Mendocino Brewing Company, Inc., a California corporation, was founded in 1983. It was one of the first of the modern craft brewers, having opened the first new brewpub in California and the second in the United States since the repeal of Prohibition, and it has been recognized for its innovations in the brewpub concept, its craft brew style and its distinctive labels. (In this Annual Report, the term "the Company" and its variants is generally used to refer to Mendocino Brewing Company, Inc. and its subsidiaries, while the term "MBC" is used to refer to Mendocino Brewing Company, Inc. as an individual entity.)

The Company operates in two market and geographic areas, domestic (the United States) and European (including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (the "European Territory"), as well as Canada).