Rowley Farmhouse Ales started as a dream in a garage in Santa Fe, New Mexico. John Rowley, a chemist by training, started his journey to brewing funky, but quaffable beer in his garage in the late oughts, seeded by his friend Chael Christopher. It all started over a couple of pints at Second Street Brewery, where Chael mentioned that he received a homebrewing starter kit for his birthday, but his wife wouldn’t let him use it, as she knew he would leave the house a terrible mess. John quickly jumped on the free kit, and brewed his first official batch of his own that same weekend. It actually came out quite nice for a first time brew, and a passion was quickly developed for perfecting the process.
John brewed like a madman, and quickly became proficient in recipe development, brewing and water chemistry, bottling and kegging his beer, as well as draft systems. He built a homebrewers garage like none other, and had friends over brewing weekly, and honed his proficiency at Santa Fe Brewing on their Small Batch Saturdays. He became deeply involved with the local homebrewing scene, becoming the president of the local homebrew club, the Sangre de Cristo Craft Brewers. He entered many local and national competitions, winning many best of shows.
In this scene, John met Jeffrey Kaplan, who was working as a chef at the Marriott, but was looking to focus his energy into his own project at some point in time. Tyler King was also in the mix, as a local best of show winning homebrewer, and was a generally cool dude with a great palate and a reliable nature. Over bottle shares at Elissa and Jeffrey’s house, a plan was organically formed to start their own brewery, but with a focus on each of their strengths. The pairing of funky and sour farmhouse-style ales with comfort foods, as well as an eclectic, rotating tap list that allowed for a comprehensive beer-focused experience were all features that were requirements, not just desires.
Rowley Farmhouse Ales (RFA for short) is the realization of these ideals. Although we are indeed a functioning business, we treat RFA more as a passion project for all involved; we hope our passion for great beer, paired with tasty food and great people, shines through every time you visit. Thank you for checking us out!
Our Team
John is an accomplished, award winning brewer with over fifteen years of brewing experience. After obtaining his BS/MS in chemistry from the University of Arizona, he moved to New Mexico to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he has been working as a research chemist for the past 21 years. His passion is brewing, with a focus on live culture sours, and mixed-culture fermentation, and was successful as a local brewer, winning over 80 national and regional awards since starting to compete in brewing competitions in 2010. He served from 2007 through 2016 as the president of the local homebrewing club, the Sangre de Cristo Craft Brewers, which is an accredited and active club, with just over 100 members. He enjoys science, baseball, all things beer, bicycles, and time with his friends and old but loving dog, Buddha.
Jeffrey has worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years. He holds a culinary degree from The California Culinary Academy and a BA in hospitality and tourism management. During that time period, he has held every position within a restaurant. He has been instrumental in the successful opening of six restaurants. Jeffrey has worked in many different types of facilities that range from smaller, independent restaurants to larger, corporate restaurants and hotels.
Tyler has a unique ability to turn his hobbies into work. Brewing was his latest hobby of 7 years turned profession when RFA opened. Having moved to Santa Fe in 2004 to get his BA in Film, Tyler also turned that hobby into a career path and continues to do freelance film work between assisting in all aspects of the brewery as well as his day job with the State. Lately, he has put his film gear to use for RFA creating virtual beer festival videos and facilitating the brewery live streams that became necessary during the pandemic.
Ebbie has been in the beer industry since she moved to Santa Fe in 2014. Her love of sour and German-style beers has taken her abroad to Oktoberfest and some of the oldest sour breweries in Europe. Her passion for beer emanates from a desire to encourage others to try new beer styles. She is currently studying to achieve Certified Cicerone status.
Mike is an award-winning brewer who came to us from Virginia in 2020. He brings a knowledge of production-level brewing to us as we continue to grow, as well as a passion and palate for wood-aged mixed fermentation beers that complements John’s and Tyler’s skills. His previous life as an operations manager has helped us tighten up our production planning, logistics, and processes, and his creativity has helped us push our portfolio into new beer styles while staying true to our farmhouse roots.