The morbid annual tradition of chronicling the year’s Oregon brewery, cidery, taproom, and related business closures hits a lowpoint in 2023 with the most in a single year since we began keeping track. No surprise to anyone not living under a rock, craft beer competition has only increased while sales have started to fall nationwide, and the popularity of highly marketed cultural events such as Dry January can be the final nail in the coffin for already struggling businesses. While we no doubt missed some of the Oregon brewery and taproom closings in 2023 from the following list, we still counted and tracked 30+ closures over 12 months and have attempted to put each one in context while ending the story with some sunnier news about unexpected reopenings!

Ex Novo Brewing

Portland & Beaverton, OR

Fan favorite Ex Novo Brewing was one of the more popular Oregon breweries that only recently finally closed their two Portland locations. In hindsight, Ex Novo’s closure seemed destined when founder Joel Gregory moved to New Mexico and established an Ex Novo brewery there, then tragedy struck when we lost head brewer Ryan Buxton in 2022 to suicide. Ex Novo soldiers on with a second location coming soon to Albuquerque, and with new Oregon location owners Lazy Days Brewing planning to still make Ex Novo beers for the local market even as the taprooms have made the transition away.

Hoplandia

Portland, OR

A longtime favorite craft beer oasis in St. John’s neighborhood of N. Portland was a combo taproom and bottleshop that always had a great curated selection. After the other old beer nerd hangout Plew’s Brews closed, Hoplandia was the best spot for craft beer geekdom for many years before they closed in April. These days St. John’s has other great beer bars like Lombard House and the new Mosaic Taphouse to help fill the void.

Wolf Tree Brewing Taproom

Seal Rock & Newport, OR

The nano brewery founded by rancher and firefighter Joe Hitselberger in 2013 is a pretty unique operation set along Beaver Creek, on a cattle ranch in Seal Rock near the coast. Their initial beers were standard styles but also spontaneously fermented saisons and a spruce tip saison foraged from the surrounding woods. That beer became their flagship and won awards, Wolf Tree was even invited to be apart of the prestigious and hard to get into PAIRED pavilion at the Great American Beer Festival. In 2017 they expanded to open a taproom in Newport, Oregon, it was popular enough that they later expanded again onto another floor, but recently their lease ran out and a argument with the owner about pandemic related SBA covered lease payments led Hitselberger to seek other options and closed the taproom. Currently Wolf Tree is still brewing and distributing in Oregon, Washington, and California while they are working on a new taproom in central Oregon.

Ordnance Brewing

Boardman, OR

Boardman, Oregon’s Ordnance Brewing has always been a strange outlier, started by a farming family on the arid Columbia Plateau. They quickly expanded to a 50-barrel brewhouse, massive for a small relatively unknown and unestablished brewery outside of their small community. They also had some relationship with the Neighbor Dudes taprooms that cropped up around the area. For awhile there we saw Ordnance beers like Bloops blueberry wheat, and EOD IPA, distributed around in cans, but it seemed to slow and fizzle out in the last 5 years or so. While Ordnance Brewing closed on August 25th, their satellite taproom in Wilsonville is still open with different ownership. 

16 Tons Bottle Shop

Eugene, OR

Owner Mike Coplin recently announced that he was closing his original location of the long-running 2010 founded Eugene taproom and bottleshop 16 Tons, but merging many of the best beery aspects with his neighborhing business Moke’s Coffee & Kitchen. The second location of 16 Tons has been primarily a coffee/cafe with craft beer since its inception, so it makes sense that the spinoff Moke’s would now also become a beer bar/bottleshop. Meanwhile the original 16 Tons location at 265 E 13th in Eugene will live on under new ownership, which has renamed it New Tons Taphouse and is currently remodeling the space with plans to reopen it in early 2024.

