Martin Beaulieu has been a fixture at Quantum Brewing since purchasing the business from founder Dylan Wallace in 2016. Following that, the biotech industry veteran upgraded from a one-barrel rig to a slightly less nano three-barrel setup, and began introducing a variety of new beers regulars of the Kearny Mesa business embraced. Walk into Quantum any Thursday or Friday and you’ll find Beaulieu chatting with those customers while serving them beers, but now he does so strictly as a bartender. It’s been that way since March, when he sold Quantum to its new owner, Taylor Scheid.
A native of Oceanside, Scheid dabbled in homebrewing, winemaking and distilling as a college student studying biochemistry and bioengineering, before enlisting in the U.S. Navy, where he served as a helicopter rescue swimmer. After a year of training in Florida, he moved home in 2022 to work at Naval Air Station Coronado. It wasn’t long before Quantum became his go-to spot for beer, particularly his favorite of their house creations, a pale ale dubbed Pale’s Constant. Fully enamored, Scheid enlisted the brewery’s mug club and soon made friends with Beaulieu. Upon hearing the business was for sale, he began entertaining the notion of purchasing it, but without experience as a brewer or business owner, he was a bit gun-shy. In the end, he was lured off the fence by Beaulieu’s offer to ease him into the science of beer and the business in a consulting mentorship role.
“I had always been curious about owning a brewery, and with Martin being willing to walk me through the creation of all of his staple brews, it seemed like a great fit and the right time,” says Scheid (pictured below, at left). “Martin assisted me with the brews until I could replicate all his best recipes to match his very particular style and high standards.”
Prior to Scheid purchasing the business, Quantum had been on the market for well over a year. Beaulieu (pictured, at right) kept the brewery open over that span, and when he sold it he did so without publicizing it, allowing Scheid to ease into the ownership role while lending him a hand as a consultant and bartender. In terms of the former, Beaulieu has assisted Scheid develop new beers while helping implement modifications to some of Quantum’s existing offerings.
“We are innovating by bringing forth new recipes, barrel-aging our darker beers and tweaking recipes in minor ways, such as going with slightly longer mashing times and slightly cooler sparge temperatures, as well as filtration to add more body to our beers,” says Scheid. “We’re even testing gluten-reducing in small batches.”
While the small combo brewery and taproom on Kearny Villa Road was the envisioned start and end point for the company in both Dylan’s and Beaulieu’s eyes, Scheid has higher hopes for Quantum. Working with his brother, he hopes to secure a larger brewing facility where they can scale up the company’s best-selling beers, keeping the Kearny Mesa location going as the small-scale experimental brewery it’s pretty much always been.
But in the immediate future, Scheid has his eyes on San Diego Beer Week, which will take place from November 7 to 16. In addition to a special allowing customers to purchase three 32-ounce crowlers for $30, a four-beer flight themed as “The Quantum Equation for a Perfect Pint” will also be available. In deals of the year-round variety, Quantum offers a lunch special on weekdays from 12 to 2 p.m. where a pint of any beer can be had for $4.99.
“I very much enjoy making my favorite beer, being able to share it with the world and seeing the smiles of customers as they enjoy my craft,” says Scheid. “There’s nothing quite like it.”
Quantum Brewing is located at 5375 Kearny Villa Road, Suite 116 in Kearny Mesa