One of the areas I find myself writing about frequently as the business reporter at The New Mexican is the craft brewing sector, which seems to still be growing rapidly in New Mexico, even though the industry has matured and almost become saturated nationally, as Second Street Brewery CEO and president Rod Tweet noted in a story about his company that appears on the June 17 business page.
That’s not terribly surprising, given the fact that craft brewing was not as robust here as it was in several other states in the 1990s and 2000s, when the industry was young and booming, experiencing a gold rush mentality. Despite that slow start, it seems as if the New Mexico craft brewing scene has narrowed the gap in recent years, with several brewpubs opening their own packaging operations and making their products available in retail outlets in addition to their on-premises consumption.
In the case of Santa Fe’s Second Street, that’s made a significant difference, Tweet said, explaining that canned sales were up 13% year-over-year last year.
The owners of Santa Fe’s Nuckolls Brewing Co. apparently are counting on a similar reception for their products, as they recently purchased a defunct brewery in Angel Fire that comes with a canning line. Bill Banowsky of Nuckolls has told me he hopes to have his company’s packaged products available in stores across Northern New Mexico soon.
Then, of course, there’s the Santa Fe Brewing Company, which moved to its headquarters with a canning line on Fire Place 20 years ago — a transition that allowed it to become the largest and most firmly established brewery in the city, if not the state.
The fact that at least three breweries can find themselves apparently thriving in a market the size of Santa Fe says a lot about the strength and sustainability of New Mexico’s beer market, especially during a period with so much economic turbulence.