There are not many new breweries or taprooms slated to open in 2024, but one long-awaited space has opened at last just to the east of Albuquerque.

JUNO Brewery and Cafe opened their first off-site taproom in Edgewood earlier this month. To learn more about that and everything else going on at the main location at 1501 First St NW, I caught up with co-owner Jason Marks and head brewer Justin Sapp for our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series.

“Edgewood has been open for a week-and-a-half now,” Marks said. “It was a process. It was a matter of getting all the licensing and permitting, construction, which is all inter-related. We got our CO (certificate of occupancy) in early January, but there was still some things that needed to get done.”

There was a bit of a backup with the Regulation and Licensing Department, Marks said, and on top of that, a couple of refrigeration units at the taproom broke down.

“The process as a whole, everything takes longer than you expect on the construction side is really my main takeaway,” he said.

As Marks noted, it was the first time that he and the JUNO leadership team opened a new location. The main brewery was already in place when they bought it from the owner of Dialogue.

“It’s easier to take something that exists and is functional and make it better, as opposed to starting from scratch,” Marks said. “It’s a really nice space. It’s nicely done and Edgewood was waiting for something. They were there the day we opened.”

Marks said the taproom will be branded as JUNO Route 66, since it actually has the address of 1913 U.S. Rt 66. For anyone interested in checking it out in person (which includes the Crew), hop off Interstate 40 at Exit 187. The taproom is across from Pizza Barn and Rich Ford to the north, while a post office is just to the east.

“Edgewood, we’re intending to have a full kitchen out there, and that’s the biggest thing on our agenda,” Marks said. “That’s going to be in the next month or two. Again, permitting issues, logistical issues. I didn’t talk about it, I talked about all the physical constraints, but we also have to hire staff out there and get it going. It’s really important to have the right staff. We hired bartenders who had been at Molly’s (Bar). We’ve got staff out there, a manager out there, all those things.”

There will be live music, too, coming to the taproom. Much like the main location, JUNO is a very events-focused brewery. Marks was able to complete the construction of an indoor stage area to better help JUNO weather the slower winter months, when outdoor shows on the expansive patio are just not feasible.

Otherwise, Marks said that of the past year, “Nothing jumps out, (2023) treated us OK. We’re stable.”

Well, then he thought about it for a minute, and recalled the not-so-fun part of 2023.

“The chiller for the brewery died in July,” Marks said. “We couldn’t brew for a month. We finally got it working just barely in time. It really did not affect operations.”

Having a chiller go down for a period of time in 2023, particularly during the scorching summer months, was a common theme among breweries, from Canteen to Kaktus to Sidetrack to even Milton’s down in Carlsbad.

“Two things I didn’t know when I was just a layperson, one of them is how important yeast is to the taste of beer. I just always assumed it was the grain bill and the hops,” Marks said. “The other thing was how much of your time, attention, and money is going to be spent on refrigeration, in various devices. They’re all critical. It’s the chiller that runs the glycol for the brewery, it’s the walk-in, it’s the refrigeration for our food service, and between here and Edgewood, it’s continually and unfortunately been our focus.”

Marks said that just in case, he bought a second ice machine for the main location, because the loss of ice for JUNO’s popular cocktails would not be a good thing at all.

“Cocktails are exciting,” he said. “They were making Justin’s life a little boring, but now that Edgewood is going, he’s busy.”

Marks asked about how the other breweries are doing with their cocktail programs, and I replied that it varies from place to place. One main theme over the last few months has been how many breweries are adding more and more non-alcoholic options. JUNO was ahead of the curve on that trend.

“I think we were a little bit of a leader on that,” Marks said, explaining how JUNO uses non-alcoholic spirits to create unique mixed drinks, rather than the more common mocktails that just leave the alcohol out of the recipe.

“Our non-alcoholic cocktails are truly cocktails,” he said. “They’re not the same recipes as the standard cocktails. They’re fairly popular.”

JUNO also sells a good amount of non-alcoholic beers, ranging from the popular Athletic Brewing IPA to even a German NA wheat beer.

“You get non-drinkers, but you also see people toward the end of the night they switch from alcoholic beverages to non-alcoholic,” Marks said. “I think the industry would be doing a service to our customers if everyone had more selections, or at least a range of selections. We’ve always had soft drinks, we’ve always had coffee. They would like something that’s not just a club soda.”

As for the beers brewed on site that do have alcohol, it will come as little surprise that the top sellers are the lagers. From the 505 Lager to the Vienna to the Mum’s Pilsner, all are quite popular, but the new star of the show is the La Bonita Light Lager.

“It was Brandon’s recipe over at Flix,” Sapp said. “It uses Six Row (Malt) and Cluster hops.”

Sapp worked with Flix’s Brandon Venaglia at Bathtub Row Brewing a few years ago, and it is clear that he picked up on some of his mentor’s love for pre-Prohibition era lagers. Checking in at just 3.8-percent ABV, La Bonita is a slightly sweet, crisp lager that is quite the easy drinker.

With the main lineup stable and more customers to serve now that Edgewood is open, Marks said it will be Sapp’s time to experiment with some new brews for the rest of 2024.

“Down here, I think we’ve talked about some more speciality beers, (while we) lean heavily on our basics,” Marks said. “Now that we have two taprooms, the context is there where it’s going to make more sense for us to brew some seasonals, some specialty things that we’ll be able to sell through. Our experience (in the past) is we do some seasonal or speciality and it’s hot for a month and then it just really slows down.”

The final planned move of note for JUNO in 2024 will be down south. The brewery will take on the liquor license at El Cortez Theater in Truth or Consequences, which had been looking for a partner as part of its ongoing renovation.

Whether down south, out to the east, or at the original spot in Wells Park, things are looking up for JUNO going forward. These days, that news for any brewery is quite welcome.

A big thanks to Jason and Justin for meeting up, and for a pour of that tasty La Bonita. It will be a good summertime beer option, for sure.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister