Second Street Brewery, a fixture on the southwest side of Santa Fe since 1996, is planning an off-site expansion in the Farmers Market Building in the Santa Fe Railyard that will open before the end of the year.

"Once we're set up, it will give us another place to sell our beer," said Rod Tweet, president and brewmaster of the brewery since the business started. "Things are well under way down there — we started in September. It was great to be able to get into Farmers Market."

Tweet said he started thinking about a new location four years ago. "It took a while — I was looking at different locations in the Railyard."

Tweet said he's pleased the new site is near railroad tracks, which also run right behind the original operation on Second Street.

The new restaurant, to be called Second Street Brewery at the Railyard, will include a restaurant that will serve food much like that of the original, Tweet said. "We will feature a lot of salads using ingredients from Farmers Market as much as possible."

Second Street chef Tim Lopez
will be going to the new site to supervise the restaurant. About 20 new employees will be hired to work full and part time.

Santa Fe's mandated minimum wage — $9.85 per hour — is not a factor in hiring additional new staff. "We pay well above what the wage is right now," Tweet said.

The restaurant will sell beer, all of it brewed at the brewery on Second Street, Tweet said. Second Street has brewed 30 to 40 kinds of beer over the years, but typically has about eight kinds available at any one time.

India Pale Ale is the best seller and has been for years, but "everything sells well," Tweet said..

The new restaurant will seat 90 inside and another 50 or 60 on the patio. "It's not quite as big as the original brewery, but it's not tiny, either," Tweet said.

Tweet declined to say how much the new addition cost, but he did say funding came from a small-business loan from Los Alamos National Bank and from a loan made by one of the brewery's shareholders.
Second Street has been slow — and careful — in its expansions over the years. After the original brew pub opened in late 1996, the first addition to the bar was a patio, which opened in 1998. Then came a brewery and tap room, which opened in 2003.

"The new brewery increases the brewery's capacity from 900 barrels of beer per year on a five-barrel system to 1,200 barrels on a ten-barrel system," said a newsrelease from Tweet's publicist, Jennifer Padilla.

The most recent addition was in 2006 and included an expanded bar and new tables with 20 additional seats.

Tweet said the brew-pub business is a strong one in the U.S., with more than 1,600 brew pubs in operation. "Our market share keeps growing," he said.

One factor affecting the cost of beer has been the rise in the price of hops, which are added to beer to give it a bitter taste. Most hops are grown in the states of Washington and Oregon as well as in Germany and England, Tweet said, and recent crop failures in all those places caused supply shortages.

To deal with the problem, Tweet turned to the spot market, where hops were available but only at a high price and in cash.

That shortage drove up the price of beer some, Tweet said, but not enough to hurt the brewery.

"Our business is holding well," he said. "We're not busier that we were last year, but we're about the same. And last year was a very good year."