Santa Fe has nowhere near the number of breweries that Albuquerque has, but there’s one more than you probably realized. Travel Bug, a charming store specializing in all sorts of travel-related merchandise and books, recently began brewing their own beer. They had been serving coffee drinks, pastries, and sandwiches, but owner Greg Ohlsen decided that expanding into alcohol sales might be fun to do, and also good for his bottom line.

I met with Greg at the shop to get all of the details. He’s been living in Santa Fe since the late ’70s, building solar houses for 15 years and then operating book and travel stores in various locations around town. Travel Bug has been his focus for the last 10 years. The nature of the travel industry leads to ups and downs, with the latter including the period after 9/11 and, of course, COVID.

“During the COVID shutdown, we didn’t have much to do. We had language classes going on. Maybe when we get back we can serve beer and that’ll be a money-making proposition,” he said.

Greg had homebrewed before, but not recently. He looked into his brewing options and settled on equipment from Spike Brewing in Milwaukee. Their nano system is a modest 1-barrel size, but it’s just right for Travel Bug. Being an entirely electrical system, he had to upgrade the shop’s panel to accommodate its thirst for power. Since this was during the height of COVID, it took a year to get all the necessary parts.

It’s been quite a learning experience for Greg. All of the recipes, styles, ingredients, and processes can be overwhelming for someone getting into the business.

“You look at the supplies, there must be 50 hop varieties that are readily available. Those have varieties just like wine; there’s different years with different characteristics,” he said.

Keeping all of the equipment sufficiently clean has also been key, he found.

Brewing is a slow process, of course, which doesn’t help.

“It’s not like you push a button and see if the answer comes out right, because you do something and it’s a month before you have the answer and then you can’t remember what you did,” he said.

YouTube videos have been helpful, and a colleague from Second Street Brewery even came over to help out for a day. Greg also uses BeerSmith brewing software, which has helped a lot. In a sign of the times, he even used ChatGPT, the AI product that’s all the rage, to help create a recipe for the grain he had on hand. He fed that into BeerSmith and tweaked it, and it came out fine.

At the time of my visit, there were two house beers available, Rough Draft Ale and Second Draft English Bitter. I sampled each and found them to be tasty, though they are types that I don’t normally order. Greg said he plans to brew a variety of styles, and he is willing take suggestions or recipes.

The rest of the current taps were taken up by offerings from La Cumbre and Marble, along with a riesling from New Mexico winery Vivac.

Greg said he is still hoping to develop a set of regular customers for his beers. Though the area is popular with tourists, he hasn’t seen a lot of repeat beer patrons.

“My theory is that you have an identity,” he said. “That’s what you are. And, I am a travel specialty store and that’s what I do. Even though people come in here and drink two or three beers, they forget about it as a place to go have a beer unless they want a map to go with it.”

Travel Bug is located at 839 Paseo De Peralta in Santa Fe (near the famous Canyon Road) and is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 4. There are often special events on Saturdays at 5 p.m., so it stays open later; on the day I visited, there was a presentation about The Underground Railroad. There is abundant parking behind the store.

The next time you’re in the market for travel gear or books, you’ll want to check out Travel Bug. And, if you just want a new place in Santa Fe to have a beer, Travel Bug has you covered there, too.

Cheers!

— Reid