Well, we did it again.

I sat down with the staff of Steel Bender Brewyard for their annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series interview, and when it came time to type up said interview, I realized that we were all talking for 50 minutes. That came out to more than 4,100 words when printed out. Oof.

Fear not, this will be condensed so we do not set a new Brew Crew record for longest article. Well, I hope not. Anyway, enough babbling, let us get right to it, starting with how the team reflected on the year gone by.

“I feel like we’ve not even had time to process 2023,” said co-owner/marketing director Shelby Chant. “I can say from my perspective, I’m really curious to hear what you guys think, but from my perspective 2023 absolutely flew. It arrived and it was gone, filled with a lot of great, positive movement, especially on our production team, especially in our taproom and with kitchen management. Combined with, quite honestly, a little bit of a chaotic, frenetic, gotta do as much as we possibly can because we’re still all fighting to gain our footing again. 2023 was an interesting year.”

The two big personnel changes were Ben Lenetsky succeeding Tom Sadja as head brewer, and Kilie Garrett taking over from Matt Meier as sales and distribution manager.

“From my perspective it was a lot of change, because we did the personnel shifts,” Lenetsky said. “I think we’re just building up to where we are now in 2024, getting our footing again.”

Lenetsky works closely with brewery operations manager Monica Mondragon on all aspects of production.

“On the production side, we spent a lot of time thinking about product, what was working, what wasn’t working,” she said. “We made a series of small changes that were positive across the board with all of our brands. But, it was busy.”

Mondragon said to help defray the increasing costs of goods, Steel Bender got back into working out contracts to acquire their hops and malted barley in bulk. That helped keep the cost of the beer itself down in an era when most breweries are constantly being forced to raise prices.

Price increases also extend to the food, which Shelby Chant said she noticed has become an increasing concern expressed on social media.

“My perspective is we’re not hearing it that much (here),” she said. “We did have to (increase some prices) because of increase in our food costs, but I don’t know that we’re really hearing about it.”

“Not as much as I feel like we were all (expecting),” added director of taproom operations April Varela. “We had to do some increases the last two years, but I think that consumers are almost expecting it. Prices are high in the grocery stores. I think they’re feeling that everywhere. We haven’t seen a decrease in people spending their money.”

As for Garrett, she joined the staff in January, having previously lived outside of New Mexico. For her, Steel Bender felt like a new brewery, but once she started going out and visiting accounts, she found that it was well established.

“Everybody that I’ve talked to knows this place, they love the beer, they always have good things to say about it,” Garrett said. “That’s inspirational to me to be out there because people love it.”

So far that enthusiasm has been quite apparent not just to the outside accounts.

“Kilie, like she said started on January 2, she’s very tenacious and gracious and enthusiastic,” Shelby Chant said. “I think those are qualities in someone representing our brand that are crucial. She’s been a great fit for the team.”

“For sales, I think it’s so important to have someone who believes in the product, who believes in the company, because you have to believe in what you’re selling or else you’re just pulling the wool over someone’s eyes,” added Ethan Chant, co-owner and Shelby’s husband.

So much of that also stems from the beer itself, and Shelby Chant said that the production team has been humming even “with a pretty darn lean staff.”

“I think that’s the biggest and most important thing we did in 2023 was the focus that the brewing team put on the beer,” she added. “It’s paying off and it’s being noticed.”

Part of that is by keeping things a little simpler, including listening to the customers for what styles they want to see on tap. Both Mondragon and Garrett heard the demand for Sparkfitter Amber, and now it is back on tap as a year-round beer.

“I think Steel Bender kind of has a reputation for malty offerings, classic styles, (and) I really wanted to keep that aspect of how this company is viewed,” Mondragon said. “I think there’s a place for some of the trendy, kitschy kind of stuff, and we try to put that on occasionally.

“I think we’re just continuing that legacy of good, malty styles, and try to just make them the best that we can.”

“I’m really about solid, solid interpretations of how we want those styles represented here,” Lenetsky added.

Ethan Chant talked about how each of the head brewers in Steel Bender’s history — Bob Haggerty, Sadja, and now Lenetsky — has brought something different to the brewery. Lenetsky started at Chama River and then honed his skills working with Zach Guilmette and Doug Cochran at Canteen.

“The nice thing about our brewers they each brought something new to the table, and trying to make the beer as good as it can be,” Ethan Chant said. “It’s not about vanity or ego. I don’t see any of that. It’s more about what can we do, how can we make this better, more true to style, if that’s what we’re going for.”

In the end, 2023 really cemented the fact that it takes a full team effort to really make Steel Bender hum.

“It’s true, you can’t be a loner in this industry,” Garrett said. “Everybody works collaboratively. You have to be able to communicate with each other. Those are very important things. Ben and Monica always have to be on the same page, the same wavelength.”

“You have to, the beer doesn’t stop for you,” Lenetsky added. “You always have to look for each other.”

