Most Earth businesses measure progress by getting bigger. Tomme Arthur keeps trying to make his smaller. Hence The Lost Abbey leaving Vista: the company will move out of its brewery at 1347 Keystone Way and into a smaller, more cost-effective home at the end of 2026, Arthur told San Diego Beer News in a story published Wednesday, Sept. 23.
He went public partly to quiet rumors that the company might be going out of business. It isn’t, he says.
Why is The Lost Abbey leaving Vista?
The Keystone Way building is a 16,000-square-foot brewery with a 30-barrel brewhouse and a large cellar, originally built by Eppig Brewing. It can make about 10,000 barrels of beer a year. Arthur’s target is about 2,000.
“For much of 2026, we have been contract brewing for other partners and trying to fill the void with beer. While tanks got filled, that didn’t really do much to assist our bottom line,” Arthur told San Diego Beer News. “Rent for the space was too prohibitive and occupancy far higher than normal. In short, we were back to a building – like our original home in San Marcos – that cost too much. Something had to change.”
He has negotiated an exit deal with his landlord that lets The Lost Abbey keep brewing there for the next few months before moving at the end of the year. The new location hasn’t been found yet. Arthur is asking North County property owners with a suitable space to email him.
“When we move our brewing base of operations, it will not mean less Lost Abbey beer,” he said. “In fact, the goal is to continue producing about 2,000 barrels of beer per year and define a new home for 2027 and beyond.”
Growing down, a short history
Arthur calls the strategy “growing down.” Here is how San Diego Beer News has tracked it:
- 2022: Arthur decides the company’s footprint and production setup are too big and starts trying to shrink the San Marcos headquarters, per a 2024 report.
- March 2023: Partners Gina and Vince Marsaglia take sister brand Port Brewing under Pizza Port Brewing. Arthur keeps The Lost Abbey, its recipes and three tasting rooms, but no brewery.
- Next stop: The Lost Abbey becomes a tenant at Mother Earth Brew Co.’s Vista brewery, using its 20-barrel brewhouse. A shared tasting room opens in March 2024.
- December 2024: Brewing moves across town to the former Eppig production facility on Keystone Way, alongside House of Mason, SDBN reported in 2025.
- 2025: House of Mason moves out to rely on contract brewing, leaving The Lost Abbey as the sole operator. Arthur says he had to buy the brewing and cellar equipment.
- Sept. 23, 2026: The exit from Keystone Way is announced.
Too big, move. Too awkward, move. Too big again, move again. From an alien anthropological perspective, this checks out: the goal never changed, only the buildings did.
What happens to the Vista tasting room
Arthur says The Lost Abbey will announce plans for winding down the Vista tasting room once the landlord agreement is final. He expects a warehouse sale of beer and other items that won’t make the move. Real estate agents are marketing the building to new tenants. If no one takes it, the brewing equipment could go to auction, something Arthur said he would hate to see.
“All of these steps are calculated to preserve our work and emerge on the other side in a better place,” he said. “Ultimately, paying the right amount of rent each month based on the size of the business is a model we must embrace.”
The four satellite tasting rooms in East Village, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Miramar and San Elijo aren’t part of the move. SanDiegoVille notes that The Lost Abbey’s website still lists Vista as a location. Vista’s beer map keeps shifting, too: The Roadies Brewing is returning to the city with new partners.
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