Zeta Beer was born in 2014. Manolo had been making beer at home for some time, experimenting, and his friend Carlos worked for one of those large brands, in Denmark, with responsibility for such a monotonous issue as energy performance. The cause convinced them: Why not set up a small Valencian craft brewery. No sooner said than done, they set out to assume an investment that involved favours from family members, and loans. Craft, yes, but professional: safe (health-wise) and stable (homogeneous flavour and colour, to make it appeal to distributors and customers). It was necessary to communicate and to sell, sufficient reason for Guillermo Lagardera to join the project as the third and final partner.
“When we started out we were small. We didn’t know what we would be, what we would end up being.” Zeta, the name, arose from the local reference to having a cerveseta (cervecita, or beer). They chose a minimalist design, to stretch their scant resources and to feel comfortable. Remnants of the original logo and concept remain in the brand today. However, and after taking a step towards professionalisation with individual designs by Lawerta, the company needed to take a qualitative leap based on visual and commercial imagery. “We had a contact, an exchange with the Andalusian craft beer, Río Azul. We liked what they were doing in this respect. The surprise was that the person doing it was Valencian.”