Steel Bender also maintained a number of ongoing charitable brews and collaborations. Most of those will continue into 2024, though with a few changes here and there.

“Last year was great, the collaborations that we continue to do with Canteen and High and Dry, that’s at the point where we can do it in our sleep,” Shelby Chant said. “We just adore working with each other so much, that’s just a no brainer, we’re going to continue to do that.”

There will potentially be more spacing out of those events, she added, as the Pink Warrior House collaboration in the fall is right up against the AGORA Crisis Center collaboration, so now the latter might move to early 2025 to help it stand out more.

“I think when we’re talking about the charity events, those are great because you do see some results from it,” Ethan Chant said. “But, it’s also great to see not just taproom events but outside events. Beer should be fun. We forget that it’s a fun industry. You can concentrate on whatever headache happened that day, because it is work, but you need to step back and say man, we get to make beer. We get to see immediate results that people are here enjoying the beer. It’s not building a building or something, that takes years and years. This is something where you get to actually see the results. To me, it’s really satisfying. You’ve gotta remind yourself how special it is.”

While more news is coming on 2024 collaborations, another in-house event that was a big hit in the past year was Balloons and Brews.

“We were super busy the whole time,” Varela said. “We’ve got new customers, and a lot of returning customers that know how we do it. Our staff did great. That’s just another thing that we get a lot of good reviews on the food, the beer, the staff. I think for 2023 a big focus for the taproom managers was customer service and beer knowledge, making sure our staff knows about our product.”

As for the off-site festivals, 2023 was almost an overload, and everyone is aware that Steel Bender will need to cut back.

“We’re not going to do every festival,” Shelby Chant said. “Kilie and April and I met a couple weeks after Kilie started and looked out across the whole year, the ones we know about. We’re still going to go to a lot, but it has to be with purpose. You do need to be able to justify the time and the money, and also really the time that’s pulling any one of us away to focus on a festival.”

Steel Bender will still participate in every New Mexico Brewers Guild event.

“And, we are interested in the ones that have a charitable cause, but truly the days of doing an all-sampling event, unless it’s a Guild event, are over for Steel Bender,” Shelby Chant said. “It’s as simple as that.”

“There’s always that temptation to say yes to all of the events and festivals, because it gets your name out there,” Garrett added. “It gets your beer out there and it’s great exposure. But, at the end of the day, you have to look at what fits.”

That all builds to what Shelby Chant said has to be the primary goal for Steel Bender in 2024.

“I think what we want to do is be purposeful in every single thing we do,” Shelby Chant said. “Doing a scattershot, just to almost (be) like desperately grabbing for things, and not allowing yourself time to plan and for people to work in a non-chaotic environment and feel good about the work they’re doing because it’s not in chaos and not half-assed. To have that pride in the work that they’re doing to pull together something great, I think that purpose, for me that’s the word of the year, just being very, very purposeful about what we’re doing.”

The others agreed.

“What Shelby said about this scattershot thing, throwing everything against the wall, having purpose is really important,” Lenetsky said. “We only have so much space to produce. We need to work on things that are meaningful on production and for the customer, as well. We can’t be making something that nobody is going to drink, or the select few. (But) there are special releases that we can have, as well.”

Anniversary weekend arrives in force

With 2023 in the rear view mirror, everyone at Steel Bender is now focused on the first major in-house event of the year, the three-day anniversary party that kicks off this Friday.

“We’re releasing Double Berry Blast both in draft and in cans,” Shelby Chant said. “We always do a double Dynamite every year for our anniversary. Yeah, let’s talk about that beer, you guys, and what happened the other day. I literally had to my first ‘stop the presses’ on the can labels, and it was awesome.”

Lenetsky and Mondragon only slightly cringed at that memory.

“I had intentionally shot for double (the batch size of) what we were doing in previous years,” Lenetsky said. “There was some vague documentation on what those recipes finished at. I kind of scaled (the recipe) back, because we realized that with Dynamites, it’s really worthwhile for people. (But) I kind of went a little crazy and above and beyond on that.”

Yeah, the marionberry/boysenberry blend did come out a tad higher in ABV than was expected.

“When push comes to shove, yeast doing yeast things, decided that this beer was going to be 10-percent (ABV),” he said.

“Ten-percent pie filling, that’s what we named it,” Mondragon added.

To be exact, it weighs in at 10.4-percent ABV, and will be available in cans and on draft starting Friday.

“It’s going to be fantastic,” Shelby Chant said. “That will be draft and we landed on 30 cases, those will be four-packs. Then, we have Dirty Brown Jug Band playing that night, which is the first time we’ve had a band play on a Friday night. That should be interesting.”

Toss in Willie Ray’s key lime cheesecake and the return of Bigger Boat Barrel-Aged Barleywine in bottles only, and it will be a wonderful way to kick off the weekend.

