RIO RANCHO, N.M. – For more than two decades, Turtle Mountain has been serving New Mexicans in Rio Rancho.

After outgrowing their brewing operations at their location off Southern, they’re taking their hops to Enchanted Hills.

“We actually are doubling our capacity which will mean we can handle both restaurants and some limited distribution, joining everyone else that has kegs of beer on tap,” said Nico Ortiz, owner of Turtle Mountain Brewing Company. 

They opened up their patio and restaurant in Enchanted Hills back in 2021. Ortiz says this new space next door will add 4,500 square feet to brew beer. 

“This ginormous cold room here is one of the most exciting things about this space because we have a little tiny cold room at Turtle South which is very hard to get around in, very hard to clean the tanks, we don’t have any room to hold hops,” said Ortiz.  

The plan has been in the works for years, but just like everything else, the pandemic pushed back the expansion. 

Despite the setback, Ortiz says it was worth the wait to invest back into the community and northern Rio Rancho. 

“Enchanted Hills in booming now, anybody that lives in this area of town is so happy to have another market, they are so happy to have another hardware store, another big restaurant where they can sit down and get something good to eat and drink,” Ortiz said.    

People living nearby agree: 

“This has really become a destination for people. It is easy to access, easy to get out of, it has 550, 25 right there,” said Sarah Whitely who lives in the Enchanted Hills area. 

They are hoping to have the brewery up and running by their 26th anniversary in March.