The pandemic has been challenging for every brewery in San Diego County and beyond. Considering the plethora of obstacles such as spikes in COVID-19 infection rates, loss of draft-account revenue and ever-changing governmental mandates, it’s remarkable that only a handful of local brewing companies have gone out of business. The increasing vaccination rate and San Diego’s transition into the orange tier brought with it hope that the county’s beermakers had weathered the storm, but yesterday, Dan Jachimowicz took to social media to announce that his Longship Brewery is among the pandemic’s many casualties.
“Our great and wonderful journey will soon be coming to an end. This past year has been a difficult one for many of our friends in the industry, and our story is no different,” said Jachimonwicz in a video accompanying his post. “I’ve had to make the difficult decision to close and sell Longship Brewery. It was not a quick decision. It was definitely not an easy one, but unfortunately it was just one that had to be made.”
The Mira Mesa brewing company’s owner and brewmaster went on to thank all of the crew members who have worked at the company over the years, saying Longship would not have become all that it was without their contributions.
Longship Brewery debuted in the summer of 2016 in a 4,450-square-foot corner industrial suite outfitted to celebrate Viking culture. Tap handles adorned with long ships, communal tables, paintings, swords, shields and custom drinking horns helped convey the Nordic theme, as did a number of obscure beer styles unearthed and brewed—along with IPAs and other popular styles—on the company’s 10-barrel system. Last year, its German-style bock, Ragnabock, took gold at the San Diego International Beer Competition.
“It’s hard to pinpoint who to thank amongst the massive amounts of people that have been part of this journey,” said Jachimowicz when reached for comment. “I would primarily like to thank all of our supporters over the years that have been the driving force in keeping us going. I would also like to thank our lead brewer, Chuck Nation, who joined the Longship tea five years ago this month and has been with me since the beginning. I want to wish everyone well and wish the other breweries the best of luck in the future.”
Longship’s tasting room will remain open until its final day of operation on Friday, April 30. A final beer-release event will take place on Saturday, April 24, and details about that will be posted to the company’s social-media accounts soon. Longship’s hours of operation are 2 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, 2 to 8 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays and 2 to 7 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, consult the company’s Facebook page.
Longship Brewery is located at 10320 Camino Santa Fe, Suite C, in Mira Mesa