The Founders

• Tomme Arthur, Co-Founder, Director of Brewery Operations
• Jim Comstock, Co-Founder, Chief Financial Officer
• Gina Marsaglia, Co-Founder & Chairman
• Vince Marsaglia, Co-Founder & Board Member

The Staff

• Gwen Conley, Quality Assurance Manager
• David Johnson, Distribution Manager
• Mike Rodriguez, Head Brewer

Tomme Arthur, Co-Founder & Director of Brewery Operations

A native San Diegan, Tomme returned home to San Diego in 1995 after earning his Bachelor of Arts in English from Northern Arizona University where he cultivated his passion for brewing. In March of 1996, he began his professional brewing career at the now defunct Cervecerias La Cruda (The Hangover Brewery) in downtown San Diego. Working under the guidance of Troy Hojel, Tomme developed his passion for brewing flavor driven beers. The two brewers worked on many new recipes and processes that Tomme still uses today. Cervecerias La Cruda earned a Gold Medal at the 1996 Great American Beer Festival and at that point it was only the second Gold Medal earned at this prestigious competition by a San Diego brewery.

After La Cruda closed it doors in March of 1997, Tomme went to work for White Labs in San Diego. Working with Chris and Lisa White, Tomme spent his days selling yeast and developing product as he waited patiently for the right brewing job to become available. In May of 1997 he was hired by Pizza Port in Solana Beach where he remained the Head Brewer until June of 2005 when he was named Director of Brewery Operations for Pizza Port.

In addition to promoting San Diego as a great beer city, Tomme worked to create many unique beers and his ongoing experiments included oak aging of beers, using fruits, herbs and spices along with numerous wild yeasts and micro-organisms. Each of these experiments further emboldened Tomme to try new processes and even some time honored processes (like barrel aging) as he and the brewers of Pizza Port Solana Beach sought to make the most interesting beers possible.

During the 8 plus years that Tomme was Head Brewer in Solana Beach, the brewery won 13 Great American Beer Festival Medals, numerous medals at the Chicago Real Ale Festival as well as other regional and national competitions. In 2003 and 2004 Pizza Port Solana Beach was named Small Brewpub of the Year. Tomme was also named Small Brewpub Brewer of the year for both years.

After joining Port Brewing in 2006, Tomme kept up his winning ways. In 2007 Port Brewing was named Great American Beer Festival Small Brewery of the Year, and Tomme Small Brewer of the Year. In 2008 he and Port Brewing were named World Champion Small Brewer and Brewery at the international World Beer Cup. Since then he’s taken home a raft of medals and been consistently noted as one of the world’s top brewers.

He can be reached at:
Tomme@lostabbey.com

Gina Marsaglia, Co-Founder & Chairman

Let’s Party. Best known as ½ of the dynamic Marsaglia family duo, Gina is the godmother of San Diego’s craft beer scene and responsible for bringing good beer and good cheer to San Diego way back in 1987 before there was any. Originally from the great beer state of Colorado, Gina headed west to San Luis Obispo for college, then turned her compass south to San Diego and founded the world famous family of Pizza Port brew pubs. Life has been one big party ever since.

These days Gina, a fan of great and inspired beers, is often seen running from beer festival to beer festival promoting the Pizza Ports and Craft Brewed Beer. Her travels have taken her all across this great country of ours as well as far away places like Belgium and Amsterdam. Blessed with what seems like two livers, Gina is always up for another round wherever the good times may be.

When not chasing her three children, Gina enjoys running, working out, cooking and dipping into a well stocked wine cellar for every occasion. She’s a fixture at the Pizza Port in Carlsbad where her office is located. She fancies hoppy IPA’s like the rest of us and is a big fan of sour beers as well.

Her primary responsibilities remain overseeing the day to day operations of the Pizza Port locations – Carlsbad, Ocean Beach, San Clemente and Solana Beach – while still finding enough time and energy to help guide Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey.

