Lost Abbey/Port Brewing
“For Sinners and Saints alike,” signals the creation of a line of newly branded beers from The Lost Abbey Brewery. These inspired beers will be made by Port Brewing Co. at their brewing facility in San Marcos, CA.”For Sinners and Saints alike,” signals the creation of a line of newly branded beers from The Lost Abbey Brewery. These inspired beers will be made by Port Brewing Co. at their brewing facility in San Marcos, CA.In the beginning there was Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They were told not to eat the fruit from the apple tree. It was off limits and the fruit was forbidden. They were tempted by the serpent and made a “choice” to eat from the tree. Their actions were not preordained but rather the actions of beings with free will. We have all been given free will and it is this notion of free will that affords each of us the opportunity to make choices in our lives. At every fork in the road, there are signs marking the struggle of Good vs. Evil. The Lost Abbey was imagined as part of a crusade in this ongoing story of Good vs. Evil beer. Everywhere we turn these days, there is a battle being waged between those who make good beer and those who make evil beer (bad beers). But, how did we get here? Why us? Why these beers? Do you want to join our crusade?
A few years and beers ago, Vince Marsaglia (one of the owners of Pizza Port) was inspired by the numerous Abbey Style beers that he tasted. An idea was born out of these beers and that idea was a brewery project called The Lost Abbey. For many years the project existed only as a name. It remained in concept form only. For Vince, there would be no “Real” Abbey property involved and therefore from the beginning was the brewery was “Lost.” Vince felt that there would be a range of beers produced with a nod to the monastic brewing tradition of Belgium. The one problem was his vision lacked someone who could make the beers. This changed in 1997 when Tomme Arthur was hired by Pizza Port Solana Beach. In November of that year he released Dubbel Overhead Abbey Ale which was the first Belgian Style beer ever brewed by Pizza Port.
A series of Overhead Ales was developed and many other Belgian inspired beers soon followed. Tomme gained a reputation in the brewing industry and with consumers for his interpretation of classic Belgian Style beers as well as a cult like following for some of the most imaginative free spirited beers brewed in the USA. The emergence of the burgeoning San Diego Breweries along with an American Craft Brewing scene spearheaded by breweries like Dogfis Head, Russian River, Southampton Public House, Avery, Allagash and Pizza Port helped foster a movement towards small scale single batch unique beers.
Tomme and Vince began formulating a plan to bring these beers to a wider audience after many years of small scale Pizza Port brewing. Beers such as Cuvee de Tomme, Le Woody, Late Harvest, SPF 8 and SPF 45 Saison and many others uniquely crafted beers would finally be made available on a larger scale allowing more people to taste the vision in each bottle. All of these creations have been developed with a flavor first philosophy of brewing. This method of brewing focuses efforts on process driven beers where thinking outside the box and equally as important, brewing outside the box are the hallmarks of a visionary style of brewing.
One of the biggest hurdles to making these beers more widely available was conquered in 2005 when Vince and Gina Marsaglia (owners of Pizza Port) formed a new brewery entity with Tomme Arthur and Jim Comstock of Comstock and Associates to open Port Brewing San Marcos. This new brewery facility is located in a warehouse in San Marcos, CA. that was formerly occupied by Stone Brewing Co. In this new facility both Port Brewing Beers (production beers for Pizza Port) and The Lost Abbey beers will be made.
This new brewing facility is a 3 vessel 30 bbl brewery capable of making over 5000 bbls of beer each year. In addition to the brewery equipment purchased from Stone, The Lost Abbey will open with an additional 80-100 American and French oak barrels that will be used for the aging and maturation of a Signature line of Non Denominational Ales- beers imagined and brewed to no one particular style.
With another nod to Belgium, The Lost Abbey beers produced will be bottle conditioned and packaged with a hood and wire cork finish that is very common in Monastic and Farmhouse Ale production. This style of finishing bottles is more expensive and labor intensive than a classic crown bottle cap but worthy of our time and attention.
Many of the beers that have been produced at Pizza Port over the last 8 years will be converted to The Lost Abbey brand enabling these beers to be marketed and sold across a wider audience of restaurants, shops, bars and pubs. Your favorite Pizza Port beers will remain unchanged but will be repackaged and branded as beers of The Lost Abbey as we integrate them into a new and evolving line where the sky is the limit.
We ask you to join us on our crusade to make locally brewed beers in the most imaginative and flavorful ways possible. While we are in the business of making beer, we also believe that we are foremost in the business of imagining all things possible and our goal as brewers and imaginers is to cultivate and develop the fruits of our fertile imaginations. We believe there are no boundaries to what we have set out to achieve and we know that those who seek out The Lost Abbey will be rewarded in the end.