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(Courtesy Melvin Brewing)
In November of 2018, Melvin Brewing opened a brewpub in downtown San Diego’s East Village area…. In hindsight its entrance into the uber-competitive Sothern California market couldn’t have been more poorly timed.
In 2015, Melvin Brewing was hot having been named 2015’s Small Brewer of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
Their reputation grew as they grew and 2017 The Alpine, Wyoming-based brewer was honored as Brewery Group of the Year at the GABF. Melvin’s trademark bus was all over Denver during festival week that year, (sometimes with marching bend, other times not).
They were awarded Breakout Brewery of the Year that same year by Brewbound a noted industry website. They were beloved for their bravado, bad-boy audacity and ‘to die for’ brewing skills and announced plans to continue expanding their existing regional brewpub imprint to major beer cities like Denver and San Diego.
Then in 2018 Melvin Brewing was caught up in storm of its own making…
Reports surfaced that one of its employees has inappropriately touched a server at Menace Brewing in Bellingham, Washington. That employee, who is no longer with the organization, was reportedly a brewery co-founder and in spite of what could have been better orchestrated apologies from the organization, the incident severely damaged its reputation.
Bars around the country began boycotting beers from the acclaimed Wyoming brewery. And Melvin enlisted the aid of industry icon Peter Bouckaert who in an effort to upgrade the brewery’s damaged image joined the fast growing company’s board.
“It’s a motivator for me to see an organization learning. I really believe I can add a lot,” New Belgium alumnus now with Purpose Brewing, Bouckaert explained at the time.
Now Melvin Brewing has shuttered the gleaming 5,500 sq. ft. downtown San Diego brewpub, according to the West Coaster.
“Melvin Brewing San Diego has closed its doors,” founder Jeremy Tofte wrote in a Facebook post. “It has been an absolute pleasure being part of the East Village Neighborhood and all that it has to offer.”
And maybe it was just hubris on Melvin’s part that led them to think that it could enter a local craft beer mecca like San Diego and win to begin with…
But for a company reeling from the taint of sexual misconduct, Melvin’s timing entering the SoCal market may have been doomed to begin with…Even if God sits on your board.
