Message from Lightning Brewery:
“We have been quiet for awhile and that was to allow us to get a better handle on reinventing our business. We also did not want to interject a lot of confusion on our story of retrenching and reinventing our business. After 10+ years at it we were unable to show a profit crafting and selling what we and others think are some really great beers. This is in a large part due to dealing with distributors that have price-pointed nearly everyone against larger craft breweries that have economies of scale.
For instance, we’ve seen craft six-packs “on-sale” at our local Sprouts for $7.99. Standard margins of about 1/3 means that the grocer is paying $5.32 and the brewery is selling to the distributor at $3.54 per six-pack or about $14.20/case. You should know that at $20 per case we were at or below our cost of goods, (i.e., all the ingredients in the beer including packaging), and we needed to increase our pricing to $25 per case or $6.25 per six-pack in order to compete. You can see the conundrum.
After we were unable to sell the total business as a functioning brewery last year, we chose to enter into an equipment sale to an Orange County brewery. Much of that sold equipment is being resold to other breweries, and the purchaser is keeping some for their own use.
Now Lightning will scale down, and continue to provide stellar craft beers for you in the comfort of the tasting room! We’ll still offer fresh tap beers, growler fills, bottles, (and maybe even cans in the future). Look for announcements of our special brews in the future.”
Come Visit Us In The Tasting Room
SPECIAL HOLIDAY HOURS
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Christmas Eve & Christmas Day | CLOSED
New Year’s Eve | 1-6 pm
New Year’s Day | CLOSED
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REGULAR TASTING ROOM HOURS
Wednesday | Thursday 4-8 pm
Friday | Saturday 1-8 pm
Sunday 1-6 pm
LIGHTNING BREWERY
Balancing the Art & Science of Beer
13200 Kirkham Way, Suite 106 | Poway, California 92064
Phone: 858-513-8071
LightningBrew.com
Terry Bunch
