USA, OR: Three more Oregon breweries to close down because of COVID-19

The inevitable long list of COVID-19 related brewery closures has begun snowballing into an avalanche that we all saw coming but hoped would never reach us, newschoolbeer.com reported on August 17.

Last weekend Portland’s Grixsen Brewing announced they would close in a surprise Instagram post. In the state’s capital, Salem Ale Works decided to throw in the towel directly because of the COVID-19 impact. And in Albany, Oregon, 3 Sheets Brewery & Taproom announced they would be closing but hoped to continue brewing and selling their beers in other outlets.

“Covid has killed yet another small Oregon business unfortunately,” wrote 3 Sheets owners Beth and Klint Sheets. They opened the taproom in 2018 and the business was meant to be their retirement plan.

Grixsen Brewing opened in inner southeast Portland taproom in 2016 and owner Scott Petersen says the pub will close after Sunday August 23rd. Petersen hints that this may not be the last we hear of him, a possible rebrand or business partnership may be worked out in a way to see Grixsen beers back on tap in some form.

“Our hope is that as a community we can all get through these tough times and once the dust settles we can give it another shot. For now, we are going to navigate a way to keep the beer alive,” wrote Petersen on Grixsen’s instagram page.

Salem Ale Works is a small brewing operation that had a solid 7 year run in Salem, Oregon. Their Hootenany Honey Basil won a gold medal at the 2019 Oregon Beer Awards and was a master class in balancing zesty flavors into a light bodied beer. Firefighters turned brewery owners Justin Ego and Jake Bonham had opened SAW as a nano operation in 2013 and more then quadrupled their space in 2017 with an expansion. The taproom’s last day of business is Saturday, August 29th.

The COVID-19 related Oregon brewery closures began in June:

One of the first to call it quits was The Ram Restaurant & Brewery at Clackamas Town Center. Shopping malls were already dying, as were chain restaurants, COVID fast tracked that slow slide into irrelevancy.

N. Portland’s Look Long Brewing and Homebrew Exchange announced they were looking for new buyers in June. The ownership group has decided to move on to other things and the two pronged business is now available as a turnkey operation.

Thirsty Monk Pub & Brewery was the next operation to quietly close up shop at their Portland operation. The Belgian influenced beer bar, gastropub and brewery was founded in Asheville, North Carolina with outposts in Denver, CO and Portland opened in 2018. Thirsty Monk hadn’t reopened since the Oregon governor mandated closure of bars in March and finally decided reopening was not in the cards.

While they never officially announced their closure, Ross Island Brewing won’t be firing up the brewhouse again. The Powell blvd. brewery was producing beer for Chefstable group’s restaurants and bars, including the KEX Brewing brand and Dirty Pretty Beer. Instead Chefstable is focusing on restarting the former Burnside Brewing/Mikkeller space as a new operation, Ross Island’s 7bbl brewhouse and lease are now available as a turnkey operation.

Then it was the highest profile of the bunch, Base Camp Brewing announced they were shutting down for the forseeable future effective after August 9th. The southeast Portland brewery has had longtime fans for their outdoor adventure theme and beers like their flamed marshmallow adorned S’mores Stout. Owner Justin Fay has kept open the possibility for a return though, announcing he has not yet given up on plans to return to normal business when they can do so.

Things only look to get worse for craft breweries as the pandemic stretches out into the winter. Normally the slow season for brewpubs, last winter saw more than half a dozen closures and that was before we were feeling the effects of a pandemic.

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