Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery

This is Tumbleroot’s production and distillery building They give tours by reservation. They have a small tasting room with 6 taps and a very small area to sit , a few tables outside Its away from Santa Fe proper and in an industrial area . Have samples and mixed drinks , Friendly service. They have another location in town that is more lively with live music . Not recommended to go unless you want to do the tour. Go to the one in town if you want a bar/brewery experience .

 

Smallish taproom with decent beers and friendly & good service. Looking forward to going back and seeing how they have grown.

The atmosphere they've cultivated here seems to concentrate and intensify the gentrified, hipster feel I got from my first visit to this city overall. I had no preconceived notions prior to hitching up in Santa Fe, except for constructing a short list of restaurants I knew I wanted to try, but I really have never been in a city that felt quite this out of place relative to its home state. It’s like a disproportionately white and wealthy oasis in a literal desert of poverty, diversity and wilderness. Normally I might find myself relieved or comforted landing in a “safe space” after the relatively harrowing odyssey we were just at the tail end of during this trip, but I felt like I was in Get Out. I feel strangely obligated to point out the pretentious feel I got at Tumbleroot, which is like a distillate of my experience with Santa Fe overall, a city in a state that's otherwise full of wide open rural spaces, massive cultural and physical landmarks, and salt of the earth ranchers, working class, indigenous or latino people. It almost feels like a cocktail party in a high rise penthouse overlooking a zombie apocalypse by comparison. And I'm only kind of joking.

Anyway, stepping away from the vibe, Tumbelroot has a large indoor space with a stage that almost reminds me of a high school theater, but is otherwise filled with what appears to be handcrafted wooden tables and chairs that were almost uninvitingly beautiful. Despite being busy, no one occupied the tables indoors, making it feel like we shouldn’t be inside due to pandemic restrictions or something, but we didn't see any signs up. Still, we decided to find the only open table outside, which is also a fairly impressive space that feels like a backyard dinner party. Just by the tap station are several high tops which sit underneath a large tree's canopy complete with decorative lighting, water features and tiki torches.

Service largely consists of walking up to order at the counter, but they do seem to pump out some fairly complicated cocktails to really earn those tips. The beer itself wasn’t bad--fairly clean and drinkable--as long as it was a base style and nothing flavored. They had food out of a truck that seemed to be their own, but we did not order any. The two barrel aged beers we picked up to go were surprisingly decent too. The wine barrel aged cherry sour had nice balance to it, while the whiskey barrel aged wheatwine was a solid take in the American vein, while not having a ton of casking.