What happens when a Vermont brewery stops brewing? Lost Nation tries to find its way
MORRISVILLE ― The stainless-steel brew tanks at Lost Nation Brewing are tall and gleaming, but barren. No dank scent of fermenting hops and malt permeates the spacious brewing room.
Nearly 50,000 cans touting the Morrisville brewer’s signature beer, the hop-forward Mosaic IPA, rest on pallets in the brewery’s warehouse. Like the brew tanks, the thousands of 16-ounce cans sit empty.
Fourteen taps in the taproom pour adventurous beers. None are Lost Nation beers.
Lost Nation Brewing halted brewing a year ago. The brewery’s beers − aside from a few tart ales meant to age in the bottle − are nowhere to be found at the taproom.
Business began ebbing at Lost Nation just before the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and the temporary shutdown and ensuing labor shortage hurt even more. Co-founder Jamie Griffith opted out of the business in November 2022, leaving his one-time business partner, Allen Van Anda, to oversee brewing, the taproom and Lost Nation’s restaurant.
Something had to give. Lost Nation last brewed beer in January 2023.
“It’s 60 to 90 days to make a batch of beer,” Van Anda said on a recent evening in Lost Nation’s taproom. “I didn’t know if I would be here in 60 to 90 days.”
Popular IPA and pilsner
Van Anda, who has worked in the brewing world since the 1990s, hopes to resume brewing Mosaic IPA and a Czech-style lager in early February, with a pilsner to follow soon after. In the meantime, Lost Nation is a brewery almost completely devoid of its own brews.
Griffith and Van Anda opened Lost Nation Brewing in 2013 after both brewed in the early days of von Trapp Brewery down Vermont 100 in Stowe. Lost Nation thrived as the Vermont beer scene exploded in the 2010s. The brewery’s Mosaic IPA capitalized on the state’s frontrunning status in the popular India pale ale realm, while Lost Nation’s easygoing pilsner and sour gose brew also drew accolades. The beer was available not only at the Morrisville taproom but canned in stores throughout the region.
The brewery that sits along the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail attracted runners and bicyclists to its outdoor beer garden in nice weather and snowmobilers and fat-tire cyclists to its cozy taproom in winter. Lost Nation drew up to 200 people at a time in warm weather thanks to the wafting scents from its outdoor meat smoker.
Business began slowing in the late 2010s, according to Van Anda. Then the problems began to snowball.
“The pandemic really was the catalyst,” Van Anda said. Lost Nation did capitalize on government funding, putting $130,000 into improvements in the beer garden that provided a relatively safe place for patrons to gather while the COVID-19 virus raged.
The pandemic led to a worker shortage that continues to manifest in Vermont and nationwide. “It was like a one-two punch,” according to Van Anda.
Griffith stepped aside at the end of 2022. “The partnership dissolved” was all Van Anda would say about the split. (Griffith could not be reached for comment.)
As the brewery continued to struggle, Lost Nation’s brewer left for another job because Van Anda couldn’t afford to pay him anymore. Kyle Miller, who joined Lost Nation as executive chef in 2021, wanted to keep the kitchen going, so the restaurant, beer garden and taproom continued.
Lost Nation’s once-robust workforce of 48 full- and part-time employees dwindled to five, leaving Van Anda to oversee all aspects of the business.
“There was only one of me,” he said, so the brewing duties had to go.
Beer industry struggles nationwide
It’s rare for a brewer to stop brewing in Vermont. With 78 beer makers, Vermont ranked first in the nation in craft breweries per capita in 2022, according to the national Brewers Association.
There have been signs of a crumbling craft-beer scene even in beer-loving Vermont. Collaborative Brewing in Waitsfield struggled to emerge from the pandemic and shut down two years ago. Vermont Homebrew Supply, the Winooski business that helped spur the state’s beer-making culture nearly three decades ago, announced on social media Jan. 16 that it will be closing.
Signs of erosion in the brewing industry are even more glaring nationally. NBC News, citing industry group Beer Marketer’s Insights, reported that beer shipments in the U.S. in 2023 would likely fall below 200 million barrels for the first time since 1999.
“The craft-beer boom of the 2010s has petered out,” according to NBC News, “and there are now so many varieties of alcoholic beverages available that the consumer may now be overwhelmed.” Beverages such as canned cocktails and hard seltzers have made inroads in recent years.
In its report “The 2023 Year in Beer,” the Brewers Association referred to “all signs pointing to production being down in 2023, the first time outside of a unique 2020 that independent brewers have seen such a decline.”
“Craft’s challenges come in the context of a slow-growth environment for all beer,” according to the Brewers Association report. “Pricing, demographics, and marketing/branding continue to be factors in beer’s continued share loss within beverage alcohol.”
Van Anda sees that slide as well.
“Consumers,” he said, “haven’t returned to their old habits.”
Business for sale, in better position
Van Anda said there are simply too many breweries in Vermont and the U.S. When Lost Nation began just over a decade ago there were 3,000 American breweries, Van Anda said, but now there are 11,000.
Van Anda has been brewing for almost all of his adult life. He does miss some of the beers he helped create.
“We have some great recipes and made a lot of great beers,” he said.
Miller, the executive chef, said some patrons during the “transition time” have asked what happened to the brewery’s beers. He said Lost Nation has received emails and Instagram messages from customers worrying that the brewery has closed.
Lost Nation Brewing remains, but it is for sale. Van Anda said he’s open to finding investors while he remained on board.
Why should someone buy a struggling brewery? Van Anda said the business has diversified, with Miller making his mark in the kitchen and bartender/musician Phil Rosenblum growing Lost Nation’s musical offerings, which occur in the snug taproom as well as the adjoining 5,000-square-foot warehouse. Rosenblum calls that space a full-blown music venue with a drum set, Hammond organ and PA system he contributed.
Lost Nation hosts farmers' markets, birthday celebrations and other occasions for community gathering. The business, according to Van Anda, is better positioned to weather future economic storms.
“What we’ve been able to do with nothing is pretty incredible,” Van Anda said. “We have a pretty good thing here.”
If you go
Lost Nation Brewing, 87 Old Creamery Road, Morrisville. Noon-7 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday; live music 5-7 p.m. Thursdays and 8 p.m.-midnight Fridays (kitchen closed after 7 p.m.). (802) 851-8041, www.lostnationbrewing.com
Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont's Lost Nation Brewing halts beer-making after COVID-19 pandemic
