In April, we shared the story of Zane Curtis, a longtime craft-beer fan who, despite his love of the beverage and the communal culture surrounding it, gave it up three years ago when adopting a sober lifestyle. Since then he’s opened a pair of bottle shops exclusively selling a curated selection of non-alcoholic (N/A) takes on a wide variety of adult beverages. It’s worked out well for him, enough that earlier this year he was inspired to get into the manufacturing of those products, taking over a San Marcos facility that was previously home to Creative Creature Brewing and working with a team of beer-industry veterans to reconfigure it for production of N/A beverages. That business, Monday Morning Lab, is about to start brewing beers (not just for Curtis’ company, but contract-brewing clients), and come Saturday, July 18 it will soft-open a public tasting room ‒ the first-ever for a N/A producer in San Diego County. We caught up with Curtis to find out what visitors can expect from that trailblazing venue and what he’s learned since crossing over from simply selling N/A beverages to crafting them.
How have you configured your base of operations?
Our facility is just over 6,000 square feet, and nearly all of it is dedicated to production and storage – the engine room of the whole operation – but 800 of those square feet are carved out for the taproom and retail side. It’s an intimate space on purpose with a pool table, our best-selling bottle-shop products on the shelves and an N/A beer line pouring fresh. What we’re building is the first of its kind in the country, a real brewery and taproom experience built around world-class N/A beer. No compromise, no “near beer”, just genuinely great beer that happens to be alcohol-free.
What will the taproom look and feel like?
The Lab was designed by the same team behind our bottle shops, so you’ll feel that same warmth and color the second you walk in, just pointed at the brewery this time. We deliberately didn’t want it elevated or precious; we wanted that real brewhouse feel. Bright colors, high energy and our people, who are the whole heart of Monday Morning. What truly sets it apart is the N/A tap line and the crowler machine on-site, which will allow us to pour and package world-class non-alcoholic beer in a way San Diego has never experienced.
What styles of beer do you plan to produce?
Our first beer, a non-alcoholic West Coast IPA called Haymaker, is going to make it very clear we aren’t playing around. I genuinely can’t wait for people to taste it. We may sneak out a second beer for our soft-opening, but we’re still locking in what that will be. From there, we’re pushing every boundary people said couldn’t be pushed. Think N/A barrel-aged stout, glass bottles, limited releases, kegs, the works. We’re not accepting “it can’t be done” anymore. Between our veteran crew’s creativity, brewing chops and deep N/A knowhow, we’re going fast and going big. We’ll also be producing canned coffee and tea.
How does the contract-brewing aspect of your business work?
We’ve taken contract brewing from “email us and wait” to a fully online experience where prospective clients can sign their agreement, build their own quote and submit a complete production order in one sitting. There’s no back-and-forth and no mystery pricing. From there, you watch your brew move tank-to-can in real time, with live status updates at every step and your own link to follow along. We built the pipeline ourselves, from the quote engine to the floor dashboard our brewers log into daily, because nobody else was doing it this way. The Lab is brewing with nothing to hide and nothing left to chance. We’ve already signed on some big names, so it’s about to get really fun.
What have you learned since getting into N/A beverage production?
Honestly, this has been one of the hardest things I’ve done in business. I thought I’d buy it and open. I had no idea how much goes into it. I built my retail stores in six weeks with full construction, so even though the three months I’ve spent on the Lab feels fast for something like this, it’s been double the work and no joke. I’m grateful for the knowledge and hustle of my team, and the City of San Marcos has been a treat to work with. The other thing I’ve learned is that people are ready for this. We get asked daily when the beer’s coming and when they can taste it, we’re already taking contract-brewing orders, and we aren’t even open yet.
Monday Morning Lab is located at 1784 La Costa Meadows Drive, #103 in San Marcos