About
ABOUT
KEEPING TOGETHER
At its core, Keeping Together is built around the idea that great beverages can bring people together. Our brewery exists not only to craft exceptional beer, but to foster moments of joy, creativity, and care in a setting designed to welcome all.
Whether you’re a local neighbor or a curious traveler, our space offers a refreshing pause—rooted in warmth, intention, and the vibrant energy of Santa Fe. We eagerly await the opportunity to share our space and our beverages with you!
Keeping Together Brewery and Beverage Garden is a destination unlike any other—an imaginative brewery and community space housed in a lovingly repurposed greenhouse located in the heart of Santa Fe, NM.
Here, brewing is more than a process; it’s a celebration of place, people, and the spirit of collaboration. Inspired by the texture and spirit of the high desert, Keeping Together invites our guests to slow down, savor, and connect.
Our Story
FROM CHICAGO TO SANTA FE
Founded in 2019 by Averie Swanson, a Master Cicerone® and world-renowned brewer, Keeping Together began as a small-scale beer project in Chicago. With a focus on mixed-culture, farmhouse-style beers brewed in residence at Half Acre Beer Company, the label quickly gained attention for its balance, imagination, and drinkability. Averie established the brand with a deep commitment to process, quality ingredients, and meaningful experiences, and over the years, Keeping Together has earned a loyal following and a reputation for thoughtful, expressive, and delicious beverages.
But Keeping Together was always about more than just making beer—it was about fostering community. In 2022, along with her husband and business partner, Pat Fahey, Averie made the decision to build a permanent home for Keeping Together, one that could fully reflect the values and vision behind the brand. Drawn by the vibrant culture, breathtaking natural beauty, and the thriving appreciation for unique flavors found here in Santa Fe, they relocated to New Mexico to lay the foundation for a new chapter of the Keeping Together story.
Keeping Together’s journey to opening the doors in Santa Fe has been one of perseverance and community. We've transformed a former plant nursery's greenhouse into a beverage garden oasis and one of the most unique brewery taprooms in the world, a process that has involved significant dedication and the overcoming of many hurdles, including an existential setback involving the loss of almost all of our original brewing equipment. Through it all, the incredible support from our community and industry friends and our combined determination has kept the dream alive, embodying the very essence of "Keeping Together."
Keeping Together Brewery and Beverage Garden is the culmination of years of dreaming, planning, and building. We are thrilled to finally be on the verge of fully realizing our vision, with construction progressing rapidly and an ambitious opening planned for late Summer 2025.
Our BEERMAKING
Philosophy
COMMUNITY THROUGH BEER
Our approach to brewing is grounded in curiosity and craftsmanship. We strive to honor classical brewing traditions while embracing innovation, creating beverages that feel both familiar and excitingly new, but are always balanced and drinkable. We are inspired by the high desert, by seasonal ingredients sourced from local farms and foragers, and by the vibrant creative energy of the Santa Fe community.
Our beers range from rustic farmhouse ales to crisp lagers and hybrid styles that defy easy categorization—but each one is made with intention, balance, and an openness to where the process might lead. You’ll also find a curated selection of non-alcoholic options and other thoughtful beverages designed to bring people together around the table.
Keeping Together aims to create a welcoming and inclusive space that honors both the land and the people who call it home. The brewery is a place where the lines between old and new, natural and built, tradition and innovation are allowed to blur—just like in our beers.
Our location
a greenhouse beverage oasis
Before Keeping Together, our location was home to Waterwise Gardening, High Country Gardens, and Santa Fe Greenhouses—the entire property was a beloved hub for high desert horticulture.
Since the mid-1980’s, it’s been the place where Santa Feans came for native plants, xeric perennials, desert-adapted wisdom, and guidance on how to create thriving gardens with minimal water.
This greenhouse wasn’t just a place to buy plants—it was a trusted resource, an institution in the Santa Fe community, and a cornerstone of Southwest gardening.
STEWARDSHIP: tending the legacy
When we first walked the property in 2023, it was alive and in motion, entering what would be its final spring plant sale season. Rows of perennials, ornamental grasses, and desert-adapted succulents filled the greenhouse, all beautifully cared for by the team that had tended this space for years. It was immediately apparent how much the community cared about this place—the employees that had been there for decades, the master gardeners who volunteered there, the customers who also had been coming there every season for years—this property was clearly a fixture within the community.