Deep Space Brewing

Hillsboro, OR

Small batch brewery and pizzeria Deep Space Brewing was a favorite family destination with an arcade, beer garden, and hand crafted brews. Located in a semi-developed industrial area at 6482 Jacobson Street, Hillsboro, OR. In July of 2022, SteepleJack Brewing opened  their production facility and taproom just across an undeveloped wildlife area across the field. Deep Space Brewing closed in October 2022, but just as quickly reopened with two staff members, Katrice Armstrong Chanel Alexandra Kelly taking over ownership. Its not really clear what then happened to the business, their last post was in October 2023 and their instagram profile announces the closure and promises a statement on what happened that was never actually published to the feed. 

Moonshrimp Brewing

Portland, OR

Portland’s second oldest gluten-free brewery Moonshrimp, was founded in 2016 by Dan and Lindsay McIntosh-Tolle. The nano brewery had a unique business model in which they brewed and sold most of their beers via hand bottle or growler out of a storefront with just a to-go window at 8428 SW 22nd Ave. When most people look at the moon, they see a face on the surface, Dan McIntosh-Tolle instead see’s a shrimp on a cracker, hence the name Moonshrimp Brewing. After a successful run that finds their products on store shelves such as John’s Marketplace, Moonshrimp announced on December 11th that they had brewed their last batch, and would sell through remaining inventory until the end of January 2024 when they close permanently.

Grains of Wrath Brewing PDX

Portland, OR

The Portland location of Grains of Wrath Brewing in the former Lompoc Brewing and Lompoc Sidebar space pulled up stakes to focus on Washington. Grains of Wrath’s Camas flagship brewpub continues to do well, and hey have a production brewery with back to basics taproom coming soon to Washougal. But the closure of GOW Portland means they can’t win Small Brewery of the Year at the Oregon Beer Awards for the third straight year.

Falling Sky Pour House & Delicatessen

Eugene, OR

Eugene, Oregon favorite Falling Sky Brewing once had three locations in the city, they will start 2024 down to just one, the flagship original brewpub. The Pour House & Delicatessen location was their second, opened in 2014 it was an instant favorite, serving gastropub and Jewish-deli inspired food that was cured, pickled, fermented, baked, and made from scratch on-site. Over time the food program was simplified, and the cost of renewed leases in the area were skyrocketing. Falling Sky made the decision to close the Pour House at the end of 2023.

Orenco Taphouse

Hillsboro, OR

Longtime Hillsboro, Oregon favorite Orenco Taphouse may be the most storied and influential beer bar in the area until they were forced to close in November after their lease was not renewed. The sudden closure of Orenco Taphouse is still being lamented by beer nerds in the area without another great option nearby, there is some optimism that the space will become a new brewery taproom as has been rumored around the industry and social media. Also the door is open for Orenco Taphouse to be reborn in a new location.

Ecliptic Brewing Mothership and Moon Room

Portland, OR

Perhaps the most high profile closure of 2023 came in November with the abrupt announcement by Ecliptic Brewing founder/brewmaster John Harris that he had sold the company and was closing the brewpubs. There are still not a lot of details about what is happening with Ecliptic Brewing, the brand is now property of Great Northern, a newly formed conglomerate that includes Ninkasi Brewing and some California seltzer brands. Ecliptic beers will continue to be brewed only now at Ninkasi’s facility in Eugene, with Harris staying on as a guiding hand and creative influence. Ecliptic’s two Portland pubs are now closed, and rumors are swirling about what will come of them. 

Ninkasi The Better Living Room

Eugene, OR

This one hit the Lane County beer industry hard, that Ninkasi Brewing would close their beloved Better Living Room brewpub with just a few days warning to the public and their staff. We can attest to the fact that The Better Living Room was one of the best brewpubs in Oregon, amazing food, cocktails, and a big selection of Ninkasi beers both favorites and small batch. The location was great, the former Ninkasi campus with a rock wall and big enclosed beer garden with looming trees, and a stylish decor inside and out. Ninkasi co-founder Jamie Floyd addressed the controversial closing and how it was handled in one of our most read articles of the year.

