Lost Spring Brewing Co.

A 65-gallon brewing system is small even by craft standards — the kind of setup where someone making beer for friends had to find a building or stop. Lost Spring Brewing opened in 2021 in downtown Ocean Springs with that system, a liquor license, and a floor plan that looks more like a bar than a production facility. Beer, cocktails, and wine all run through the same taproom. The place is pet-friendly. Live music is regular. Ocean Springs was French before it was American — Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville built Fort Maurepas here in 1699, the first capital of French Louisiana. The fort failed. Crops died, water ran short, discipline collapsed. The capital moved to Mobile by 1701; the fort was abandoned by 1702. When Mississippi became a state in 1817, only 2.5 percent of the population lived on the coast. The Gulf Coast stayed frontier longer than the rest of the state, with Mediterranean cultural influence and ethnic diversity that came from proximity to the Gulf itself. Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Destruction was historic. What survived or came back after that isn't tourism infrastructure — it's the places people who live here need third. A brewery on Bellande Avenue is one answer to that. The beer is small-batch. The reason to go is that it exists at all.