Back before the pandemic, the brewing scene in Las Cruces was booming.
Icebox had opened and was rapidly expanding with multiple taprooms. High Desert was still kicking after 15 years. Spotted Dog had opened on the boundary of Las Cruces and Mesilla. Picacho Peak was open west of the Rio Grande and had an out-of-town taproom in the works. Bosque had two taprooms open, and others would soon follow from Silver City’s Little Toad Creek and Truth or Consequences Brewing. Public House 28 was in the works south of the city, towards Anthony.
Things started to change after 2020, much as they did elsewhere in the state. While Icebox kept adding offsite taprooms, High Desert suffered a kitchen fire and never reopened. Public House 28 would come and go, taken over by Icebox.
Picacho Peak had opened a taproom over in Alamogordo, but it would quietly close. The brewery began cutting back its hours at the main location.
Bosque, of course, filed for bankruptcy. One of its taprooms is now under Santa Fe Brewing, the other remains empty.
Quietly, at the time for small brewer license renewals back in February, Pecan Grill and Brewery opted not to renew. While much of their brewing had been done up at Sierra Blanca in Moriarty, it still technically ended the 17-year-old brewpub’s status as the oldest producer of beer in town, having taken that title when High Desert closed.
Pecan Grill will now close entirely, ceasing operations November 1 per a Facebook post. It becomes the latest casualty of the current economic climate, joining other breweries in smaller towns to shut down this year, like Blue Heron in Rinconada and Bandolero in Clovis.
This is not a reason to suddenly panic about the other small-town breweries. Icebox is still booming, as are Downshift in Ruidoso, Cloudcroft Brewing, TorC Brewing, Box Canyon in Socorro, Milton’s and Guadalupe Mountain and Nurvis Purvis in Carlsbad … you get the point.
Still, it is always a bummer when a local business closes, especially after nearly two decades. Here’s to the place that inspired the Pecan Brown Ale, which as far as we know will continue to be brewed at Sierra Blanca.
Hopefully it’s the last place we have to write about closing in 2026.
One future opening … maybe?
A new small brewer license went active this week, and it’s for a place we never heard of before. The PYMO Bistro and Hotel is set to be located at 932 New York Ave. in Alamogordo, and apparently they will have an in-house brewery.
Or, maybe not. We found their social media page and primary website and both only mention an in-house distillery being part of the boutique hotel and restaurant going into the historic Avis Building, which is more than a century old but had been closed since 2024.
It’s all a bit unusual, right? We did reach out to the PYMO on social media to see why they would need one. A craft distiller license allows a business to carry beers made in New Mexico under the reciprocity clause. Maybe that’s just the next phase?
Got any additional beer news to share? DM us on social media or email us at nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com.
Keep supporting local!
— Stoutmeister