Alesong Brewing & Blending 5th Street Market Tasting Room

Eugene, OR

Alesong Brewing is still going strong from their main countryside taproom and barrel room in the rural outskirts of Eugene, but they made the tough decision not to renew their lease at their more commercial and central tasting room located in the 5th Street Market. 

Running Dogs Brewing

St. Helens, OR

St. Helens only brewery, Running Dogs was a small brewpub in the tiny downtown area with a notorious reputation. The married founders Maggie and Jaron Clayton are well known social media influencers with an R rated tik tok and instagram feed fueled by gender fueled couples comedy with 5.7 million+ followers. Back in 2019, Running Dogs was awarded a $10k grant to build a production facility. While that process began, it seems like the work has stalled as the owners have turned their focus on social media as their primary business. Running Dogs announced their closure in February, but said they would be back when their expansion is complete. There have been no updates and local community members believe the project has been halted.

Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider

Portland, OR

Beloved and influential Portland cidery Reverend Nat’s was a surprise closure. They were in the process of moving their production to their new location off of SE Division, where they had already opened their most public facing taproom yet with plenty of ciders, beer, and a top notch food cart pod. Founder Nat West spoke to New School at the time, explaining what led up to the sudden closure and what was next for him.

Homebrew Exchange

Portland, OR

N. Portland’s Arbor Lodge neighborhood has had their own homebrew supply shop since 2009, and expanded to become a commercial nano brewery and taproom called Look Long Brewing a handful of years later. Homebrew Exchange achieved some notoriety in 2010, when they helped Portland’s then infamous Mayor Sam Adams become a homebrewer. In 2020 the business that operated as both Homebrew Exchange and Look Long Brewing was sold to new owners. In October the new owners announced they were shuttering the original homebrew supply side of the business to focus on being a public house with food trucks. The business is now renamed the Arbor Beer Lodge, and operates as a nano brewery, taphouse, and community events space without the homebrewing aspect that it was originally founded on.

Laurelwood Brewing Brewpub

Portland, OR

Oregon brewpub culture would not be the same without Laurelwood. Outside of McMenamins, Laurelwood probably had the most influence over the family friendly beer and restaurant business model and that grew the brand up to 6 different locations over their 20+ years in business. While the Laurelwood Brewing company is still very much around and operating, they decided to close their final brewpub in August. Laurelwood beer is still being brewed and packaged, but the pub experience that the company was based on is gone, atleast for now.

Avid Cider Taproom

Bend, OR

Oregon’s second largest cidery, Avid Cider, formerly known as Atlas Cider, closed their taproom in Bend, Oregon’s Box Factory building in October. This is part of a big restructuring, Avid Cider sold to a Michigan based Blake’s Hard Cider in 2022, and is relocating their production facility as well. The Box Factory building is also under fire from developers seeking to bring big construction into the neighborhood while driving some tenants out. Avid Cider has said they will reopen a taproom in a new location in the near future, while the cider itself is still being produced and distributed all over.

Ratchet Brewing Silverton Brewpub

Silverton, OR

The Salem-based Ratchet Brewing took over the vacated Seven Brides Brewing brewpub and production brewery in Silverton. The expansive space had a lot of room to grow, and Silverton had growing population and tourism. But it didn’t work out, the building owners ended up selling it to Silverton Area Community Aid, a local food and housing services non-profit. Ratchet is still around, though they had to move to a new location in Salem. Silverton still has the Silver Falls Brewery to keep them beer’d.

13 Virtues Brewing

Portland, OR

Not much is known about what happened to 13 Virtues Brewing, though you would be forgiven if you didn’t know it existed in the first place. 13 Virtues was part of Sellwood neighborhood eatery Philadelpha’s Steaks & Hoagies, which openedin 1987 according to wikipedia, they grew to 3 locations in Oregon which are all still operating. A small-scale nano brewery was added to Philadelphia’s in 1993, and then in 2014 they added on a 3k sq. ft. expansion to the back of the building as a brewery production space separately known as 13 Virtues Brewing. The brewery itself had a separate tasting room, though you could get the beers in the main eatery, and at local beer bars. You would even find 13 Virtues around at beer festivals, but they had noticeably been absent and their last social media post was on September 28th, 2022. A call to the pub earlier this year confirmed that the brewery itself was closed.

