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 —…
The Week Ahead in Beer: Ex Novo, Rio Bravo, Steel Bender and Tractor add new cans
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, one in Silver City, and one in Truth or Consequences also joining the party….
Second Street Brewery had a solid 2019 and then 2020 happened
We’re now more than a month into the *zombie apocalypse, and while some of us are getting restless and anxious for an end to the madness, some are settling into what may be the new normal (for a while) in the best way they know how. But, at least with the rules of engagement no…
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…
The Crew reviews our new huckleberry Bock Holliday from Ex Novo Brewing
Sometimes the best laid plans just do not pan out, even virtually. We had planned an epic five-person review of Bock Holliday, one of the newest canned seasonal offerings from Ex Novo Brewing. Alas, personal matters caused Brandon to have to drop out, while all those many, many hours of brewing beers caused Ex Novo…
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…
The Week Ahead in Beer: More breweries reopen and make other positive changes
Greetings, New Mexico craft beer lovers. Stoutmeister here with The Week Ahead in Beer. This column covers all the breweries in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, with Santa Fe’s eight breweries, one in Los Alamos, one in Moriarty, one in Red River, one in Silver City, and one in Truth or Consequences also joining the party….
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…
