It was just last weekend that the Crew attended a 15th anniversary celebration at a local taproom, a remarkable achievement in this current economic climate for breweries. This coming weekend, however, another brewery will close their doors after 16-plus years serving locals and travelers in Northern New Mexico.

Blue Heron Brewing is calling it a career, as owner Kristin Hennelly announced on Facebook.

Blue Heron Brewing Co. LLC is closing their doors permanently. I am going to retire from beer making so I can focus on a few other pressing parts of my life. Scott and I would like to thank the community for 16+ great years of your support and enjoyment of our products. We couldn’t have done it with out you. Thank you. We will be open through Labor Day weekend. Join us for some last pizzas and beer. Saturday September 5th we will have a celebration with Boris and the Salt Lick from 4:30-6:30.

Blue Heron was the 10th oldest brewery in the state, opening in early 2010 at 2218 NM-68 near Dixon. For those not familiar, NM-68 is the highway that connects Taos to Española, and Blue Heron was basically the lone beer watering hole in between those two towns.

The place was always small and quaint, with an excellent patio in the back where one could hear the Rio Grande rushing by (back when it had water). Our first visit there came at the tail end of March 2012, which was about three months after we started this website (and you can see how primitive things were for our site if you click on that link).

They bottled a few of their beers, served the others on tap, and generally provided a welcoming atmosphere for one and all who drove by. Luke made another stop there and wrote about it in 2015.

A lot has probably changed, and a lot has not, since then (they added a pizza kitchen, for instance). The Crew hasn’t made many trips north in recent years, though we certainly should get back in that habit. My last personal visit came while staying with some friends on the Santa Fe Brewing hop farm next door, and that was before the 2020-21 lockdown period. Don’t worry, those friends worked for SFBC back then, so we weren’t trespassing or anything.

Over time, Blue Heron just stuck to doing their own thing. They left the New Mexico Brewers Guild and stopped attending annual events like WinterBrew and the various festivals up on Pajarito Mountain above Los Alamos.

There was a taproom/restaurant collaboration over in Española, but that ended during the pandemic. Otherwise, Blue Heron was just always there, hanging out along the side of the road. We honestly regret not swinging by more often.

Though, at present we have no plans this Labor Day weekend. I suppose one or more of us can brave the traffic north and stop by for that farewell party.

We tap our caps to you, Blue Heron, always one of the underrated, charming little brewery gems of our state.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister