The first year of any business, breweries included, tends to be more of a learning process than anything else.

That has certainly been the case for Sunday Service Motor Company, the unique brewery/coffee shop located at 2701 Fourth St. NW, just a block north of Menaul. I caught up with co-owner Kevin Anderson recently for our annual Look Back/Look Ahead Series to recap how that first year in business has gone, and to learn what lies ahead in year two.

“So many lessons,” he said. “No, it’s been great. The brewing community has been absolutely phenomenal. We’ve been honestly shocked at the level of support we’ve gotten. It’s been fantastic. Whether it’s going to the other breweries in town for actual operation pieces, or just promotion, word of mouth, all of those things has definitely been an awesome tide that’s rising.

“We are a part of both the coffee and brewing community. We’ve gotten support from both, and learned lessons from both, and worked with the business groups in those communities as well. It’s been really fun.”

One thing that Anderson and his team learned as that even as a new business, Sunday Service was not immune to some of the same equipment issues that seemed to plague just about every brewery in 2023.

“Our AC went out in the second week of July,” he said. “It was down until the first week of August, so that was rough. At one point it was 89 degrees in here. Fun stuff like that, but otherwise it’s been awesome. We’ve got a great team.”

The biggest in-house change was to move away from one of the original tiers of the business. Sunday Service closed the do-it-yourself motorcycle garage, but remains active in the riding community.

“We do bike night and our Sunday rally once a month, but it’s not an active garage,” Anderson said. “Now we have the two business lines, which makes it easier to hyper focus on both of those.”

There is still a bit of an issue getting the word out to customers that Sunday Service is both a brewery and a coffee shop. Anderson described how some customers would come in for a beer and be surprised at seeing people drinking coffee, and then others would be stunned to see beers being enjoyed while they had only come in for a latte.

“That’s the hurdle we’re up against is letting people know who we are and what we do,” he said.

There is also the location, as Sunday Service sits just north of Menaul and Interstate 40, putting it a ways away from the Wells Park breweries like Tractor, Rio Bravo, JUNO, and Bow & Arrow.

“We got the (bigger) sign, tried to dress up the fence a little bit, all that good stuff, make it easier to find,” Anderson said.

The other way to get the word out has been to participate in local festivals. Anderson said that they participated in the Chocolate & Coffee Fest at Expo New Mexico in the spring, the Mountain West Brew Fest in Bernalillo in August, and finally the New Mexico Brewfest back at Expo in October. Next up will be WinterBrew in Santa Fe.

As more and more customers find Sunday Service, Anderson and his assistant brewer, Greg Luddington, have been able to get a better read on what sells and what lags behind on the beer menu.

“The surprising things to me, and I guess it’s not surprising to me the more I think about it, is the more straightforward the beer, the better it goes,” Anderson said. “Our best seller is our Irish red. We’re almost at the point of not being able to brew enough.”

The rotating seasonal beers, including the Double Black IPA that I enjoyed during my visit, have not sold quite as quickly. Fear not, though, as Sunday Service will continue to play around and experiment with various styles.

“We still love doing them, because we get to try some cool, funky stuff,” Anderson said. “We can get known for some unique beers. But, it’s kind of shocked me that the kolsch, the red, and the cream ale have become the bread and butter.”

Going into their second year of business, Sunday Service has some modest goals set for 2024.

“The big push that we have right now is we are going to be at the production level where we can have six of our eight taps as Sunday Service-brewed, in-house beers, as well as begin wholesale,” Anderson said. “Those are the two big initiatives on the brewing side.”

The 1-barrel brewhouse in the back has churned out 100 barrels in its first year, but Anderson did say that he is looking to upgrade to a 3-barrel sooner than later, with up to a 5-barrel brewhouse capable of fitting into their space in the future.

For now, Sunday Service will stick with four core beers — IRA (Irish Red Ale), Easy Street Cream Ale, Killswitch Kolsch, Yellow Jacket Social IPA — two rotating taps, and two guest taps from breweries around the state.

“Once we get on that and our team is all squared away, then we’ll start selectively distributing to different restaurants and tap houses,” Anderson said.

No Brainer Coffee Porter, the first beer to appear at Sunday Service, will be a frequent rotator. Next up will be a series of cake-inspired stouts, similar to the German chocolate cake stout that appeared back in October. New beers will continue to be released every other Friday.

“For the winter, every other week will be a new cake stout,” Anderson said. “And then, as we head into spring, we’re going to be doing some interesting stuff with a couple different varieties of kolsch, and jump into a lager at some point.”

Sunday Service also has a few events lined up for the early part of the year.

“We do have some good events coming up as far as the month of January,” Anderson said. “We’re actually doing an art collective, where four artists will be able to display their work throughout the month of January, and then for each week we highlight a different one of those artists with a bigger display. They get to bring in an extra one of their pieces. Each Saturday is dedicated to those featured artists. That’s pretty fun. We’re squaring away all the details of that right now.”

Trivia will continue on Thursdays, plus karaoke every other Friday, and Anderson said that customers should know that the Sunday Service social media pages will always be kept up to date.

Overall, it has been a solid first year for Sunday Service. The brewery has found its niche in the crowded Albuquerque scene, and certainly offers up a nice, chill vibe that is quite welcome amid all the chaos these days.

A big thanks to Kevin for the interview, we look forward to many more to come in the future.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister