Yesterday, multiple online outlets reported that Mother Earth Brew Co.‘s brewery is for sale, hypothesizing the availability of that equipment meant the company was in dire straits or planning to move out the Vista industrial park it’s occupied since 2010. It is true that Mother Earth is looking to sell its 20-barrel brewhouse, cellar, silos and other production-related equipment or enter into a lease-to-purchase agreement that includes the physical space. That said, ownership is adamant that this does not signal hard times for the business nor an exodus from its San Diego County headquarters.
According to Kamron Khannakhjavani, a partner and member of the family that founded the company, yesterday’s news stories stemmed from the sharing of a marketing sheet he had developed detailing the items that are for sale (see below), which was emailed to prospective buyers. An image of that document was featured in an article that was posted online hours later, followed by another based on that initial piece later in the day.
Khannakhjavani believes a lack of context led to a misinterpretation of the sale. Nevertheless, he instantly began receiving questions from colleagues and even a Vista government official who had read the articles. Those individuals were concerned Mother Earth was leaving Vista, in serious financial trouble or going out of business altogether. Such sentiments were also shared on social media by individuals who had read the articles.
Looking to clear things up and share details about the company’s future in Vista, Khannakhjavani drafted an official statement.
“Yesterday, an email was dispatched regarding the availability of our Vista brewery. Since then, there has been speculation on the web and on social media about what that means for Mother Earth’s future,” said Khannakhjavani. “The truth is that after opening a regional production facility in 2017 that shoulders the lion’s share of production, it just doesn’t make sense to operate two separate production facilities. The Vista facility was never built from the ground up to function as a high-volume production brewery, but rather to remain a site for R&D and innovation. As we assess our production needs going into 2025, it just doesn’t make sense to continue operating multiple facilities of that scale. In other words, we aren’t leaving, we are simply reducing our footprint.”
During Mother Earth’s early years, the company grew from one of San Diego County’s first nanobreweries into a full-on manufacturing facility with a tasting room, homebrew store, warehouse, administrative space and more. Since 2016, when Mother Earth opened a second manufacturing facility in Nampa, Idaho, ownership gradually scaled back its operating space in Vista. The company currently operates multiple contiguous suites within its complex, amounting to around 12,000 square feet.
Khannakhjavani says he is in the process of renegotiating a lease that will keep the company in its longtime home for more than seven years, but wants to get down to three suites totaling roughly 7,400 square feet. That space would still include the public tasting room that Mother Earth originally launched last March as a shared venue with then co-tenant The Lost Abbey Brewing. That collaboration recently came to a close when Lost Abbey headman Tomme Arthur signed on to move production of his company’s beers to the nearby Vista facility originally opened by Eppig Brewing in 2019, leaving the taproom all to Mother Earth.
“It’s important for us to have a home base where we can continue to connect with the community where we have built our brand,” says Khannakhjavani.
“I get that brewery closures are salacious news these days, and there couldn’t be a more blatant signal of a struggle than a brewery for-sale ad, but fortunately Mother Earth is not part of that story. Our business is healthy, and our roots are in San Diego. I want all our customers, fans, cohorts and vendors alike to remain confident in our growth plan and our tried-and-true products.”
And he wants entrepreneurs in the beer space to email him if they would like to discuss purchasing the lightly used pieces of brewery equipment he has on offer, which are detailed here.
Mother Earth Brew Co. is located at 2055 Thibodo Road in Vista