Airdale Brewing Company Shuts Down

Shot of Airdale's Angry Panda at the beer's release, late 2011.

Airdale Brewing Company has shut its doors after four years in business. This morning, all five Airdale employees were called in and fired. The two salesmen, the accountant, the delivery driver, and Dave Lusk, former brewmaster and co-founder. According to Lusk, the contract brewery started experiencing trouble in November 2011, and business had been in decline ever since.

An Airdale office is located on Miramar Road, but they brew in Irvine, making them not technically a San Diego brewery. From our end at West Coaster, we were fond of Airdale’s odd and tasty beer lineup. We were rooting for them to relocate the brewery to SD, and we’re sorry to see them go. The brewery’s biggest seller was by far Dark & Stormy, a mean roasty 9.5% American Imperial Stout.

Lusk suspects the contract brewing model Airdale subscribed to was expensive and cut too deeply into company profits. From a separate source, there is a rumor that Airdale may attempt to soldier on with a new distributor – but it is unconfirmed as of now. Airdale’s Tony Clarke declined comment when called this afternoon. We’ll keep you updated when we hear more.

Got more info? Contact mike@westcoastersd.com