Though it boasts a beer operation that was impressive enough to be named Best New Brewery by members of the local brewing community at last week’s San Diego Beer News Awards, Miramar’s New Motion Beverages was originally conceived as a producer of alternative alcoholic beverages. Its founders came together behind the mission of filling what they saw as holes in the current marketplace by offering hard kombuchas as well as hard seltzers and hard sparkling teas. Though the former was to be the focus, New Motion has gained major traction with the latter, enough for the four-month-old company to adjust its game plan.
“Two of our cofounders have five years of experience developing both hard and non-alcoholic kombucha recipes at home, but we decided to change direction a little bit and target a beverage sector that has a lot of room for growth,” says Director of Brewing Operations Cody Morris. “While we are still brewing hard kombucha in small batches at the brewery for the tasting room, we decided to focus on expanding our hard sparkling teas into the broad market due to the amazing reception we had from the general public as well as our distributor.”
Since opening in November, there’s been a clear best-seller at the company’s tasting room, which features 32 taps pouring New Motion’s beverages as well as sister-brand Embolden Beer Co.’s ales and lagers. That standout is Pomegranate Unicorn, a hard sparkling tea brewed with green tea, pomegranate, blackberries, cinnamon and vanilla. It sounds like a horned pony with a garishly busy caparison, but all those ingredients come together to create a balanced, tasty flavor profile in which they work together instead of competing in the glass. As such, this is one of the first two teas New Motion has canned. The other is Apricot Bliss, a hard sparkling white tea infused with apricots, strawberries and orange peel. Both register 5.5% alcohol-by-volume and are available on store shelves throughout San Diego County in single 16-ounce cans.
“I was able to use the experience I gained helping to develop Ashland Hard Seltzer and other alternative beverages to really have fun developing our teas,” says Morris, who, along with his Head Brewer Andrew Kelly, gained such experience at their last workplace, downtown San Diego’s Mission Brewery. “We were definitely excited to take on a new challenge at New Motion and we’re stoked on the initial offerings. We have even more varieties of sparkling tea on-tap at our tasting room and plan to release some others in cans in the not-too-distant future.”
New Motion co-founder Andy Sist describes the company’s hard teas as “kombucha without the SCOBY” (an acronym for the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast formed as part of kombucha’s fermentation process) or “seltzer with benefits” and sees them as ideally suited for enjoyment following activities such as hiking, surfing or working out.
The U.S. market is currently overflowing with hard seltzers, most of which are produced by a handful of mega corporations, and hard kombucha has had a solid presence for more than half a decade. Hard sparkling tea is newer and less prevalent at retail, providing an opportunity for New Motion to be a leader in the industry, at least on a local level. Capitalizing on that opportunity would speed up what has been one of the county’s fastest-moving brewing companies. Since taking over the former home of 32 North Brewing, New Motion has completely revamped the tasting room and expanded an outdoor patio, partnered with Scout Distribution, hired a new brewer and ordered a new fermenter larger than any of its existing tanks which is currently en route to the brewery.
Morris admits it’s a bit nerve-wracking overseeing two brands speeding along at an upward trajectory but says his current set of “problems” are welcomed ones to have.
Embolden Beer Co. and New Motion Beverages’ brewery and tasting room are located at 8655 Production Avenue, Suite A, in Miramar