Imbibing and investing: Bernalillo brewery looks to community for expansion

BERNALILLO — Sure, Kaktus Brewing Co., could have qualified for loan so it could launch a new phone app, extend its patio covering and farm more of the food it sells.

But Dana Koller, who’s owned the brewery for just over a decade, had another idea. Why not get the brewery’s local patrons involved? And why not allow them to reap the benefits for backing of the company?

So Koller decided on a bit of a different way to raise the money, allowing those customers to become investors in Kaktus. The brewery this month partnered with Honeycomb Credit, a crowdfunding platform that allows local businesses to borrow money from their fans, customers and supporters.

Koller said through the partnership, his brewery is targeting between $30,000 and $60,000 — though “the magic number in my head is $40,000” — he said. As of Wednesday afternoon, his brewery had raised $6,200 from 12 investors, and the company has just two weeks left to hit the fundraising goal.

“The lowest so far is $200; the highest has been maybe $2,500,” Koller told the Journal. “Some people are looking (to invest) as high as $10,000. … The timeframe really encourages people to make a decision and I think that is necessary, especially with funding.”

Kaktus, a quaint location located at 471 South Hill at the southeastern tip of Bernalillo, has been open for 11 years now, garnering a cult following amongst a group of loyal supporters of its brews and food. The brewery, alongside serving its own custom beer like the Imperial Stout, also serves pizzas, appetizers and salads — the latter of which is made using microgreens from Koller’s “hybrid soil and hydroponic system” sunroom.

He also grows mushrooms in a converted shipping container, and with the additional money Kaktus raises, will add a vertical hydroponic garden “that’ll be displayed for people to see, which will be really cool,” Koller said. In adding a new system, Koller plans to grow additional vegetables, like tomatoes for the brewery’s homemade pizzas, that will produce about 3,000 plants per harvest.

It brings Kaktus closer to the concept of farm-to-table that he has long sought after, only leaving the meats as its outsourced products.

“We’ve been working on it for years. … It’s been kind of a work in progress,” Koller said. “We like to consider ourselves the most sustainable brewery in New Mexico. We work part of our systems off of solar power; we’re big, big proponents of recycling; and we really work hard to move in that sustainable direction. This farm-to-table concept not only is a great way to bring more organic foods and clean foods into our brewery, but it also makes it affordable.”

He also said Kaktus is trying to become the first brewery in the state “to be a full-circle economy, meaning that everything brought to the brewery is either repurposed or reused.”

“And so we think that if we reach our goal of being farm-to-table by next year, like 100% with the produce, then we would basically reduce our waste by 90%. So, almost 100% of everything utilized will be recycled to repurpose.”

The fundraising efforts by Koller to expand Kaktus’ offerings, including a patio that can be extended onto another acre of the property, comes as he has shifted the business model to employee-owned and acquired a liquor license to diversify its drink menu. By allowing investors, particularly the brewery’s customers, to pay into the future of Kaktus, Koller said it sets up a system that incentivizes them to “take better care of it.”

He said investors can expect a 10% return on their investment, adding that it’s packaged as a three-year loan.

“Just like any traditional loan, we could choose to pay it off early; we can let it bear interest for the entire three years,” Koller said. “The only difference is, instead of it being the bank’s money, it’s the community that chooses to invest with us.”