There was optimism this week that Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham would announce a Phase 2 of reopening that would enable breweries and restaurants to start to have dine-in customers again. Well, restaurants get to have customers on their patios (should they have patios, of course), but most breweries will not be allowed. New Mexico Brewers…
Category: Breweries Under Quarantine
Breweries express varying levels of disappointment and frustration with latest change to state regulations
At the start of the week, we sent out a single question to all the brewery owners asking how they were preparing their taprooms for a possible reopening this weekend. The idea was to hold back publishing any of those answers until Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham made the expected partial reopening official. Instead, the Wednesday…
Santa Fe Brewing donates back to hourly staff and looks to brighter days ahead
Since the quarantine began, local breweries have handled the change in multiple ways. Among the announcements of closures and re-openings, new hours, sanitary procedures, specials and discounted prices, and an increase in package and to-go offerings, something else began to stand out. A genuine concern for the newly disrupted livelihood of the breweries’ front-liners —…
Red Door Brewing ready to make some big changes including closing Roswell taproom
The statewide shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic has forced a lot of breweries to reconsider how they are set up. Red Door is one of those, as operations manager Ali Cattin told me from 6 feet away at the Candelaria taproom before they opened last Friday. “Matt’s been furiously applying for all sorts of…
Thirsty Eye Brewing satiates the EDo neighborhood by reopening
A handful of breweries that initially closed their doors in March have begun to reopen for to-go-only orders. One of those is Thirsty Eye Brewing, which will reopen to the public starting today (Thursday) from 3 to 7 p.m. at 206 Broadway Blvd. SE. Curious about the process that led up to this decision to…
Turtle Mountain Brewing sees its sales numbers climbing in right direction
This is our 10th and final brewery update in our current series. Hopefully the next time we do a series like this, we are discussing how each brewery is going to handle reopening to having onsite customers. For Turtle Mountain Brewing and owner Nico Ortiz, the to-go-only model seemed like a daunting challenge at the…
Steel Bender Brewyard stays flexible under current restrictions
It can be funny sometimes how things just end up timed perfectly. As I was getting this latest entry in our ongoing series of beer updates ready, I saw that we were given a heads up that Steel Bender Brewyard was going to reopen its kitchen a couple weeks ago. We were just asked to…
Nexus Brewery gets halfway to its pre-pandemic sales numbers
Our ongoing series of updates on Albuquerque metro area breweries resumes with a look at how Nexus Brewery has adjusted to life as a to-go-only brewpub. The good news is that after initially feeling pessimistic about the whole setup, things have turned around for Nexus and owner Ken Carson. “I feel we are mirroring (Turtle…
La Reforma Brewery still evaluating current to-go-only model
We return to our ongoing series of updates on craft breweries in the Albuquerque metro area and how they are still adjusting to the current rules and regulations. To finish the week, we checked in on La Reforma Brewery, where pescado tacos are the Friday special of the day, and two new beers were recently…
High and Dry Brewing aiming to get its new equipment put to use
Next up in our ongoing series of brewery updates is High and Dry Brewing. Sales are down to about a quarter of what they were before the pandemic, but there are a couple moves that could help in the near future. Co-owner/brewer Andrew Kalemba told us about one new piece of equipment for the taproom…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 