Open Space Brewing fuses love of the great outdoors with love of great beer

The happy couple in their happy brewery.

One of the best parts of traveling around New Mexico to visit various breweries is to see how each of them fit into their respective places. Some embrace small-town charm, others open into the great vastness of the outdoors.

Open Space Brewing, as the name might imply, does a lot of the latter, and a little of the former. One of the newest breweries to open in New Mexico, just back on October 28 of last year, to be exact, this quaint little spot at 11990 US-180 in Santa Clara is the brainchild of owners Matt Leef and Alexa Tubbs.

“We were backpackers on the CDT (Continental Divide Trail) in 2019 and Silver City was one of our favorite towns,” Alexa said. “When I met Matt, he was brewing and backpacking, one pint at a time. I thought that, oh, that’s fun, I’m gonna hike around this guy a little while, see how that goes. It sort of festered from there. I thought maybe one day we might do a project together like this.”

There is plenty of room, and yet it still feels small and quaint inside and outside.

The brewery is located in the back of the Santa Clara Armory, with a spacious outdoor patio and a comfortable interior. There are trails leading up into the Gila Wilderness within a quick walk from that patio, for both mountain bikers and hikers.

“I think the reason we’re here is our big old backyard,” Matt said. “The Gila Wilderness is definitely the most awe-inspiring wilderness that we’ve been to. The vastness of it and the isolation and the solitude.”

Solitude was not exactly what I found during my visit to this small town brewery, nestled just north of Bayard and east of Silver City. The Tommy Knocker 10 mountain bike event was going on all around us, with a slew of folks stopping by before and after their trek into the mountains. It made for a fun, lively atmosphere.

The patio at the end of the night. Trust us, it was packed earlier, with the two food trucks just parked outside the fence.

The brewery does not have a kitchen, but Duck Creek Smokehouse and TGI Frybread were just outside the patio, keeping everyone well fed that night and most nights that the brewery is open.

“We met them (TGI) in a beer garden event we did in October,” Alexa said. “We told them that we’re going to have an after-party here. We asked if they wanted to come set up. They’ve been here ever since.”

Even in small towns, the wonderful synergy between breweries and food trucks is present.

Just having the two pop-ups outside also helps a certain four-legged someone hang out inside.

This good boy is a fixture at Open Space, and other dogs are allowed inside and outside, too.

“We got pets when we started putting down roots here,” Alexa said. “It was so important to have a dog-friendly brewery. I’m always checking places to see if I can bring my dog in, and that’s usually just patio time. So we wanted to create a place where you could bring your dog indoors.”

Bobby the dog is a fixture at the brewery, and the Jerry the cat can often be found lounging in his favorite box on the bar top, though with the huge crowd, the black feline stayed home the night I visited. Bobby was a sweet boy and quite friendly, though that might have been at least in part due to the fact that I smell of brisket from Duck Creek (the sandwich was delicious and quite filling).

While everything looks great now, getting a brewery open in such a space was not easy, but it certainly fit the labor of love theme that we see so often in places around the state.

It’s a simple but effective brewing system to start things off at Open Space.

“I have a masters in art business, and I’ve worked with artists in the past,” Alexa said. “When I look at Matt, I sort of look at him like an artist. His appreciation of craft beer really opened my eyes and my respect for it. It just definitely like a doable thing for both of us. Our relationship was built on challenges.”

The brewery itself is just a 1-barrel system, so the lineup changes pretty constantly. Matt, who learned to brew years ago in San Diego, has rolled out a wide variety of styles. Some beers are one and done, others return, but sometimes with recipe alterations. One beer even popped the night I was there, as the Red Line Irish Red was finished off by the crowd.

As for the rest of what was on tap, both Switchback High 5 (American Wheat) and Cool Rocks (Cream Ale) were light, refreshing beers to start off the evening. The NM-15 was a double hazy IPA that clocked in at 8-percent ABV. It had just about all the characteristics one might expect from a big hazy, not overpowering in any way, with a floral aroma, citrus sweetness, and no bitterness.

The brewery tries to keep six beers on tap, and so naturally I tried all of them, served on some of the best sample trays around.

Over on the darker side, both Seeing Rainbows (Irish Dry Stout) and Cartography (American Stout) were quality brews. The former was, no surprise, drier and lighter, while the latter had strong roasted barley flavors and a smooth mouthfeel to it.

It certainly seems as though Matt and Alexa are in it for the long haul, putting down roots in a community that they have grown to love, and clearly one that now loves them back. The positive vibes and energy in the place were apparent from the customers of all ages.

“We give back to the trail that we met on, so of course we are only 10 miles away from the Continental Divide, that’s what brought us together,” Matt said. “I’m originally from the West Coast, Alexa is originally from the East Coast, and we wanted to find a place in between where we could settle down and when we came to this area, there are so many nice people, an amazing community feel. A lot of places in New Mexico, I’m sure, are similar. Around here it just bleeds out of people. You drive around town and everyone waves at each other.”

Stoutmeister: How many “that rug really ties the room together” jokes do you get? Matt: Too many.

Yeah, it’s that kind of place, and definitely one that people from around the state need to visit. You can always stay in nearby Silver City like I did, and then if you have more time, make sure to bring your hiking boots and/or mountain bike and hit those trails. As Matt said, the Gila Wilderness is a wonderful place for an outdoor adventure, and now there’s a great little watering hole at the end of the trail.

“We’re always down for an adventure, I think that’s what this whole (project) is about,” Alexa said. “Having fun with it and having an adventure with beer and trails and our outdoor mission.”

That mission is one the Crew is only too happy to support. A big thanks to Matt and Alexa for taking a few minutes to chat amid the crazy hustle and bustle of the evening. And a big thanks to Bobby, too, for not minding this random human who only shared ear scratches and not brisket. Next time, buddy, next time.

Keep supporting local statewide!

— Stoutmeister