The contract brewery Conspirator Beverage that makes or has made beer for Rosenstadt Brewery, Kings & Daughters, Laurelwood Brewing, Via Beer, and more has shut down.

You have probably never heard of Conspirator Beverage, but that is by design. The Clackamas, Oregon company originally called Back Forty Beverage was designed to meet the needs of small and growing brands who needed help brewing and packaging. Breweries like Rosenstadt and formerly Laurelwood Brewing utilized the 20bbl 3-vessel brewhouse from Marks Metalworks to increase their output, while new breweries like Kings & Daughters, Via Beer, and more recently Oak Union Brewing, made all of their beers there. On Thursday, July 13th Conspirator Beverage abruptly halted operations and laid off most of the staff with atleast one reporting they have not received their final wages. In the wake of the closure, many people are wondering what happened and what to do next to keep their brands alive.

“We were informed on Thursday that Conspirator Beverage will officially be ceasing operations,” says Trevor Lauman, co-founder of the new Oak Union Brewing. Oak Union have brewed all of their beers at Conspirator Beverage and were beginning to see public awareness and demand for their west coast and lager centric beers take off. “We are saddened by the news and will miss the management staff, brewers, cellarmen, and packaging operators that we developed great relationships with.”

Kyle Larsen was Conspirator Beverage’s first full-time in-house head brewer before launching his own brand Kings & Daughters Brewery from their facility. But even he was surprised by the news, “we certainly didn’t have any early knowledge and we won’t be putting out near the volume of beer we planned to through the summer,” says Larsen. “We are feeling fairly fortunate right now because we were already looking to move at least some of our production elsewhere so I feel like we are a little ahead of this. We are also hoping to keep Queens & Sons Soft IPA available at a number of accounts through the summer until we can release a new batch the start of September. Thankfully we just packaged a fresh batch.”

Nick Greiner, co-owner of Rosenstadt Brewery was also among Conpirator’s larger clients who must now shift production elsewhere. “We found out last week with everyone else, surprising for sure…” says Greiner. “We’ve been producing with primary/secondary + sources simultaneously for awhile now, so we’ll be able to ride this out. We forecast a good 120-180 days out - since a fair amount of production is various lager styles we already have Festbier in the tank. We’re all good at the moment (fingers crossed.)”

“Last year when we opened we could not keep up at this time, we were full and our phone was ringing off the hook. This year has been more challenging, its been a softer market and there is not as much demand,” says Conspirator Beverage owner Brice Barrett about the unexpected turn of events for what seemed to be a bright spot in Oregon and Portland’s craft beer scene going forward. “At the moment we are not shutting the business down entirely, we are hitting the pause button and have furlowed quite a few employees. I believe there is a market for what we do, but we could not continue operations doing business like we do.”

Conspirator Beverage is/was a nearly complete package of options for smaller breweries, seltzer, or cider, and even spirits production all under one roof. Housed in the former ABC roofing building in Clackamas near I-205, the facility is capable of producing more than 20,000 BBL per year from 20bbl fermenters and 40bbl brite tanks. They even had a 500G hybrid pot still with a 20″ diameter side column for rectification and an inline botanical infuser, plus upstairs office work space, cold and dry storage. Obtaining and installing the one thing that Conspirator did not have in place from the beginning may ironically be their downfall.

Brice Barrett came from the manufacturing field in the aerospace industry. His original plan for the company was to focus on draft-only before the pandemic basically eliminated any demand for it. They quickly pivoted to search for a canning line, that ironically has become the reason Conspirator was forced to pause operations.

“We had a big hurdle with our canning line, it went down and chewed up all the reserve we have. If this seems quick, I had to make a hard decision about what our canning line did to the products,” says Barrett, noting that it was a new design and they are still trying to work with the manufacturer to address the issue.

Until the problems with money flow, structural organization, and packaging concerns can be addressed, Conspirator Beverage has partially shut down. Wayfinder Beer and Double Mountain co-founder Charlie Devereux is helping wind down production and get beer out of tanks, including those from his own brand Via Beer. The distillery portion of the operation is still going, and Brice Barrett is searching for a path forward.

“I think the business model works, I think we scaled up quickly for a market that didnt really respond to scale,” says Barrett. “I think co-packing is still a smart move, the softness in the beer market didnt help us but I think there is still room for us. There is not just one path, its talking to future potential backers or buyers, we are looking at every possibility.”

Today there are more options for contract brewing than ever before, with Zoiglhaus Brewing handling smaller volumes and the new Sin Marca Beverage out of Living Haus Beer Co. handling similar volumes to Conspirator Beverage. Even Hopworks Urban Brewery, has become a hub for contract brewing with both Rosenstadt and Laurelwood Brewing shifting to the Portland brewery. However, the lack of consistent and reliable options could mean that some of these brands may look elsewhere, give up on the business model, or fast forward on plans to open their own breweries.

Oak Union Brewing says that their supporters shouldn’t worry about finding their beers. “We have strong relationships with other contract facilities that offer nearly identical control of our brewing processes. If anything, they may become even more in tune with our expectations due to my potential involvement in brewing and monitoring of our beer,” says co-owner Trevor Laumen.

Kyle Larsen of Kings & Daughters is optimistic about the long-term, even if this could seriously hurt them in the short-term. “We are trying to look at this as a positive thing for our company,” says Larsen. “It certainly presents some financial downfalls, we’ll certainly take a step back in some sense, but it is also forcing us to pause for a second. We are going to use that pause to take a much needed breath, re-align our work/life balance and make a big push towards our long term goals of opening our own space(s)!”

For Conspirator Beverage to have a chance, they need to not only restart operations but bring back their customers before they permanently land at other breweries. “We want to be taking orders again from our customers as soon as possible, and I think there is a path for that but there are a lot of unknowns now,” says Barrett. Those options include a new cash influx from an investor or a buyer. “I think the business model works, I think we scaled up quickly for a market that didnt really respond to scale. I think co-packing is still a smart move, the softness in the beer market didnt help us but I think there is still room for us. There is not just one path, its talking to future potential backers or buyers, we are looking at every possibility.”