Oregon’s third oldest brewery abruptly closed their taproom and restaurant in Hood River on Monday, November 2nd according to multiple sources.
Hood River Brewing Company was founded in 1987 in a former cannery in Hood River, Oregon, but quickly renamed themselves after the popularity of their Full Sail Amber Ale to become Full Sail Brewing. The pioneering Oregon brewery was among the first to capitalize on the Oregon brewpub bill’s passage in 1985 and the first to successfully package their beer in 12oz bottles for wider distribution.
After becoming employee-owned in 1999, Full Sail was sold to private equity firm Encore Consumer Capital in 2015 and shortly thereafter founder Irene Firmat retired with her husband and brewmaster Jamie Emmerson. The following year Full Sail Brewing closed their Portland R&D brewery at the Riverplace, the beloved Full Sail “Pilsner Room” was a playground for brewers and showcase for beer nerds inside McCormick & Schmicks on the waterfront from 1992 - 2016.
The last 10 years of Full Sail has seen a decade of re-entrenchment to core core large scale brewing. Full Sail under new ownership pulled back on packaging their full lineup of beers in favor of focusing on Session lager and Amber Ale, while filling excess capacity by focusing on contract brewing beer and seltzer for outside brands. But as of the last few years some of those special beers have been coming back. With Session lager celebrating its 21st anniversary earlier this year, the brand brought back the red stripe classic Session Lager, and launched a Session Japanese rice lager and Session west coast lager, all of which are readily available in 12oz cans and extremely well made and tasty.
The first reports of Full Sail Brew Pub’s closure appeared in the early afternoon on Monday, 11/2 with one Reddit poster writing; “Looks like Full Sail changed hands and the new owners closed the Brew Pub and laid off the entire staff.”
Around 5pm another Full Sail pub employee shared; “As of today, Full Sail Brewing pub closed its doors and myself and the rest of the pub staff said goodbye. Nobody knew it was going to be our last time clocking in and seeing each other and our amazing customers. This is such a heartbreak to the beer world and to Hood River.”
In addition to the loss of jobs in the industry coming right before the holiday season, one of the biggest tragedies of the Full Sail Brew Pub closing is the likelihood of losing their more creative and limited brews. From the pilot brewhouse that now resides in Hood River, Full Sail has continued to produce very small batches of classic beers like Wassail, Wreck the Halls, Top Sail Imperial Porter, Slipknot IPA, and one-off fresh hop beers, and experimental ales and lagers. Without a taproom to showcase them, it’s easy to imagine they would be near impossible to find or go away altogether.
Calls to the Full Sail Brewing pub during their posted operating hours were not answered and went to voicemail. The New School has reached out to Full Sail representatives to confirm, deny, or clarify the reports and how many people may have been laid off and will provide an update when we learn more.
