The end is nigh for Bossfight Brewing, but there is still time left to send out the only brewery-arcade in Albuquerque in style.

Friday, February 28, will see one final party to close out the oft-renamed brewery at 4814 Hardware Dr NE.

“This is the wave good-bye event,” said head brewer Kolton Huerta. “It’s unfortunate, even though we did produce more beer than the previous year before I took over, it just wasn’t enough to keep the business going. Things were just getting more and more expensive. The (small brewer) license was coming up to renew, the lease on this building was coming up to renew. It just came down to we can’t continue that.”

Huerta and his cousin, Chase Campbell, kept the brewery going after the death of founder Mike Campbell in the summer of 2023. The story of the brewery goes back to 2016, when the elder Campbell, who had previously brewed at Tractor and Cazuela’s, set out to open his own place. Drafty Kilt swung open its doors in November 2016, only to be forced to change its name to Kilt Check Brewing one year later.

After Mike Campbell’s passing, his son and nephew elected to keep things going, but quickly pivoted from a standard brewery format to one replete with arcade games, pinball, classic video game consoles, and more. The name was changed to Bossfight, though the outside signage never changed.

The majority share of the brewery was still owned by Mike Campbell’s widow, Sheryl, and she sat down with her son and nephew and crunched the numbers. As Huerta said, they simply never pulled in enough money to make the brewery work under any name or theme.

“It’s a rough spot, it’s really off the beaten path,” Huerta added of the location tucked away south of McLeod and behind the Icon Cinemas San Mateo. “You have to know it’s there. Hardly any foot traffic.”

Now, however, the focus will be on sending the place out in style. As the small brewer license expires March 1, the last Friday of February will mark the end of the line with a big farewell bash.

“Well, please drink as much beer as you can,” Huerta said with a smile. “We’re going to do drink specials all night. I’ve been doing this (dice) roll for a discount. It’s a 20-sided die and a list of 20 different drinks. You roll and whatever you land on, you get $1.50 off. If you don’t want what you landed on, you can choose something else, but you have to pay full price. It’s one roll per customer per order. The customers have been liking that. I’ve been having a little bit of a return, good feedback from that. Customers think it’s a lot of fun.”

There will be that drink special, a pinball tournament and a Mario Kart tournament (with prizes for both). Zia Brothers Pizza will be set up to serve everyone. There will be live music, plus some classic movies will be shown via the old VHS player they dug up.

“We definitely really leaned heavily into the nostalgia with the VHS player,” Huerta said. “We’ve got a copy of Star Wars that’s unedited, untouched, and clean. You know about that. We’ve got a bunch of cool stuff. It was tough trying to make this transition. Like I said, I think we technically did better business, but it wasn’t enough.”

Well, yes, Kolton, I did see the pre-special edition version of A New Hope, even though I’m not old enough to have seen it in theaters (as an aside, though, there is a connection between yours truly and that movie, especially seeing as how I was born on the first May the 4th Be With You in 1978, but I digress).

After the lights are turned off and the doors are locked, the clean-out process will begin. There is a lot of nostalgia on the walls and shelves behind the bar, besides the large pinball and arcade cabinets.

“Oh, man, I don’t anticipate I’ll be able to get all of the decor into my house, seeing as how it’s already full,” Huerta said. “My girlfriend and I might redecorate this (one) room, put all the old consoles in there, turn it into a game room.”

As for the rest, well, that is to be determined.

Looking back on the beers, a couple stood out since Huerta got to take over and come up with more of his own recipes.

“I love all the beers I’ve made, but as far as the number one seller, the rice lager, The Way of the Samurai, really knocked it out of the park,” he said. “I got a lot of really good feedback from that. It was the most popular among our customers.

“I think I’m most proud of the IPA, the Rage Quit. I was pretty surprised, it’s something that we weren’t able to do before was get into the IPA Challenge ever since they did the brewers-only first round. We’d get knocked out every time. But, this time I completely redid (the recipe) and did my favor own. A West Coast IPA with a little bit of color. We not only got through the first round, but we finished top (eight). We got a decent amount of votes. Not only my peers came together and said this beer was good enough to pass and win the IPA Challenge, but the public liked it well enough, too. I didn’t take anything home, and that’s fine, but I do love it. After that, I started to become more obsessed with West Coast and tried to dial that in.”

As for the future, Huerta has already joined the brewing team at Steel Bender after having previously been part of the crew at Ex Novo. The concept of Bossfight, however, may not disappear completely into the annals of local brewing history.

“There might be plans to continue Bossfight,” Huerta said. “It might be unlikely, but you never know. I think we have a good idea. I think we can build a strong brand that can sell pretty well. It’s just a matter of if we’re able to find the funding, do it right and actually execute it. This wasn’t the best attempt, but it’s not nothing. I don’t regret it entirely. There were a lot of things that could have been better.”

A big part of that will be finding the right location, and a proper source of additional funding. Huerta said at times they considered relocating to the Westside, downtown, Nob Hill, and the UNM area.

“I’d given that a lot of thought,” he said. “It’s still up in the air. I’m not a professional at marketing, I don’t pretend to be. That area is the UNM crowd where all the college kids are going. A lot of younger people are drinking less. Some aren’t drinking at all. But, theoretically, I think it could work. With a younger crowd, if you have enough specials on food and beer, I think they’ll go. It’s not just the atmosphere, the food and drinks that work for them, it’s also something for them to do.

“Albuquerque doesn’t really have a specific arcade brewery. The way we were able to execute this, I wouldn’t call it a full-blown arcade, either. But, I think if we try hard enough, and try to sell that idea, and if by some miracle someone wanted to start their own, try to find that money, try to find that location. I thought about the Westside, because there’s not a whole lot (to do). Downtown and Nob Hill are where most of the people are going out to drink.”

For now, Huerta said he will step back and focus on his other job. He just hopes that the community will turn out to give Bossfight/Kilt Check/Drafty Kilt a proper closing night.

“Yeah, it’s great to have the support of people who not only helped us serve, but helped us run events,” Huerta said. “Toby has been here since day one and he’s still killing it with karaoke. We still have the blues jam. My friend Anthony ran the pinball events. Just everyone who came out, and everyone who came in and said that appreciated it helped keep me going. Thank you for anyone who voted for us in the IPA Challenge. That brought us some (new) people. I might try to turn Bossfight into a content platform on social media for craft beer and nostalgia, video games and pinball.”

Take it from a young Gen Xer raised on Star Wars and old-school video games, there is always room for a little more nostalgia for the days of yore. Just with a modern pint in hand, of course.

A big thanks to Kolton for the interview, and to his girlfriend for being patient as we chatted before they went out for dinner on Valentine’s Day.

We will see many of you, we hope, at the Bossfight farewell party.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister