End of an era as Upright Brewing announces closure

Upright Brewing will close at the end of 2025 and shut down their brewery and homebase in NE Portland if no new buyer is found. The Upright Beer Station in N. Portland will remain open as a taphouse and food truck lot.

It’s the end of an era, Upright Brewing helped kickstart the modern farmhouse ale movement, re-popularize craft lagers, and later pivoted to help lead the resurgence of cask beer.

“[It] feels so heavy to be facing the end of Upright, I've been running this for a long time and so many of the people involved have been here ages and feel like family, but I think most of us are looking forward to moving on as the industry isn't as fun for us as it used to be,” says Upright founder Alex Ganum.

As a leader of the craft beer renaissance, the brewing history books are filled with iconic Oregonians names like Widmer, Larrance, Ponzi, and Joyce, but they are going to need to be updated after the closing of Upright Brewing. So important was Upright that it inspired a generation of new brewers to take up the mash paddle and continue to push the boundaries and consumers into both new and old directions.

Upright Brewing opened in 2009 in a newly refurbished historical building called the Leftbank Project at 240 N Broadway #115, Portland, OR 97227. At the time of their opening it wasn’t with much fanfare as it was before the craft beer renaissance that would hit 2 years later. Founder Alex Ganum was known primarily for his work at Belmont Station but had earned a small but dedicated set of believers from his earlier stint as head brewer of BJ’s Brewhouse in Jantzen Beach. But it wasn’t long before people took notice of how unique Upright Brewing was. Farmhouse beers and saisons were extremely obscure, so were sour beers and foraged and culinary ingredients which Upright often tapped in to in their flavors. But Upright was never constrained by them, and weren’t afraid to make English-style bitters, brown ales, Hefeweizen, and became one of the first to make a year-round Pilsner with the introduction of year-round Engelberg Pilsner a few years after launch. [Read our Upright Brewing 15 year retrospective here]

Upright’s 10 Barrel brewhouse was crammed into the basement of the Leftbank Project building, just getting the tanks down there seemed like an impossible task and actually finding the brewery taproom was an adventure in of itself. Once people made their way down stairwells and twisting halls, or found the service elevator, they found a rustic and dimly lit tasting room with no barrier between the day-to-day of beer production and scattered public seating. There wasn’t even a bar top or counter to order from, just a lone beertender presiding over 10 tap lines protruding from the walk-in cooler. After grabbing a taster tray or 12oz glass of the signature farmhouse beers Four, Five, Six, and Seven most people would wander around to discover the open fermentation room. The room was thoughtfully designed with a window and mirror to see the active fermentation in two wide open-top vessels kept secured and under positive pressure to prevent the escape or introduction of wild yeasts and bacteria. The ancient method of open top fermentation was partly to allow for yeast krausening from the foamy top of active ferments to be used in the next beer, but also to promote the development of esters and phenolic so essential in farmhouse ales like saison and biere de Garde.

After/during the COVID-19 pandemic Upright Brewing pivoted to move their public tasting room upstairs into the lobby of the Leftbank Project. This gives it a much more open area with limited bar seating, a small outdoor patio, and tables in little alcoves and nooks, even a second level mezzanine. However many longtime Upright fans have always missed the rustic speakeasy charms of the intimate taproom in the basement.

In 2023 Upright Brewing opened the Upright Beer Station at 7151 NE Prescott, Portland OR 97218. This former gas station was converted to become an Upright Jazz bar in the old garage area and a in daytime hours a Junior’s Cafe in the former office area. The large parking lot serves as a beer garden with on-site food trucks. It was also with the opening of the Beer Station that Upright fully embraced English-style cask beers and currently offers 4 hand-pulled beer engines (more than anyone else in town.)

With the public announcement of Upright Brewing’s closure Alex Ganum writes; “Well folks, it’s with a heavy heart that I have to say this, but the time has come to close the brewery. Upright has been a proud part of the Portland beer scene for over sixteen years, a time that has been a bit of a roller coaster with change in the industry and the world at large. It has been an incredible experience on our end, and I hope that we helped people feel joy and stimulation, whether it was by way of a tasty beer or an honest chat in the taproom.”

Rumors have been swirling for months of Upright’s potential closure. “I've been talking to a lot of brewers about taking over our equipment and space so I can get out of the lease early. It runs to April 2028 but I'm losing money and need to close up shop,” Ganum told New School Beer. However a new buyer for the original brewery space at 240 N Broadway has not yet emerged so the time has come for the closing announcement.

“Come in and support us at the tail end, it would be nice to go out strong,” says Ganum.