It did not take long for us to become deeply aware that stepping into this space meant joining a living story. From the moment we decided on this location, we knew our work here wouldn’t just be about building a brewery. It would also be about caretaking. About respecting and preserving what was still living, and honoring what had been lovingly built before us. We feel a great responsibility to honor the story of this place.
Throughout construction, we’ve done everything we could to protect the plants that might otherwise have been lost to renovation. We have transplanted literally hundreds of established in-ground plants that would have been destroyed during construction. We have taken some of the more delicate plants to our home to overwinter them indoors. We have spent countless hours watering by hand, weeding, pruning, and otherwise caring for the plants that remain onsite to ensure that they will still be here when the greenhouse is open again.
Every plant we’ve managed to keep alive feels like a quiet promise to the history of this place—and a bridge between what was and what is coming next.
This approach to stewardship extended beyond the plants to the greenhouse itself. Many people might have chosen to clear the property and start over—it would have been faster, simpler, and definitely cheaper. But to us, that felt like erasing a place that had held nearly forty years of community memory.
Instead, we partnered closely with our architect and contractors to preserve the greenhouse’s core steel frame structure while updating it for year-round comfort. We reinforced the bones, repaired what needed care, and designed our renovation to honor the rhythm, light, and openness of the original space.
It has been slower and more challenging than building new, but it has allowed us to keep the spirit of the greenhouse intact.
We want to say clearly: we hold deep respect and immense gratitude for the Salman family and all who worked at Santa Fe Greenhouses and Waterwise over the decades. Their dedication to water-wise horticulture in the Southwest influenced how many people thought about growing in this region and will continue to guide how we care for this space. Their vision still echoes through the structure and through the soil. We’re grateful for the foundation they built here.
Letting the space shape us
This greenhouse hasn’t only shaped our approach to the physical renovation—it has influenced the very look and feel of the Keeping Together brand.
When it came time to build our new visual identity for Keeping Together, we didn’t look to trends or templates, instead, we looked to what was already here. Over the past several seasons, we have gathered and pressed flowers from the property and digitally scanned them to use as unique elements in our designs. We’ve physically printed with cactus pads, seed pods, spent blossoms, even concrete blocks we found around the site. The colors, textures, and objects of this place are stitched into every piece of our refreshed branding. Similarly, our video and photography work is rooted here—many of the images you’ll see in the coming weeks and months are of the very plants that have lived onsite for years.
The greenhouse and this storied property doesn’t just house our business. It informs and inspires it. It is an active collaborator, helping guide what we’re making—visually, emotionally, and philosophically. It’s part of our creative process, helping us make something that feels alive, grounded, and true to this place.
THE vision growing forward
As we move toward opening, we’re committed to keeping the property a living place, not just a backdrop. We want to keep plants as an integral part of the experience—more than just decoration, a through-line. A reminder of what this place has been and what it still wants to be.
We plan to host seasonal plant pop-ups, collaborate with local gardeners and growers, and maintain onsite gardens that honor the work of the folks that tended this ground before us. Many of the plants that will be inside the greenhouse have been generously donated to us from members of the plant-loving community here in Santa Fe.
Part of the Keeping Together ethos is about honoring the spaces that hold us—and letting them shape us in return. It is our intention to carry the spirit and legacy of this place forward, that it might continue to be a place where things grow—not just plants, but presence, connection, and community.
We feel honored, humbled, and lucky to be a part of the next chapter of this extremely special place.
CULTIVATing MOMENTS OF REFRESHMENT
At Keeping Together, we cultivate moments of refreshment — of connection, community, and the pure enjoyment of thoughtfully produced beverages. Our space is designed with comfort, accessibility, and sensory delight in mind.
Whether you're a lifelong New Mexican or just passing through, you’ll find a place here to relax, recharge, and enjoy something special. We see our brewery and beverage garden as a community space—a modern-day meeting point where where folks from all walks of life can connect, share experiences, and appreciate the simple pleasure of a great beverage in a remarkable setting.
We hope you’ll visit us soon. Come enjoy a glass of something bright, flavorful, and made with care. Take a seat under the greenhouse canopy, feel the warmth of the sun and the hum of good company, and experience what it means to be Keeping Together.