Opposition Brewing

Medford, OR

Opposition Brewing was perhaps best known for a legal dispute between them and 10 Barrel Brewing, which ended in early 2014 when they changed from their original name Apocalypse Brewing to Opposition. The brewery had a long long run for Medford, and only shut its doors after more than 10 years on September 30th, they are keeping their social media alive for potential future “reunions”.

Hammer & Stitch Brewing

Portland, OR

The industrial NW Portland brewery was one of our most anticipated upcoming breweries of 2019, and also in 2020 when they finally opened their doors after many delays only to have the misfortune to arrive in the early days of the pandemic. Co-founder/brewmaster Ben Dobler is one of the most accomplished veteran brewers in town, and they did really nice things with the buildout. Unfortunately a likely combination of a location off the beaten path without much traffic except for the blue collar warehouses and offices nearby, beers that tended to be a little old school classic, and perhaps mostly the pandemic putting a kibosh on interest from the public that meant the brewery never really got fully up to speed. Hammer & Stitch closed their pub last winter, but said they would reopen it in the Spring. That never happened, and it is now set to be the highly anticipated Brujos Brewing in Spring 2024.

Unicorn Brewing / Portland U-Brew

Portland, OR

Part homebrew supply shop and brew-your-own facility, part brewery and public house, Portland U-Brew was a staple of downtown Sellwood for 12 years. Many a brewery, taphouse, and restaurant made small batch beers there that they could then resell and brand as their own. The homebrew supply nurtured a generation of small batch brewers, and the house brand Unicorn Brewing was a favorite locals hangout. After barely weathering the pandemic and attempting to find a new owner, Unicorn and U-Brew closed down in July.

Lucky Lab Brewing - Killingsworth

Portland, OR

In their 30 years, Lucky Lab Brewing has opened 4 different locations around Portland and never closed one until the final days of December 2022, before they sold their most recent pub on N. Killingsworth to Double Mountain Brewery. Lucky Lab is one of those important Portland brewpubs that operates quietly but has become a mainstay for a wide variety of ales and lagers, dog-friendly taprooms or patios, and a classic rustic pub vibe that makes for great hangout spots. Lucky Lab is still going strong with locations on SE Hawthorne, SW Multnomah Village, and NW Portland. The Killingsworth pub is in good hands with Double Mountain’s beers and pizza.

Pono Brewing

Portland, OR

For 10 years Pono Brewing operated on a contract brewing and then alternating proprietorship license to collaborate and brew on other breweries systems. The beer was sold at first to local beer bars, then became popular at cocktail bars and restaurants and then in cans, thanks in large part to the small boot-strapping and hitting the streets work it took to bring it to the people with only 3 employee/owners. In 2022 Pono Brewing finally made the leap to their own brick-and-mortar, taking over the original Laurelwood Brewing location at 1728 NE 40th Ave that went through stints as the Laurelwood Pizza Co. and then a long run as Columbia River Brewing, and then a very brief one as Spud Monkey’s. Pono Brewing’s Brew Labs opened serving South Pacific Islands/Asian style food which was extremely unique and original for a brewpub. Unfortunately due to serious issues, upgrades and fixes to the on-site 10 barrel brewhouse which hadn’t been used in years, the funds to get it operational combined with slow business in the pub compounded the issues and led to the restaurant’s closure followed by the entire business not long after.

Sessionable

Portland, OR

The SE Portland beer bar/taphouse Sessionable had a great if small location, and an interesting concept, to feature primarily beers around 5% abv or less. Over the years they built up a great clientele of regulars, and branched a little more out of lower alcohol offerings. Ultimately the two owners decided to move abroad and start a new life and career. The space is still sitting vacant and available turnkey as a great taproom.

