Open Space serves up the outdoors and one-barrel brews in Santa Clara

It started out as a love story on the Continental Divide Trail.

The short version goes something like this: Matt Leef and Alexa Tubbs connected while backpacking in 2019, bonded over their affinity for craft beer and the outdoors — and subsequently decided to open a brewery together.

Leef, who was based on the West Coast, had the beer background and a passion for brewing. Tubbs, meanwhile, came from the East Coast and the New York art scene.

“I looked at Matt like an artist, and my background was working with artists … It just sort of felt like a nice combination of our talents,” Tubbs said.

In October 2023, they launched Open Space Brewing together in an old National Guard Armory Building in Santa Clara, which is about 10 minutes away from Silver City. The location serves as an unofficial trailhead and provides direct access to a number of nearby hiking and biking routes.

“The people in this area really strongly connect with the land that we live on,” Leef said. “Those who have moved here from other places often cite that they moved here because of the Gila Wilderness and being able to get outside. And then those who have lived here for generations also are hunters and go and explore their big backyard regularly and harvest meat from the woods.

“I think this type of brewery that really highlights the outdoors and makes collaborations with different organizations to continue to shepherd and steward the outdoors, I think it’s a really strong connection with our patrons.”

Open Space donates a portion of its earnings throughout the year to benefit outdoor recreation projects, trail building and conservation in the Gila Wilderness.

“I think the way it’s unfolded has been really organic. We haven’t really had to push too hard to fulfill our mission,” Tubbs said. “… So the initiatives seem to come really naturally. And that’s where my talents come in, are building connections with our community and really making sure that we’re doing this beer for good.”

When it comes to beer, variety is the norm at Open Space. The brewery has six taps and rotates frequently through approximately 30 to 40 offerings. Though the taps change often, they usually include some combination of easy drinking, hoppy, dark and a one-off specialty.

“I’m typically trying to make really good representations of styles that already exist most of the time, and take a recipe that exists already and basically mold it into what I want it to taste like,” Leef said.

“This is a one-barrel system, so I get to brew fairly regularly. These batches run out within two to three or four weeks … I think I’ve only made a few batches of beer that are exactly the same recipe as a previous batch. So the beers are sort of always evolving and trying to become better.”

Despite the consistent rotation, both Leef and Tubbs say that Open Space has certain flagship beers that will return on a regular basis. These include options like the Cool Rock Dude cream ale, Mesa Mesa Mesa hazy IPA and the NM-15, a hazy double IPA.

“We juggle them around and things kind of go,” Leef said. “Then when people see that certain beers are back, they get really, really excited.”

The goal is to eventually expand into even more adventurous types of beers to share with the community.

“I’m trying to be intentional with what we’re brewing right now and slowly build up into more and more nuanced styles,” Leef said.

With two years in the rearview mirror, it’s clear that the Open Space concept is resonating with beer drinkers and outdoor enthusiasts alike — usually in a happy intersection.

“They’ve embraced us with big open arms,” Tubbs said. “I feel like people in this climate, with public lands at risk and Forest Service cuts, having a place that wants to fight for those things (is appreciated).

“I think that’s kind of a bigger-than-us legacy kind of vibe. It becomes another access point for folks in this community, another trailhead, if you will.”

Open Space serves up the outdoors and one-barrel brews in Santa Clara