or drink as much, and the breweries are feeling it all over.

In 2023, cost of goods are still running high, but at least they’ve seemed to level out a bit, Rowley said.

“We know our beer is expensive. We try to work around that. But, we want to keep making quality beer, and that’s why we’re focused (on taproom sales), and not trying to spread ourselves too thin. We just don’t have the capacity right now,” he said.

Back in 2021, many breweries pivoted into packaging during the pandemic. Rowley Farmhouse Ales was no different. But since then, RFA has shifted their main focus back to the taproom.

“We have a little bit (of beer) around town,” Rowley said. “But yeah, if you want beer, come here. Come check it out. We have bottles. We have cans. We have a great experience. You get to eat here. So yeah, we’re focused on that right now. And, I think that’s OK.”

It’s near impossible to do a Look Back/Look Ahead Series story without addressing the major event that nearly defined the year for Rowley Farmhouse Ales. I’m speaking of course about the aforementioned supply trailer fire.

The trailer fire happened early one Saturday morning in May, destroying everything inside from bottling equipment to merchandise. Below is the link to our full report with photos.

Rowley Farmhouse Ales loses supply trailers to devastating fire

“We’re still feeling the effects of that,” Rowley said. “We couldn’t do any bottling. All of our festival gear is gone. A lot of things are gone. We had all of our labels for our cans. The canning operation wasn’t as badly affected as the bottling, but we lost all of our bottling equipment. There were bottles in there. There were cans in there. There was all kinds of stuff.”

Though it was all covered by insurance, the process of replacement and reimbursement has been slow.

“It’s hard to remember everything that was in there. Former head brewer, (Jennifer) Treu and I worked on that for a while. We’re still working on that, but then you realize, oh yeah, this is something I need that was in there. We’re still slowly recovering from that,” Rowley said.

As a result, RFA was unable to brew for a while. Thankfully, over the years, they have built up a decent inventory of beer down below in their cellars to release as needed.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after the fire that Treu moved on to Nuckolls Brewery, accepting an offer that was too good to pass up.

“We had the classic one-two punch to the gut, or the chin, by maybe Mike Tyson in his prime,” Rowley said. “(Losing the trailer and head brewer) didn’t knock us out, but it definitely put us down. It caused us to rethink some things and figure out what we were going to do.”

With business being down as it is, RFA isn’t looking to hire a new head brewer at the moment. Luckily for them, there was plenty of interest in filling in by front-of-house barkeep Jennifer Arvizo, or JJ, as she’s known among her brewer friends.

“JJ expressed an interest in working in the back,” Rowley said. “She did a lot of work with Treu, training with Treu, before she left. So, you know, that’s been a great help for us. She’s coming up to speed. I wouldn’t say she’s all the way there yet, but that’s not meant as an insult or anything. Starting from scratch, from zero, not having a background in brewing, there’s a lot of shit to learn. It’s hard to explain, but there’s a lot of little things that have to come together, and I think JJ is doing really well. She’s definitely improving. The big part of it is wanting to do the work, and JJ wants to do it. And so, when she expressed interest in this earlier on, I thought, it’s almost insulting to hire someone else and not give her a chance to learn to learn this role. I value loyalty. We do here at Rowley quite a bit. If you’re loyal to us, we’ll be loyal to you. So I’m really happy that we’ve got JJ working now. And, you know, yeah, it was a shitty year, there’s no doubt about it, but 2024 is looking up.”

For Arvizo, coming up to speed in the brewhouse has been challenging, but rewarding.

“There are a few phrases that I try to keep in mind,” she said. “’Roll with the punches,’ and also, ‘the first time is always going to be the hardest time,’ which is what John has told me, and I can relate to that.”

It’s been a few months now, and Arvizo continues to roll with the punches. And, in such a short time, she is proud of the progress she’s making, seeing plenty of improvements here and there.

“I’m finally comfortable cleaning a brite tank or a fermenter and not stressing out about it imploding on itself,” she said, laughing.

Her biggest challenge, as well as her biggest priority, is getting the brewing process down from preset up to post-cleaning in 2024.

In 2023, RFA celebrated their seventh year in the business in true Rowley Farmhouse Ales fashion, with lobster rolls, some good ol’ local music, as well as a few fun barrels brought up from the cellar.

One of the beers that was brewed in ’22 that made an appearance at the anniversary party for ’23 was Frambozen, an Oud Bruin base, aged on raspberries. According to reviews on Untappd, this highly-rated beer is “Still amazing,” and good enough for one of the app users to say, “Hail to the sour beer kings.” It was definitely my favorite at the anniversary party, and if you’d like to try it, you better get your Winterbrew tickets, because it will definitely be there.

“I think, for me, our barleywine was probably the hit at the end of the year,” Rowley said.

Ned Ryerson is a 14-percent ABV rye barleywine, brewed back during the Mike Donovan days, aged in Heaven Hill barrels. It is truly a decadent beer, one I sure as heck-fire remember from the party, definitely worth revisiting over and over again. And, if you get the reference, no groundhog will be necessary to predict that this beer will also be in a special keg at Winterbrew.

Though they have plenty of untapped potential still waiting down in the cellars, after seven years Rowley is most pleased with how Fields of Rye, their foeder-fermented neoclassic rye saison, is currently doing.

“It’s a great beer. It’s done so well for us. I mean, it’s not going to win any awards, but it feels like it’s part of who we are. I’m really proud of the consistency we’ve had with that beer. From brewer to brewer, that recipe is just rocksteady,” he said.

I’m told that in the coming months, we should be on the lookout for a Petite Blanche on Peach. Rowley said it was one of the beers Treu had set up for them before she left, and just needs to be processed. It will likely be the first beer they bottle since the fire, once they get the insurance check for bottling equipment.

And, if Arvizo gets her wish, we might soon see a beer brewed with Chile Morita peppers on tap.

Back in April-May, brewers Treu and Arvizo participated in Ex Novo’s multi-brewery collaboration festival United in Beer, making a fruited wheat ale with Steel Bender Brewyard, the brewery they were partnered up with via lottery. In April, the RFA brewery duo went down to ABQ to put in some work and they had a great time.

“It was really exciting,” Arvizo said. “It’s exciting to meet the people that are making beer and just geek out on seeing how their system works.”

In 2024, team RFA doesn’t have any plans set in stone for collabs as of yet, but they are looking to get out there again, to more festivals and events as they replenish their gear. This year, most of the focus will be on rebuilding the home base.

“I think we’re going to focus on the house, keeping the house straight, keeping the house clean, and the beer good,” Rowley said.

Lastly, as always, I like to give the breweries a final pitch to you good beer-loving people, a chance to let new beer lovers know why you should visit them, or remind seasoned veterans of the local beer scene why you should come back in.

“Well, I think they can look forward to great service. You know, solid beer, food is always top notch,” Rowley said. “It really, really helps us for people to come out. So if you come out, thank you very much! We really appreciate it. And, come talk to us. We like to have a social experience here. People come in, chat, and talk shit if you want. I don’t really care. But, as long as you’re coming in and having a good time, we’re happy to see it.”

RFA currently has weekly food specials, a great line-up of both their own beer as well as other local and national independent craft offerings, and they’re running game nights on Tuesdays again, for those who remember the good ol’ Bohannon days. Personally, I challenge you to find a better beer-bar with locally sourced food in Santa Fe. It’s a pretty tall order. But, if you do … um, invite me!

To Rowley Farmhouse Ales, to moving forward, to Buddha (and all the best fur-friends we’ve lost), and to a better 2024 and beyond!

Cheers!

— Luke