Truth or Consequences Brewing in the New Mexico town of the same name offers a unique beer tasting experience that involves Mexican free-tail bats.
Courtesy of Truth or Consequences Brewing
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, with a population of about 6,000 people, lays claim to not only one of the most unusual town names in the United States, but also a unique brewery tour, involving over one million Mexican free-tail bats.
A History Of Public Attention
The town of Truth or Consequences was founded in 1916 as Hot Springs, a reference to the many geothermal baths in the area. For a time, the nearby Elephant Butte Dam was the largest dam in the world and the town served as lodging and entertainment for dam workers.
In March 1950, residents of Hot Springs voted to change the town’s name to Truth or Consequences in order to win a contest to host the 10th-anniversary broadcast of the Truth or Consequences game show, one of the most popular television shows at the time, hosted by Ralph Edwards.
“Ralph Edwards brought his celebrities of the time, and they did a parade. And the parade has persisted ever since,” said John Masterson, Truth or Consequences resident and chief beer officer of the town’s brewery, which bears the same name, by video interview. “It’s the first full weekend of May, and now it’s called the Truth or Consequences Fiesta.”
The unique town name brings tourists to visit the many hot springs and art galleries. But the town is also home to Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport.
Truth or Consequences knows how to get attention.
This Town Deserves A Brewery
In 2015, Masterson and his wife, Marianne Blaue, were on a road trip through New Mexico when they stopped in Truth or Consequences for no other reason than it had a Holiday Inn, and they needed a place to rest. But that impromptu stop would change their lives, and the town.
“Once we got into the hotel, we saw a pamphlet with a map of the historical hot springs and the many bistros and art galleries,” said Masterson. “And it just sounded like a funky little historic downtown, and so we hiked down the next morning and just developed a crush on the town almost immediately.”
“At some point that weekend, we decided we needed to figure out how to have some sort of second life here in this strange, quirky, artsy, historic hot springs town, with a spaceport just 30 minutes away,” said Masterson. “It was this crazy juxtaposition of historic hot springs and space travel. And one of us said to the other, ‘Let’s get a beer and talk about this.’”
The problem was, there was nowhere to get a beer. “Not one place,” said Masterson.
“I had a long history of homebrewing and I thought I knew a thing or two about business, having started and sold a couple of businesses. And I thought I knew a thing or two about brewing beer,” said Masterson. “And so we just asked, ‘What if we just uproot everything from our tiny Seattle condo working on computers all day, and instead open a brewery on the main drag of this funky little town.’”
Truth or Consequences Brewing opened its doors in June 2017, having promoted itself with the slogan, “This town deserves a brewery.”
The Bats
Over one million Mexican free-tail bats make a nearby lava flow home during the summer months.
“It’s basically a maternity ward in the summer,” said Eva Mendoza by telephone. Mendoza is general manager for southern New Mexico of Ted Tuner Reserves. From about May to August, female Mexican free-tail bats migrate to the area to give birth, meaning the number of bats actually increases throughout the summer. “By the end of summer, there are millions. It is the second-largest bat flight in the world.”
Ted Turner Reserves, includes Sierra Grande, a hot springs resort in the heart of Truth or Consequences and organizer of Bats and Brews. Participants gather in the resort lobby and are taken to Truth or Consequences Brewing, where they are led through a tasting of the brewery’s beers and offered a tour.
A cooler is packed with whatever Truth or Consequences beers participants want and everyone is then taken to the collapsed lava tube before sunset. At some point, the bats emerge en masse from that cave, flying straight toward the tour participants who are perched on the opposite ledge, and then over their heads. “I’m only five foot one and I feel I need to duck,” says Mendoza of the feeling of the million-bat flyby.
And as if that experience is not thrilling enough, local hawks fly through the cloud of bats and to capture prey midair. It is a sight fit for an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
“The Bats and Brews tour is one of the raw moments I’ve had that really felt like a nature documentary from my childhood,” said Jessica Luther, a former bartender at Truth or Consequences Brewing who attended one of the tours, by e-mail. “Folks get a natural history tour on the way in, complete isolation, the best beers in New Mexico, incredible sunsets, and then the chance to watch an enormous number of Mexican free-tailed bats spiral out of a lava tube and into the twilight while Swainson’s hawks teach their young to hunt the next generation of bats. There is truly nothing else like this and the chance to see such a wonder is well worth the effort to get there.”
The Details
Bats and Brews is offered by Sierra Grande and Truth or Consequences Brewing weekly, on Thursdays. Booking is through Sierra Grande and is limited to six people each week. Bats and Brews is offered only from mid-June to the end of August, when the bats migrate back to Mexico.
Truth or Consequences Brewing is open seven days a week. Truth or Consequences Brewing also has a tasting room in Las Cruces, New Mexico, open Monday to Saturday.