Nearly three weeks after shuttering its taproom, production has ceased at California’s Mendocino Brewing Company’s Ukiah-based facility.
According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the 35-year-old beer company has shut down production and laid off its sales force.
Speaking with Brewbound, Columbia Distributing spokeswoman Lindsi Taylor confirmed that the Oregon-based wholesaler, which operates a distribution warehouse in Santa Rosa that carried Mendocino offerings, hasn’t received product from the brewery since December and believes it has shut down operations.
“We have less than 100 cases and only three kegs left in the warehouse,” she said. “We haven’t seen anything since December. We had a couple of loads scheduled for January, but neither of the orders were filled.”
Brewbound has also learned that the company’s hometown wholesaler in Ukiah, DBI Beverage, is no longer selling the brand after moving through its inventory of products.
Mendocino shuttered its Ale House in Ukiah — California’s first brewpub — on January 13 and halted production at its New York subsidiary, Olde Saratoga Brewing Co. (Releta Brewing Company LLC).
Jennifer Howard, property manager for Stewart’s Shops, which leases the 40,000 sq. ft. building that housed Olde Saratoga to Mendocino, said her company is working with Mendocino “to allow them to continue on as a tenant.”
“The ball is in their court at this point,” she said.
Howard declined to go into detail about her talks with Mendocino. However, she said Stewart’s Shops has received calls from more than “two dozen breweries” about the possibility of taking over the space. She said she has referred them to Mendocino, which still holds the lease to the property.
“We’re not shopping it, per se,” she said. “We want Mendocino to stay, but that’s a decision that they have to make.
“I want a tenant, and I’d love for them to stay,” she continued, “but I don’t have anything to market at this point because there’s equipment in there. And that equipment is secured by funding from a bank.”
Meanwhile, the financial and legal trouble for the two breweries’ owner, Vijay Mallya, continue as he continues to fight extradition from London back to India, where he is facing charges of fraud and money laundering in excess of $1 billion.
Mallya has remained in headlines. Earlier this week, the Bombay High Court requested that the tycoon’s luxury Airbus A319 be removed from the Mumbai airport due to blocking a parking lot. And United Spirits, which had partnered with Mallya, failed to find a buyer for 13 of the liquor barron’s properties, including villas in Mumbai, Goa and Delhi.