Getting Sidetrack-ed: ABQ brewery celebrates eight years with special canning and event
Jan. 26—Eight has been great for Sidetrack Brewing Company.
The quaint pub, located at 413 Second St. SW, is celebrating eight years of operation with a special event and special canning of some of its beers.
Over the years, the brewery has kept things simple and true to its brewing beginnings.
"We're pretty close to how we originally started," said co-owner Dan Herr. "We're not really interested in growth. We've got a small location and that's where we are. And we've just always kind of focused on trying to make our spot a little bit better each year instead of trying to make it bigger. I think that gives us a lot of luxuries in that we don't have to worry as much about market shares and distribution and a lot of the things that end up getting very complicated and sort of very costly. Until you plateau, and you're able to sort of make those things profitable."
Herr and co-owner Anne O'Neill have kept things as easy as possible.
"We've got the same brewing system that we started with," Herr said. "We've got a seven barrel brewing system and we just try and make things better as we go along."
Herr began as the original brewer and brought in a new brewer in 2019.
"We brought in a brewer who was more educated, more experienced and just a little bit better versed in the things that it takes to produce beer for our little pub," Herr explained. "And we're now on our second brewer (Cordell Rincon). And he's been with us for about a year and a half. But we've stayed true to the kinds of beer that we have had success with and that our customers like."
Keeping it simple has been the key to success for Sidetrack.
"I hate to say it, but (our beer is) not so flashy or not necessarily with a lot of the trends that happen in the brewing world," Herr said. "We just do traditional styles and try to keep the ABV (alcohol by volume) at a reasonable range and make things that we just call drinkable beer."
The brewery will commemorate eight years with an event from 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27. There will be some raffles and prize giveaways. It will also feature a pop-up with Oni restaurant. More information is available at sidetracknm.com.
"Oni restaurant, they used to do pop-ups with us all the time, pretty frequently," O'Neill said. "I guess this was before the pandemic and then they opened up their own restaurant. So we stopped doing pop-ups with them. And so we reached out to them and asked if they were interested in coming back. People love Oni. They do ramen noodles, Japanese inspired food."
Some of Sidetrack's original beers will be brewed to commemorate eight years.
"We've got our Pub Ale and we're going to have a batch of that," Herr said. "And that's just one of the staples that we had available. It hasn't actually been available for the last few months. So we have a batch of Pub Ale. We have an IPA, that's called Turntable IPA, that is one of the recipes that I brewed when I was a brewer. And it's kind of making an appearance for our eighth anniversary. And then we have a California Common beer that is also referred to as a steam lager. So it's sort of a caramel colored lager beer that is fermented at warmer temperatures. So it's kind of a unique style. But we've got those three beers that are going to be available for our anniversary, in addition to all of our other typical lineup."
The beers will also be available in cans.
"One of the new things for Sidetrack is we started canning in 2023," O'Neill said. "So we now have some of our beers in cans. We do four packs and so that's a new thing. We only sell the four packs out of our taproom. So some of our beers we're brewing that day for our anniversary will be in four packs, the Pub Ale, Turntable IPA and the California Common, will all be in four packs. So it's been kind of fun experiencing that and doing packaging out of the taproom."