Saturday will then feature a special brewer’s charcuterie board created in partnership with M’tucci’s, plus the return of a favorite beer, Amelia Barrel-Aged Belgian Quad, in bottles and with a limited amount on draft.

The return of Amelia ties into the resurrection/renovation of the barrel-aging program.

“One of my focuses for 2024 was to get the barrel-aging program back up and running,” Mondragon said. “There was a lot we had to deal with, with some stuff that was still in barrels, but now we’re trying to revamp that whole project. This (batch of) barrel-aged Amelia is the same recipe as before, it’s closer to 8.2 (percent ABV) instead of the 11 of previous versions. Once you get to 11 and above, there’s a certain responsibility level that you have as a brewer, as a brewery. It has to be good, but you have to be careful how you relay it to customers.”

For all intents and purposes, Amelia is a collaboration, as M’tucci’s provides the Makers Mark barrels in which it is aged. It is already available at all four M’tucci’s locations and Teddy Roe’s if you do not want to wait until Saturday to get your hands on some.

As for St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday, Steel Bender will close out the weekend in style with a shepherd’s pie from kitchen manager Jerrico Montaño and a double beer release.

“Blue Bullet Nitro, we revamped that recipe, we decided to make it an oatmeal stout,” Mondragon said. “That’s coming back on nitro on St. Patrick’s Day.

“We also came up with a special Irish red ale that’s barrel aged. The maple barrels that we had leftover from Freddy’s (Got Twenty Imperial Stout), we filled those with our Short Mondays. And then, aged just short of a year in those barrels. We’re doing a collaboration with Little Bear Coffee. We got their Blue Sky roast, and we’re going to cold steep that into this beer. We’ve been wanting to make a breakfast beer, but not your typical heavy imperial stout kind of breakfast beer. We decided maple, Irish red ale, a lighter roast coffee there, and we’re pretty excited about it. That will be in cans and on draft.”

Short Mondays & Blue Skies will be the name of that beautiful beast, and you can bet that the Crew will be getting our hands on a four-pack or two.

“And then, on the patio, and as of right now the weather is supposed to be great, I think we’ve had Le Chat Lunatique every single anniversary,” Shelby Chant said. “So from 2 to 4 o’clock on the patio, unless the weather goes to crap, and then we’ll go inside on the stage.”

And, before all of that, Steel Bender and M’tucci’s will release their new collaboration, Teddy Roe’s Policy IPA, today (Thursday).

“That came about, I think they wanted an IPA to begin with, they just weren’t super vocal about it,” Mondragon said. “I think we sat down and do a hopped other style, like a hoppy brown. We started talking about it and said let’s just do an IPA.”

The main request was for a less bitter IPA, something more of a juicy style, with a lot of fruit flavor up front and a less astringent finish.

“It’s crushable for people who don’t like those big New Mexico IPAs, it’s very approachable and very easy to drink,” Mondragon said.

As Shelby Chant pointed out, M’tucci’s did not want an IPA that takes away from the flavors in their food, and this beer was brewed accordingly.

“It’s a really fascinating project to work on with a restaurant and see how chefs and brewers come together and come up with this product that benefits both,” she said. “We’re really excited about this.”

A big offsite project underway for Steel Bender probably will not be completed in 2024, but it will mark the first offsite location for the brewery, albeit in a rather unique space.

“So it’s public knowledge at this point that we are going to have a location at the Sunport, and we are a part of that Sunport renovation,” Shelby Chant said. “We are so excited about this.”

The exact location will be on the Southwest Airlines side of the terminal, where Black Mesa Coffee is currently located.

“It’s going to be different than how we are here,” Ethan Chant said. “This place is designed for people to hang out. The airport is designed to come and go. It is a different experience, so being conscientious of that type of experience has been a little bit of a challenge, but it’s still exciting. It’s going to be really excited to have people from literally all over the country trying our beer. That’s pretty cool.”

Everyone will keep an eye out on that progress, while the brewery team is hard at work sketching out their release schedule for this year and beyond.

“We’re tossing ideas around for some new product launches for distribution this year, a double IPA, we’re working on that, expanding some of our seasonal offerings,” Mondragon said. “I think a couple of those will come to fruition this year, and really solidifying that calendar for 2025.”

Look for more beers in 16-ounce cans, too, including year-round favorites like Compa Blue Corn Lager.

“It’s going to be amazing for concerts, golf courses, all of that,” Garrett said. “United games, Lobos games, it’s just so much easier to have a 16-ounce beer than to go back to the bar for 12 ounces.”

A big thanks to the Steel Bender team to take such a chunk out of their day to sit down and do this interview. It is now and always very appreciated. We wish them continued luck and success in all that they do this year and beyond.

Now let us just hope that the weather cooperates this weekend. We don’t need it to feel like a cloudy/rainy Irish day just because it’s St. Patrick’s Day.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister