NM brewers group switches leaders as the industry booms
Statewide beer production to top 110,000 barrels
As New Mexico’s craft beer industry continues to change, so too is the statewide association that represents it.
The New Mexico Brewers Guild is switching leaders, bringing on John Gozigian to replace the organization’s first and only executive director, Chris Goblet.
Goblet had been at the helm since the guild’s formal founding in 2012 when he said the state was home to about 25 breweries. Today, Goblet reports there are about 55, with at least another 15 in the works. He estimated statewide production would exceed 110,000 barrels in 2016, up from about 75,000 last year.
Gozigian — a Marble Brewery co-founder who sold his stake in 2014 — said his charge will be helping the guild “react to the changing realities of our industry,” from navigating the challenges associated with growth and competition to providing the guidance necessary to help the upstarts excel. That’s particularly important, he said, given that New Mexico has developed a strong reputation in the larger craft beer world.
“It’s in our interest to make sure we get (the new breweries) into the fold and into the guild and give them access to information and other brewers that have a lot of experience to make sure they have the ability to make a great product, too,” he said. “It’s in the existing breweries’ interest and future breweries’ interest to give a good name to New Mexico beer.”
Goblet said he likely will remain part of the local beer culture through his involvement with May’s Outside Bike & Brew Festival in Santa Fe and through his work with a design firm that does craft beer consulting.
Despite the guild’s decision to part ways with him, Goblet said “I wish them good luck.”
Under Goblet’s leadership, the guild formally established itself and built its identity through a website, brewery map, logo and numerous events. It lobbied for several successful pieces of legislation, including some beneficial tweaks to the excise tax rate structure for breweries and a change that allowed breweries to expand to three off-site taprooms from two.
“Chris really did an awesome job,” said Gozigian, who has a 20-year history within the local brewing scene and was the guild’s former board president before stepping away from the organization a couple years ago. “He’s a very creative and fantastic events organizer, and he really got us from being really nothing to an actual organization and he really shepherded us along and did a great job with that. We wouldn’t be where we are today without him.”