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(Courtesy Mikkeller)
Like so many breweries in the US, Covid-19 hasn’t been kind to Mikkeller. On October 19, 2020 Mikkeller announced that it was permanently closing its 10,000 square-foot brewery, taproom and restaurant located at Citi Field, home to the NY Mets. Thanks to the coronavirus the venue lost the thousands of fans who would normally be sampling beers from Mikkeller’s 60 taps.
And now citing the pandemic, Mikkeller has announced that it was ceasing operations at its brewery and tasting room in San Diego, California and returning to contract brewing for the US.
Mikkeller remains committed to the US craft beer market but San Diego-based AleSmith Brewing Company will be contract brewing Mikkeller beers going forward.
“This has been a very hard decision for us to make and comes with a lot of heartache for the Mikkeller employees affected by the closing, said Mikkeller founder Mikkel Bjergsø’’’
“The hardships facing the craft beer industry and the economy at large are known to anyone; supply chain issues, rising costs, and unstable market conditions post-pandemic just to name a few. Unfortunately, this means that it is just not sustainable anymore to keep operating our San Diego brewery.”
Contract brewing has long been part of Mikkeller’s success. The company started contract brewing in 2006 and still contract brews over 90% of the beer it sells globally.
Bjergsø emphasized that Mikkeller remains committed to distributors, customers and partners in the US.
To execute on this vision, Mikkeller has entered into a long-term partnership with San Diego’s iconic AleSmith Brewing Company to continue contract brewing its extensive portfolio of beers for the US market.
AleSmith Founder Peter Zien and Bjergsø began collaborating on beers in 2007, which ultimately led to Mikkeller’s purchase of AleSmith’s first brewery in 2016 – which was turned into Mikkeller Brewing San Diego.
“The one thing that makes the craft beer community different from so many other industries is the willingness to collaborate, help each other in hard times, and grow together,” added Bjergsø. “We built this company on that kind of cooperation from the very beginning over 15 years ago and moving forward will be no different.”
Apart from its main contract production at the Belgian brewery De Proef Brouwerji, and its new contract brewing partnership at AleSmith, Mikkeller still operates three smaller breweries in Copenhagen and London.
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(All image credits: Mikkeller)
