Canteen aims to kick butt and take names after year with big change in brewery

We asked Canteen for some epic photos this year. General manager Jamie Schwebach and head brewer Will Moorman obliged.

February was a weird, slow month. Leave it to Canteen Brewhouse to help us finish it with a proverbial bang.

Last week, I sat down with Canteen general manager Jamie Schwebach and head brewer Will Moorman for our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series. Yeah, just when all of you probably thought we gave up on finishing the series for this year, it has come roaring back with two of our favorite beer people sharing all that went right, and what did not, for Albuquerque’s oldest brewery in 2025 and what they are looking forward to here in 2026.

NMDSBC: First question, what was the biggest challenge of 2025?

Schwebach: Biggest challenge of 2025, (was) the existence of 2025. I think, overall, it was a really good year. You know, it was not a challenge.

But it was a change to go from Zach (Guilmette) as our head brewer for a long time to hiring Will, who has been such an amazing fit for Canteen and doing a great job. So, I don’t know if that was really a challenge, more of a change. And, all that comes with, you know, just changing head brewers and leadership. We had some other leadership and key staff kind of move on to bigger things, which is great. We’re so happy for them with Jeremy going to Marble and Matt going over to Marble back there, as well, so some big changes.

But, I think overall 2025 was a good year. I think another big challenge last year was just trying to manage the amount of events and beer releases. So those are our biggest challenges. Any challenges for you?

One more Peaky Blinders-inspired photo, just because.

Moorman: I mean for me, I was only here for the last quarter of the year. And, my challenges were I’d been out of beer for over a year. So coming back I learned a lot’s changed a lot. Brewing stayed the same, but anytime you’re on a new system there’s a million different things to learn, you know, anytime you get a new job.

There’s a million different things to learn right, like I gotta learn how to do things the Canteen way, not the Flix way. Learning to work with Jamie has been awesome. You know, there’s always transition when you have a new boss and new co-workers and the guys in the back, too, getting to know them. So just onboarding really was like the thing for me, for the first several months is just like, all right, “How do we do things here, what do we want to do here, what do we want this brewery to be?” You know, how do we keep things the same? But also, change them up, where they need to be changed, that sort of thing.

NMDSBC: All right. question two is, what was the what do you feel was the biggest accomplishment of the past year?

Schwebach: I think I’m going to stick to the same thing. You know? I think that’s a great accomplishment — adding a new head brewer in Will and all of his skillset and what he’s bringing to Canteen, I think was a really great accomplishment. I think we added some additional key players in terms of bringing Sarah on to our management team. I think one of our other big accomplishments is how much our marketing and social event team with Jana (Everett), Kate (McConville), and Sarah (Barba) and everything they’ve done. I think another great accomplishment is all our management team here and our servers. The fact our servers can handle all the silly events we throw at them, I’m very thankful. I also think the beer that we’ve been producing has been great.

We’ve got a great beer plan for 2026. With schedule releases of some great amazing hazies. We’ve got a new one (Moonwashed Hazy IPA) coming out on Saturday, as well as some different pilsner releases for 2026. We’re looking forward to all the fun that is to come.

We also ended our partnership with our distributor, so we’re now independent, which is a challenge and a success. But, we’re really focused on our in-house and our taproom and our team and our community. So it’s kind of nice to be very almost insular.

Moorman: I want to I want to piggyback off that and say shout out to our team, like we have the best service team. I love coming here and seeing somebody order a beer in the north 40 of the patio, and they order it and 8 seconds later it’s delivered. Our team’s happy to be here. They’re rock stars. I’m very, very, very grateful for the people that work here.

Schwebach: I think it’s a really good success. It’s just in our entire team. I mean, our beer’s great and our community is great. But, our team’s just great.

The Canteen front-of-house staff handled all the patio-packing events with aplomb throughout the year.

Moorman: Really, our team kicks ass. Yeah, our team kicks ass, that should be the headline. I’m very excited about, you know, kind of what Jamie was saying, there is like digging into our lagers and getting as technical and nerdy as possible. You know, every beer in my mind, every new beer is an opportunity. It’s functionally a research project, right?

So how like you know, if you were to ask me to write a recipe for a porter. Sure, I could sit down and just do that right, but would it be the best porter? I don’t know, but if I invest a lot of my time and effort, my free time and effort into like, all right, what are the best people in the world doing to make this beer, right? What are the most popular versions of this look like? What are the pitfalls? What are the things I should be avoiding?

That is where I find my joy, and that is where I think a lot of people have lost their way out of you know, having been in the industry for so long. The burnout, that’s real, and I know (that) for myself. I’m so grateful for having had a year out of beer to recharge, and come back with a belly full of steam, head full of steam, belly full of fire, belly full of beans!

Schwebach: I was just thinking about successes. (One) is that I also am really thankful for our customers and our loyal customer base, and that they keep showing up, whether it’s because it’s (just) a Tuesday, or whether we’re supporting a local nonprofit, or we’re going out for a run, or reading a book, or whatever it is, I really think that’s a good success, that people are still coming, whether the people who have been drinking here for over 30 years or people who just found us. And, if they’re just coming to enjoy our space and conversation, I think that that’s also one of the successes we’ve been talking a lot about.

Moorman: We still have people who show up here. I mean, it’s packed on Tuesday night. It’s packed on Wednesday night. You know, it’s awesome.

Not everyone can make running around the neighborhood as fun as Canteen does.

NMDSBC: I think we’ve almost stumbled on to the 2026 question. What is the hope, the goal, the objective this year?

Schwebach: The goal and objective is continue to make great beer, continue to foster our team, (and) continue to focus on community with a quality product. And, you know, as we were thinking about it, we’re going to continue focusing on bringing people together. And, being a place that is welcoming to all, because the only way we’re ever going to get better as Burqueños, as New Mexicans, as Americans is by sharing space and having conversations. So, I think that is one of our big things, creating an amazing product, creating an environment that brings people together so we can share some space.

Moorman: On my end, I’d say big goals for me are to produce the absolute best quality beer that I can. I will rest easy knowing that I have put my absolute heart and soul into every batch of beer that we bring, and then doing so strategically, smartly in terms of financial viability.

There’s a lot happening in this industry right now that’s challenging, right? And we’re seeing breweries close and consolidate left, right, and center, and we’re not going to be one of them. And, that’s going to take a lot of effort, because it would be easy to to lose a brewery right now.

Schwebach: I know we just we talked about the one (closing) yesterday in Colorado, and it’s like every week, no end in sight.

Moorman: More consolidation, more closing, and that’s not going to happen because we’re going to kick ass and take names and make really smart financial decisions to ensure the viability of this company for the next many years. Those are the things that I am passionate about.

A big thanks, once again, to Jamie and Will for taking some time out of a very busy Friday. Even if they did turn those questions on me at the end (I answered honestly, I promise).