She can be reached at
Gina@lostabbey.com

Vince Marsaglia, Co-Founder & Board Member

Let’s Party Part II. Brother to Gina Marsaglia, Vince is the other half of the dynamic ownership of Pizza Port. Hailing from Colorado, Vince spent a summer working for Coors Brewing Co. in Golden, Colorado (don’t worry Vince your secret is safe with us). After moving West to join his sister, Vince was the man behind the pie for so many years. A world class chef, Vince continues his aspirations of one day hosting his own Food Network Show titled Junk Yard Kitchen. Those who have witnessed his talented cooking understand the skill this man possesses. We know of no one who can turn the bed of a Tundra Pickup into a kitchen better than Vince.

Some of you know him as the original brewer at both Pizza Port Solana Beach and Carlsbad, and he was part of the original brew crew here at Port Brewing. Known for such amazing innovations as the “Vince Rinse” and the proprietary process for adding raisins to Lost and Found, his techniques continue to be used in our brewhouse today.

These days Vince is charged with being an ambassador for San Diego’s craft brew scene. When not out spreading goodwill, Vince can be seen cooking for an army of five(!) boys that call him dad. Someday soon, he hopes to develop a program of recipes and pairings for all of our beers enabling chefs everywhere (including those with real kitchens) to express themselves using our beers.

Vince can be reached at
Vince@lostabbey.com

Jim Comstock, Co-Founder & Chief Financial Officer

Better known as TJ to his closest friends, Jim is your man when profound words are needed marking any occasion. Jim joined Gina, Vince and Tomme as the fourth partner at Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey bringing a veritable vegetable soup of degrees including a BS and an MBA.

He currently serves as Managing Partner of Comstock and Associates a CPA firm overseeing the needs of businesses up and down San Diego County.

Jim has been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the long term financial success of Port Brewing for years to come. It’s Jim’s financial planning skills that afford us insight into growth and strategic decision making which translates into more great beers year in and year out.

For those of you who don’t know Jim, he is a reformed Mexican lager drinker who has found a shelter in his new “Belgian beers” and is learning more about Experimental brewing than he ever thought possible. When not crunching numbers or slinging beers, Jim enjoys the finer things in life like cigars and scotch.

He can be reached at:
jim@lostabbey.com

Mike Rodriguez, Head Brewer

Mike hails from Kansas City, MO where, prior to joining us, he was a brewer and cellarman for the famed Boulevard Brewing for the past six years. Before that he was head brewer at The Power Plant restaurant and brewery in Parkville, MO.

Mike’s wealth of skills and experience from his time at Boulevard is the driving factor behind our ability to scale production upward to meet the growing demand for our beers nationwide.

When he’s not running the brewhouse, Mike loves to play rugby and, in true Kansas City native style, BBQ just about anything that fits on a grill.

He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the lines from just about every romantic comedy and action-adventure movie made in America since 1975. If you ever have a chance to drop by the brewery or see him at an appearance, buy him a beer and ask him to act out all the characters in Die Hard.

Gwen Conley, Quality Assurance Manager

Gwen manages our brewing and production processes and puts all that fancy science equipment in our lab to work. She also oversees our sensory sessions and assists the DOBO in producing our much sought after barrel blends.

She began her career in the beer business as a microbiologist for Coors in Golden, Colorado. She left Coors she went to work for the Ball Corporation (the container people) where she went through their sensory training program and became an expert on how colors, aromas, and flavors work together to create sensory experiences. She parlayed her unique background into a position at legendary craft brewery Flying Dog where she not only managed their QA efforts, but also conducted educational programs in beer and food pairings.

As for her reasons for jumping to the left coast and joining us here at Port / Lost Abbey, Gwen said “It was the opportunity to do the sort of experimentation that goes on here. Working with so many barrels and different beers was hard to pass up.” (She also admitted that living in San Diego isn’t so bad either.)

She can be reached at:
gwen@lostabbey.com

David Johnson, Distribution Manager

David (aka “giant Tomme Arthur” or “the other bald guy”) is another transplant from Pizza Port where he did all the computery-stuff and basically made the InterWebs do the, uhhh… interwebby things they do.

He still makes all the tubes and wires work here, but because he can do that and drive a fork lift, these days you’ll also find him in command of our distribution warehouse making sure that our beers are on our distributor’s trucks and heading out to a thirsty public across the nation.

David’s also the guy in charge of local keg distribution, so if you’d like to pick one up at the brewery, he’s the guy to your going to have talk to. If you’d like to request a keg from David, you can contact him here.

You can also email him at:
david@lostabbey.com