Since the breweries have begun to reopen to customers in the last month, we have tackled the big ones, the ones with food, and those known for hosting events. Then there are the smallest breweries, the places that did not have canning lines, or kitchens, or a decade or more of history to fall back…
Category: The Great Brewery Reopening
For Casa Vieja it’s all about location, location, location
Unlike some breweries, Casa Vieja in Corrales elected not to wait until the Governor’s initial shutdown order in mid-March. They shut down about a week before she actually “pulled the plug,” as owner Gary Socha told me. This is but one example of how protective Gary is over his customer base. As it turns out,…
Bow & Arrow Brewing fires up its new canning line as it adjusts to sea of changes in 2020
Bow & Arrow Brewing has a new toy. Last summer, head brewer Ted O’Hanlan said he was looking forward to having a canning line in 2020. By the end of the year, the brewery had pivoted to focus on its Rambler Taproom in Farmington, pushing the canning line back to 2021. Oh, how quickly things…
Remaining Santa Fe breweries at various stages of reopening
On Tuesday, the Dark Side Brew Crew ran my story on the Santa Fe breweries that have been open to the public for a couple weeks now, and what unique challenges they’ve faced as they blazed the trail for the others. As promised, I reached out to Second Street Brewery, Blue Corn Brewery, and Tumbleroot…
Santa Fe breweries face their own unique challenges as they reopen to the public
This past couple weeks, the Dark Side Brew Crew has been running stories about the challenges our breweries are facing as they slowly reopen, what they’ve had to do to maintain the safety of their customers, and the general public response from the breweries’ perspective. Continuing with our reopening the breweries series, I sent out…
Tractor among the event-heavy breweries that must refocus for the foreseeable future
It feels a little quieter at Tractor Brewing these days. That has nothing to do with the crowds; like their fellow breweries, they are limited to 50-percent occupancy, but the tables were full and people were beginning to gather on the expanded patio when I visited the Wells Park brewery taproom last week. No, it…
Boese Brothers Brewery returns after taking some necessary downtime
The majority of breweries in New Mexico decided to stay open during the early days of the COVID-19 shutdown, offering their beers and/or food for takeout only. A few, however, decided to close their doors and wait things out. As breweries return to having customers inside and on their patios at 50-percent occupancy, now even…
Steel Bender and other brewpubs still facing their own unique challenges in reopening
While much of the attention over the last several days has focused on the many breweries getting to reopen at last, the brewpubs (which we define as any brewery that offers food made on site) have been navigating the 50-percent occupancy waters for some time now. Their kitchens may have granted them that privilege of…
Albuquerque’s two biggest breweries survive the initial onrush of returning customers
Over the course of the next few days and weeks, the Crew will be catching up with as many breweries as we can to see how they survived the lockdown, how things are going with customers allowed back inside and on patios at 50-percent occupancy, and what additional changes and developments are afoot. To kick…
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