Kaktus Brewing Company

It’s summer, it’s hot and you want to cool it with a good beer and a breeze in your face. Since biking while drinking is tiring and dangerous come sit on the patio here! You get a nice view of the Sandias on the rear and volcanoes on the west. You’re in the middle of a rock and a hot place. Take a seat.
The paint on the inside is divisive. It’s such an explosion that any variation in mood could turn you on or off.
The GuyPA is an oak barrel aged IPA that’s worth a try. Or two! You can taste the oak.
The meat selection is pretty unique for Albuquerque, duck, elk, and bison sausage will hit the spot. The pretzel is crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. Perfect.
More beer please! The German Helles will keep you going through the evening.
Overall it’s a good place. Quiet on a Wednesday night so I’ll try again on a more busy evening

Their crusts tasted exactly like frozen pre-​packaged pizza crusts and it was really disappointing as they had a creative range of toppings and combinations to choose from. If you’re just there for the beer, you’re probably in the clear as the several I tried were very good.

I like it. Haven’t tried the food but the beer is pretty good. It’s the Kaktus you love. The owner was behind the bar when we went, so we got to talk a lot to him about the beers. I’m excited about what’s in the works.
The IPA’s are really mild. The porter really is a nut brown. German Pilsner is light and would be crisp if they served it colder… it has a nice, typical pils flavor.

Love this place… It’s not just another hop happy place… They actually have a great selection of beer along with tasty food… But more importantly they actually know how to make customers feel at home.

Have you ever shown up at a party that you didn’t really want to go to and then you’re see the one guy that invited you and he’s like «I’m totally into my thing here.» So you order a beer and you try to talk to other people and their like «I’m totally into my thing over here.» Now cut to Kaktus and the friend that invited you is the bartender that says hi and takes off and the other people are the other bartenders. Needless to say, I was good to drive when I left this place. They weren’t slammed or even busy. They were just totally into themselves. I tried the smile, the hand wave, the lean. I didn’t flex my biceps. They don’t deserve that.
Sitting there watching everyone on staff workflirt, I really did get a lot of time to inspect the paint. And I don’t like the paint. I really don’t. The best thing about this place was the random girl peddling unlicensed truffles. I don’t really think this place fits in to my thing.

The beers at Kaktus all seem to be middle of the spectrum when it comes to recipes. So, for instance the IPA smells über hoppy, but on the palette it’s a little lighter than anticipated. Same for the stout and brown. And it’s not all together a bad thing.
The roof top deck gets big bonus points. It’s awesome up there, watching the ebb and flow of Nob Hill, especially at sunset. Hell, you could almost enjoy a Bud Light in that environment.
Had the pumpkin pizza. Amazing. Squash, pumpkin, goat cheese, pinion nuts, all covering a red chile sauce. Seriously good.
The folks working there are pretty awesome; friendly and engaging. We’ll be back for sure as its walking distance to our home.

You know those spots that have so much potential and yet there are too many «cool ideas» that the concept gets muddled and confusing? That’s Kaktus.
The indoor space is broken up and odd, the rooftop patio is small and overlooking one of the least attractive parts of Nob Hill, and the beer is just ok. I also feel weird walking past some studio apartments with my beer to get to the rooftop. I’m half-​expecting some guy in a bathrobe to open the door and ask if I bought him a pint too.
I haven’t tried the pizza so I’ll defer to others on that. I’m willing to give Kaktus another go and maybe I can get past the weird and just enjoy my beer.

Beer and wine were good as well as the view for the rooftop seating area.
I’ve heard the sausages are good, but I would steer clear of the pizza. I ordered the pizza with pumpkin, pine nuts and goat cheese. The crust tastes like those precooked ones you buy at the grocery store. The pumpkin was was basically still raw and too hard to eat. The red sauce they put on top tasted like they went next door and grabbed some packets of Taco Bell mild sauce and drizzled that on top.

They spelt it wrong

Meh. Just okay. Not everything I’d hoped for, but not bad. The pizza was nothing special. The beer was ok. I liked that they had a sort of mixed beer… with grapefruit juice and one of the specialty beers. It was pretty good. I don’t know if I’ll go back. It was kind of… lackluster.

The spot is great. Comfortable and bright inside and an awesome rooftop patio with great views. The beers were good enough to go back for, and the cherry cider is delicious (although overpriced for the tiny glass it comes in). Our servers were very friendly and helpful, which made for a nice experience. Everything was great except the food. We started with the nachos which were nothing remarkable… chips topped with bison chili and cheese. They tasted alright, but were far from exciting. We followed that up with the Wild Spicy Elk pizza. The sausage was fantastic, and the rest of the toppings were good, but the crust was very bad. It was definitely a pre made crust with no body or flavor. Why ruin such good toppings with a nasty piece of bread? If a place is going to fill half the menu with pizza they need to have a good crust. They have a full kitchen, so there is no excuse for this lazyness. I feel like it shows a lack of care for quality which they try to cover up with «exotic» meat options.
I will go back for the beer and the view, but I’ll eat elsewhere.