12 Bridge Ciderworks

Oregon City, OR

The beloved veteran owned cidery and taproom 12 Bridges was a favorite of Clackamas County and cider fans around the metro area. You would often see their A-Team style delivery van dropping off kegs and 6-packs. The taproom always had a huge array of ciders both popular styles and more wacky stuff. Owner Jeff Jarrett broke his foot in 2019, and was in a leg brace ever since while keeping the business afloat with very limited staff. Ultimately he needed to get off that foot and slow down his lifestyle if he ever wanted to fully recover, he made that difficult decision to sell equipment and close the business in June.

Ambacht Brewing

Hillsboro, OR

This little known but veteran nano brewery in Hillsboro had a long history for eccentric beers and sometimes odd ingredients, also making stuff with real fruit before that was even cool. It was always a funky little two person operation out of a makeshift garage space that almost seemed like it was a speakeasy. The owner retired and closed the business after putting the brewhouse up for sale, not sure if it ever found a buyer. Ambacht was one of 7 Portland-area breweries to close around the same time last summer.

Conspirator Beverage

Clackamas, OR

One of the biggest closures of 2023 that not many talk about is Conspirator Beverage. Most beer fans have never heard the name, and that is kind of by design, because they specialized in producing other peoples beers, ciders, seltzers etc. Why Conspirator Beverage’s closure is important is because it enabled many great breweries such as Kings & Daughters, Via Beer, and Oak Union, to brew and package their beers for the market. It also has wider implications about contract brewing viability as a business model, and those independent ghost brands without a location of their own. Thankfully, many of the breweries that produced at Conspirator have found new homes to make their products, but not without difficulty and sometimes at lesser capacity meaning lower output, lower profit, lower chances of success, etc.

Old 99 Brewing and Loggers Pizza

Winston, Salem, & Eugene, OR

As of February 2022, the reports coming out of Old 99 and Loggers were all good, the 2009 founded brewery and pizzeria were merging and planning a big expansion that would take them up to 3 locations and with a new brewhouse. In September they suddenly shut down their newest location in Eugene, and as of December both the other two locations closed as well. In an article about the closure for local paper The News-Review, co-ower Sam Gross said “If I were to sum it all up, I would say that I tried to grow too quickly. Several of the things that I tried to do all at once didn’t pan out.” 

Crooked Roots Brewing

Prineville, OR

Prineville, Oregon’s only local founded brewery (Wild Ride Brewing opened a second location there in 2022) Crooked Roots Brewing, shut down in September. The brewpub featured 30 rotating taps and serve hand-tossed pizza and fresh BBQ.Luckily for residents, a new owner quickly reopened it as the Patio Taphouse sans brewery.

GOOD NEWS REOPENINGS!

In case you think it’s all bad news, there was some positive signs that the industry will turnover closures into new refreshed operations. A number of breweries closed, only to reopen!

Brewery 26

Portland, OR

The nano turned taphouse, turned 7bbl brewery and taproom weathered the pandemic only to lose the original owner and announce their closure earlier this year. But inner behind-the-scenes workings that we are not privy to has kept them open and apparently a path forward is being charted, perhaps with a new owner as the business and assets were on sale beforehand.

Evasion Brewing

McMinnville, OR

One of our 2022 closures was the award-winning Gluten-free brewery Evasion out in McMinnville. The original family ownership group had put it up for sale and found no buyers before closing down. But as of October 12th they did in fact find someone to take on the business and celebrated a reopening at their taproom.

Sasquatch Brewing

Portland, OR

Another high profile 2022 closure was that of Sasquatch Brewing and their side brand New West Ciders. While original founder/owner Tom Sims has moved on, he found a new buyer to take on the original Sasquatch Brewing location in SW Portland and it is back to business as usual with plans to restart the brewery.

Gratitude Brewing

Eugene, OR

The Eugene, Oregon brewery closed earlier in 2023 but was able to reopen in partnership with Tradewinds Catering after 6 months. The brewery is now back open with Tradewinds handling the kitchen, and one of the two original owners managing the brewery side. The Gratitude Brewing business is still up for sale, but the new collaboration will allow them to keep open and operating.