Hello, dear beer friends! It’s been a few years since I fired up this blog, but after the traction I’ve gotten on recent social media posts about financial struggles, I wanted to go into more depth than a social media post can really handle. Apologies in advance that this is going to be a wall of text, but I hope you’ll read it if you want to see Mutantis Cult Brewery continue to exist!

“Why don’t you just distribute your beer to a wider area?”

One of the most common responses I’ve been seeing to the news that Mutantis is struggling is, “you should sell your beer in [insert place that is an inconvenient distance from the brewery].” Washington, California, eastern Oregon, Canada, places on the east coast, etc. It seems sensible on the surface–if there aren’t enough people in Portland who want to drink my beer, then bring the beer to other places, right?

It’s, um, a bit more complicated than that, so I’d like to take some time to explain why that is not a viable solution for my struggling lil brewery.

Been there, done that, don’t EVER want to go back.

Before I opened Mutantis, I was a co-owner and the founding head brewer at a MUCH bigger gluten-free brewery. That brewery’s vision was basically to become the biggest and most widely-available GF beer brand in the USA, and achieving it took a devastating toll on me–emotionally and financially!

Running a low-margin, high-volume, super-corporate beer factory turned out to be poison to my neurodivergent artist’s spirit. It was all spreadsheets, deadlines, meetings-that-should-have-been-emails, and grueling 80-hour work weeks. The pay was just above poverty level. There was constant drama between the other owners and employees. I had no life, no money, a severe drinking problem, and no hope: no matter how much beer we sold (and we sold TONS), thing only seemed to get worse for me.

Being the head brewer at a big, fast-growing brewery was basically Hell for me.

After 5 years, I sold out my stake in the company for a little bit more than I put in. Getting out literally saved my life–I am certain I would have unalived myself if I had tried to stick it out.

So WHY, in G’Broagran’s sweet name, would I turn around and start another brewery? Because I had a plan for one that was to be the exact opposite in every way!

My original plan for Mutantis was to be a small neighborhood gluten-free brewpub, with NO plans to EVER expand beyond Portland.

That business plan involved no canning at all(!), and only the occasional limited bottle release. No wholesale(!) beyond selling kegs to a few influential bars and restaurants around town. Just 7 days a week of being a quirky fun gathering place for folks to drink beer on draft, and geek out about all things gluten-free. All my energy would go into brewing the best and most diverse selection of gluten-free beer in the world, and organizing fun stuff for the community–NOT working on a canning line 20 hours a week and constantly looking for ways to cut costs and improve efficiency.

I thought it was a beautiful vision, and so did my bank and the SBA, since they were all too happy to fund me with a low-interest small business loan. My projections were thoroughly-vetted, supported by industry data, and looked sustainable even under very pessimistic (pre-pandemic) assumptions.

Then COVID redefined “pessimistic”.

COVID hit when I was in the final stages of my build-out. By the time I realized my entire model was going to have to shift to an all-packaging model, I’d already spent my startup capital, and had no funds left for things like a canning line or a walk-in cooler. I figured out a no-budget solution vis a vis those “big gold screw-top crowlers” that some of you may remember, and then eventually crowdfunded the very slow, very manual canning machine I currently use. The hope was always that it would just a temporary solution until the pandemic “ended” (lol), and I could return to the original model of a draft-only, taproom-centric brewpub.

I think y’all know how that’s worked out 🙃.

Here in 2024, canned beer makes up about 75% of my sales, and more than half of that is wholesale.

The margins on it are razor-thin, and the amount of time it takes me is absurd: at least 3 full days of my 7-day workweek is spent dealing with canning and delivering beer to my wholesale customers!

My scrappy canning machine takes about 1.5 minutes to fill a single can, which is ridiculously slow compared to a “real” canning line that fills 30-50 cans per minute. If I work really hard and don’t have any brewing or maintenance or taxes (etc.) to work on, I can barely fill and deliver even 30 cases (of 12 cans each) in a week. That is the absolute ceiling.

It does not take much demand before my ability to fulfill orders is maxed out.

“So hire help,” I hear you say. Great idea! Except that I can presently barely afford to pay myself enough to keep my bills paid, and I would have to more than TRIPLE the amount of beer I sell in cans if I wanted to afford even one employee at 30 hours per week. That increased volume would do nothing more than cover the cost of that employee, and I would have to somehow work even more than the 7-days-a-week I already do, just to keep up with the brewing, delivering, and sales calls to maintain the increased volume. Just to make the same subsistence-level wage I currently do.

Even if I could afford better canning equipment (which I can’t), the shift to a wholesale-driven business model would defeat the entire purpose I had in starting Mutantis in the first place–and would put me right back in the equally-untenable situation I had at my first brewery.

If the choice was between pivoting to a high-volume wholesale-driven business, or closing, then closing is what I’d choose.

But is that the choice I have to make? I’d like to think not!

If I could simply get the taproom back to the sales numbers it was doing in the summer of 2023, that would be just about sustainable now that I don’t have any employees. A little bit more and I could afford to hire someone part-time and actually take a day off every week (instead of only on major holidays or due to sickness/injury/weather disasters, like I do currently).

It seems like it should be achievable, since I’ve technically already achieved it (for at least a few months), but no matter what I try to get more people in the door, I have been getting significantly fewer instead. 😣

I’ve tried all kinds of events–comedy open mics, art markets, book releases, craft nights, networking events, and social meetups for trans folks as well as celiacs. I’ve tried advertising, donating beer and/or gift certificates to local charities and events, and partnering/collaborating with other local businesses. I’ve experimented with different open hours, offering discounts, happy hours, and sought-after taproom-exclusive beers (like my Piña Colada Smoothie Sour).

All this effort, and my 2024 June-Sept sales are still down almost 20% compared to 2023.

I don’t want to close, but I honestly don’t know how much longer I can keep going like this. Working 7 days a week, doing things I specifically sought to avoid doing, and still barely scraping by financially is hard to sustain when things are trending in a POSITIVE direction. When things are trending DOWN, it starts getting hard even to fake a smile.

The good news is, YOU can help!

Aside from visiting the Mutantis taproom more often (which I know isn’t an option for many people), there are lots of no-cost things y’all can do to help:

• Spread the word about Mutantis to friends and family.
• Help me get some media attention in the local press.
• Help me connect with groups or organizations that are looking for a place to host events.
• Throw a party of your own here.

Also, if my limited hours aren’t convenient for you to plan a visit, I do offer off-hours appointments! Or if you have any other ideas about how to attract more folks to the taproom, holler at me–I will try ANYTHING at this point!

I do appreciate the offers for volunteer labor, and the suggestions of other places to sell beer to–these things can help for a bit in the short-term. But the only thing that will ensure the long-term survival of Mutantis is getting more people into the taproom to drink draft beer.

Thank you for reading, thank you for supporting my weird gay lil gluten-free brewery, and sorry for being a downer. Cheers to brighter days ahead, friends!