This morning, Mikkeller Brewing San Diego (MBSD) leadership informed its staff that the company is going to close its Miramar brewery and tasting room. Despite the perceived finality of it all, the brand will continue long after MBSD has vacated its headquarters. Though it’s getting out of the production game, the company’s core beers will now be produced via a contract-brewing agreement with nearby AleSmith Brewing.
It was AleSmith’s 2014 move from the collection of Miramar business suites it originally operated out of to a much-larger 105,500-square-foot facility less than a mile west that freed up space for Mikkeller, a popular brand built on nomadic contract-brewing at breweries around the world, to establish its first brick-and-mortar.
With assistance from AleSmith staff—some of which moved over to become full-time Mikkeller employees—MBSD debuted to great fanfare in December of 2015. One of the most prolific local brewing operations, the company debuted multiple new beers on a weekly basis over several years, some of which were exclusively accessible by members of MBSD’s well-patronized family of members-only clubs.
In 2018, the company expanded its reach, opening a small tasting room on India Street in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood. That venue will remain open, as will Mikkeller’s long-running bar in San Francisco. MBSD’s beers are available on-tap as well as in cans and bottles at both locations.
The company cites two years of COVID conditions and rising costs within the industry as primary reasons for its decision to cease brewery operations in the U.S. and go back to contract-brewing. With MBSD’s headquarters closing and being put up for sale, the majority of its staff have been laid off, but several will remain to manage operations and staff the Little Italy venue.
“This has been a very hard decision for us to make and comes with a lot of heartache for the Mikkeller employees affected by the closing,” says Mikkeller founder Mikkel Bjergsø.”The hardships facing the craft-beer industry and the economy at large are known to anyone; supply chain issues, rising costs, and unstable market conditions post-pandemic just to name a few. Unfortunately, this means that it is just not sustainable anymore to keep operating our San Diego brewery.”
Outside the U.S., Mikkeller will continue to operate its three smaller breweries in Copenhagen and London, while maintaining contract production at De Proef Brouwerij.
Mikkeller Brewing San Diego’s tasting room is located at 2201 India Street in Little Italy