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Lost Province Brewing Celebrates Five Years in Boone, Announce Expansion That Will Begin in 2020

By Nathan Ham

This weekend marks the fifth anniversary of Lost Province Brewing Company opening its doors in downtown Boone and the celebration also announced some exciting news for local craft beer fans in the High Country.

The brewery is an independent, family-owned and operated brewery that first opened its doors to customers on August 8, 2014. On Thursday night, Lost Province had a special night of drinks, pizzas and more to celebrate making it to the fifth anniversary.

“We had a great turnout last night. We started the celebration of our anniversary week and will continue with food specials through the weekend and brought back two favorite pizzas that are no longer on the menu,” said owner Lynne Mason. “We are also bringing back some musicians that have been with us since the beginning to play Friday and Saturday night. We’re just continuing the celebration and appreciative of our local community for their support over the years.”

Looking ahead to the very near future, Mason said that Lost Province Brewing will be expanding their brewing capabilities and adding a tasting room at 289 Daniel Boone Drive, a location that came available after Appalachian Mountain Brewery decided to not renew their lease since they are also expanding to a larger location. The original location in downtown Boone will still remain open.

In the summer of 2020, the larger production brewery will allow for a 20-barrel brewing system that will produce 4,000 barrels a year, which will be four times as much as the current production rate. The new site will also include a canning line to continue making those delicious beers portable. The canning operation began at the original location in December of 2018. Currently, kegs and cans are distributed across the High Country as well as markets including Asheville, Hickory, Greensboro, and Charlotte.

“We’re really excited about what the future holds. Everything will stay the same downtown, we will continue producing about 1,000 barrels at our current location but the new location will let us produce about 4,000 barrels a year so it will be our real production facility,” Mason said.

The tasting room will include about 20 seats and will be open on Friday evenings and on the weekend.

The town of Boone granted the special use permit for the new location on August 1.

“At this point, we will be able to take occupancy of the new building on June 1, 2020, and we hope to be operational by August 1, 2020, so we have an exciting year ahead and we’re really looking forward to that,” Mason said.

Lost Province Brewing had been looking for a new space for this production expansion for over a year and a half.

“We’re looking forward to being in that location and producing more beer,” Mason added.

In addition to the new location, Mason says that the downtown Lost Province Brewing area will soon have an all-season covered porch area with a rooftop deck on top of the porch.

Fun Facts about Lost Province Brewing

  • Pays all employees at least a living wage for Watauga County;
  • Employees over 50 employees which includes 23 Full-Time positions;
  • Provides Full-Time employees with benefits including paid time off, sick leave, health insurance, and optional dental insurance and vision insurance;
  • Purchases local and organic foods from local farms and makes most menu items in-house including pizza dough, sourdough bread, rolls, pizza sauce, sausage and desserts:
  • Supports other local business by doing business with other local businesses;
  • Hires local musicians to make Lost Province a destination for great music, featuring Live Music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights starting at 7:30 pm;
  • Supports local non-profit organizations and community groups working to make the High Country a better place to live;
  • Hosts “Get Lost for a Cause” on the second Tuesday of each month. “Get Lost for a Cause” partners with local non-profit organizations and community groups dedicated to making the High Country a more vibrant, healthy and just place to live. Lost Province donates 10% of sales on the day of the event and a portion of proceeds from sales of a beer for the entire month.
  • Integrates the use of eco-friendly materials and reusable materials,
  • Recycles all spent grain and pre-consumer vegetable waste for animal feed or to be made into compost

The new Lost Province Brewing facility will be located here at where Appalachian Mountain Brewery’s cidery operation is currently.