Ffrom the beginning, brewing industry icon Tomme Arthur has been on the lookout for The Lost Abbey’s forever home. In the heyday of the American craft-beer movement, he envisioned a charming European-style abbey in a rural North County location; a destination brewery, barrel house and tasting room where his Belgian-inspired sour and Monastic ales could be enjoyed in romantic, traditional environs. While he would still like to realize that dreamscape someday, his focus of late has been on finding a manufacturing facility with ample production capacity where he can establish a long-term tenancy following two years of twists and turns for his 18-year-old company.
The aforementioned saga began in 2022 when Arthur, The Lost Abbey’s co-founder and managing partner, determined the company’s footprint and production setup were far too large for the company’s current or future needs. He immediately went to work attempting to right-size the organization by cutting the square-footage of its San Marcos headquarters in half and looking to offload its large brewhouse to install something smaller. The plan was logical on its surface but difficult to execute, leading to a brass-tacks development in March 2023 wherein Arthur’s business partners, Gina and Vince Marsaglia, negotiated a split that saw them bring The Lost Abbey’s IPA-heavy sister brand, Port Brewing, under the umbrella of their primary business, Pizza Port Brewing.
This left Arthur with The Lost Abbey, its beer recipes and a trio of tasting rooms in San Marcos, Cardiff-by-the-Sea and downtown San Diego’s East Village. Glaringly missing from that list of assets was a brewery. Fortunately, Arthur was able to lean on longtime friends and colleagues from Mother Earth Brew Co., which was founded on Thibodo Road in Vista in 2010 and has maintained its original brewery location there since opening a second production facility in Nampa, Idaho in 2016. Mother Earth not only rented The Lost Abbey the space and equipment it needed to continue brewing, but also worked with Arthur and his team to construct a new shared tasting room offering both companies’ beers. Split down the middle to convey visual elements of both brands, that space opened in March. It’s done well for both parties, but The Lost Abbey’s days there are numbered.
While perfectly content cohabitating with Mother Earth, Arthur and longtime Finance Director Karl Bordine kept searching for a path forward for The Lost Abbey that would get them into a facility better suited to accomplish their company’s specific goals. As it turns out, that path spanned a mere three miles. Earlier this week, The Lost Abbey closed on a deal to move out of Mother Earth’s facility and into Eppig Brewing‘s 16,000 square-foot brewery on Keystone Way in south Vista.
“We are beyond excited to step into this space. Eppig laid out a beautiful and efficient facility that produced world-class beers, and it will allow us to continue to do the same at a scale that better fits our production needs,” says The Lost Abbey Head Brewer Colin Montgomery. “Moving again is tough. Mother Earth and the Thibodo brewery have treated us well, but overall this will open us up to bring more variety and some classic Lost Abbey beers back into play.”
If all goes as planned, The Lost Abbey will make its move in November and getting straight to work on the facility’s three-vessel, 30-barrel steam-fired system (pictured above). Arthur is looking to bring over some of The Lost Abbey’s foeders, and hopes to add a sour-beer packaging mechanism to go with the existing six-head canning line.
“The flexibility and efficiency of the space gets me excited. First, we were already making 60-barrel batches, but now we can do that in one day. Second, there are many small-batch beers that we continually struggle to get on the brew schedule, and we should not have issues with that moving forward,” says Arthur, referring to side projects like Holy Water, Tiny Bubbles and the Khárisma line of hard hop-infused teas. “We will also be marketing contract-brewing services and looking for potential partners.”
Arthur says he met with Eppig’s owners prior to moving out of his San Marcos HQ, but at the time the company was unable to provide The Lost Abbey sufficient production capacity. But since teaming with Global Beverage Ventures in November 2023 (via restructuring by brand manager West Coast Ventures & Resources), Eppig has had its core beers brewed out of AleSmith Brewing’s Miramar facility, along with offerings from several of GBV’s acquired brands: Mason Ale Works, Second Chance Beer Co. and Shoots Beer Co. This has left Eppig’s brewery, which has been sparingly used for small-batch beer production, open for a tenant. The Lost Abbey brings a proven brewing company, one which may be called upon to help produce some of the small-batch beers of GBV’s assorted brands outside of AleSmith. When asked if this development will result in The Lost Abbey being brought into the GBV fold, Arthur says his company is maintaining its independence.
Going beyond the brewery to the Eppig’s tasting room, which reopened last month after being closed (save for private events) since late last year, The Lost Abbey has discussed having its beers on tap with those of GBV. Or it may have a sampling space all its own within those four walls. Specifics on the beer-service component have yet to be determined and possibilities abound, including having a dual tasting-room concept like the one The Lost Abbey had with Mother Earth.
“We have worked with Mother Earth to build the business and collectively share the space, and it’s been cool to see people enjoying what we built together. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to be their next tenant,” says Arthur. “I really want to thank the entire Mother Earth family and team. Dan, Kam and Joelle provided us with an amazing opportunity to land on our feet post-move. We wouldn’t be here today without their support.”
The Lost Abbey is currently located at 2055 Thibodo Road in Vista, and will be moving to 1347 Keystone Way, Suite C, in Vista