Let’s get this out of the way: The Lost Abbey isn’t going away. The iconic U.S. maker of barrel-aged Belgian-style ales is, however, attempting to sublease half of its 40,000 sq. ft. production space in San Marcos and sell its 30-barrel brewery and fermentation tanks.
Founder Tomme Arthur confirmed to Brewbound the news, which was first reported by SD Beer News.
Arthur told Brewbound that the goal is to simply to get smaller as The Lost Abbey doesn’t need such a large system to produce 8,000 barrels of beer annually for itself and sister brands Port Brewing, The Hop Concept, Tiny Bubbles and Kharisma Hard Tea. If he’s successful in offloading the larger system, The Lost Abbey will buy a smaller one, while also continuing to produce at Pizza Port. If not, the company will continue producing on the system.
The Lost Abbey operates taprooms in San Marcos, San Elijo, Cardiff-by-the-Sea and San Diego’s East Village. The company’s distribution territory will remain unchanged.
In a Facebook post today referencing All Saints Day, Arthur wrote that “for the first time in our company’s history, we’re growing down (getting smaller) on a warehouse and occupancy level.”
Arthur and his team believe the larger system “is costing us more than it should” in space, energy and repairs.
“Operating on a smaller system would afford us so much better flexibility in our production environment as well,” he added.
The Lost Abbey is “trying to be as small as we can possibly be because being big is tougher than nails right now,” Arthur wrote. Growth, he continued, “is expensive,” and The Lost Abbey has “always chased growth as the path to a bigger brighter future” since opening in 2006.
“Press releases used to tout major expansions, growth initiatives and territory launches,” Arthur wrote. “They were everywhere when the industry was huffing and puffing on irrational exuberance. This piece seems very boring when you compare the news. But it’s still very important news for us.”
Scaling down is part of a new 1-, 3- and 5-year vision that “relies less on growth at a time when growth is ridiculously challenging,” Arthur wrote. He noted that the beer industry over the last few years “has been massively impacted and contracted.” Craft beer’s competition for consumers has grown from wine and spirits to “numerous other options and even some legal drinking aged humans who have adopted a sober curious model of living” as well as “more breweries, alternative beverages and RTD things not malt based.”
“We, like so many of our friends, are not immune to this,” he wrote. “Congrats to those who are winning, props to those who have figured out their current realities and welcome to the party to everyone else who is pushing to make it through to the proverbial other side. We have many speed bumps ahead. But like moguls, there are ways to attack the bumps even as you’re going downhill.”
Those challenges have piled up daily, including a 60% malt increase, 20% CO2 increase (if you could even get it), rolling cardboard and paper increases.
Arthur wrote that “sometimes being in the race is more important than winning it.”
“So we’re working on being in the race by being able to show up each and every day,” he added.