I appreciated many things today about my visit to Kaktus Brewing Company in Nob Hill.
1. The sublime terrace patio. The same patio that patrons on Bailey’s on the Beach enjoyed. It is still there. And it is still just as magnificent. With unobstructed views of the Sandias on one side and the volcanoes on the other. Perfect place to enjoy the warm Albuquerque February afternoon, just soaking in the views. Great reminder of the majesty of our city.
2. The music. Reggae was on the speakers. And while in general, I tend to favour the more timely dancehall tracks, somehow the soundtrack seemed an appropriate accompaniment to the mellow vibe on Albuquerque on a Saturday afternoon. It worked.
3. Only 1 hoppy beer on the beer list. While I am a big fan of hoppy Albuquerque brews, it is refreshing to see a brewery that focuses on other styles.
It is these 3 aforementioned factors that pulled my review in a 4 star direction.
As far as beers are concerned, it was a a mixed bag. Both the ESB and Halles Lager had way too much residual sugar for my taste. On the other hand, the German Pilsner was crisp and just the right amount of bitter. The IPA was fruity and strangely enjoyable.
The food, consisting of various sausages and brats, seems fun and tasty, but I did not have any, and so cannot comment on it except on its unfriendliness –to –vegetarians nature. My herbivore friends should consider eating elsewhere, and just going to Kaktus for the beers.
All things considered, a good addition to Abq brew scene. Hopefully they will change the pattern of restaurants coming and going from this location on the far western edge of Nob Hill, and will help add more vibrancy to this corner of town.

Probably one of the most interesting breweries by campus. I cannot wait to go here on a hot summers day and have a refreshing adult beverage.
They have some interesting bar food and pizza but if you are planning on coming at night time, bring some sunglasses the lighting is insanely bright and the walls are bright yellow not really the most intimate place to bring your date because it’s so bright.
The rooftop patio is perfect and like I said it will be amazing in the summer. It’s across the street from campus so it’s in a prime location. Definitely at least try it!

I’m a big fan of the original location. However, this is a good location with very friendly staff. I agree with a review that started the food was lackluster. The beer is ok. I’m rooting for this place and look forward to trying again in the future.

So glad to see this establishment in the Nob Hill area!!! We were fans of the original location and we are fans at this one too especially since it’s walkable! Menu is perfect for beer and unique to the area. Dana is the perfect host and Riley was an amazing server. We look forward to our next visit already.

Our first visit was less than a week after opening their new location. Unfortunately, our experience was not what I’d hoped.
While the service was friendly and accommodating, the food left something to be desired. The menu was printed in about 15 different fonts and I felt the items therein were just as much of a mishmash. In theory, the odd combinations offered on their pizzas and hot dogs sound like they could be good, but the implementation seemed lacking. We ordered two pizzas (the Wild Spicy Elk and the Red Pumpkin), Dana’s Dog Bites, and the Frito Pie. The Frito Pie received high marks and I don’t remember any complaints about the Dog Bites. Unfortunately, the pizza, however fresh the ingredients may have been, still managed to taste like it had come out of a box in the freezer, with an extra-​crispy school-​cafeteria-​ish crust and undercooked toppings. Any flaws we found in the food might be chalked up to a new location with a new kitchen and new menu items, though.
I thought the beers varied from average (e.g. the lager) to undrinkable (something infused with Sriracha) and regretted ordering a pint of the red. One person in our party ordered the sampler and reported enjoying a couple of them. Maybe I just got unlucky with my choice and there’s a beer in there that I’ll learn to love.
We’ll give them another chance once summer rolls around and we can try out the rooftop patio. It’d be great to have another successful brewery in Nob Hill.
P.S.
It was frustratingly difficult to read the menu on your myspace-​ish website with the auto-​scrolling images.

The location was a bit hard to find on Google maps, but it’s right behind the Taco Bell on Monte Vista in Nob Hill. The décor is nice, and we opted to sit on the rooftop patio, which was very pleasant (and will probably be better in the summer when it’s warm). Everyone working there was very friendly, particularly our server, Shayla (not sure of the spelling?), who was super friendly and helpful, and gave us prompt and attentive service. The beer was pretty good. I had the Smoke and Fire, which was a smoked porter with chipotle — unique and tasty. The food menu is definitely interesting. We had a pizza with duck sausage, and ordered an elk hot dog and a wild boar hot dog. The pizza was delicious. The hot dogs were decent, but there was too much bread and the bun was nothing special. Not bad though. We went there just a few days after they opened, so I think they are still working out some kinks, but I’ll add an extra star for the friendly and helpful staff. It’s nice to have a new place in Nob Hill to hang out and get a beer and some pizza.