USA, OR: Culmination Brewing likely to close within weeks

Culmination Brewing, one of Portland’s rising stars and best breweries just a few years ago, is likely to close within weeks, doomed by declines in packaged beer sales and rising costs, co-founder Tomas Sluiter confirmed on August 3 to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

“We’re circling the drain,” Sluiter said when asked about a possible closure of the brewery and taproom in Northeast Portland’s Kerns neighborhood. “There’s no way out of this.”

Asked if the closure would be within days or weeks, he simply replied, “Yes.”

Sluiter co-founded Culmination with his wife, April Dudley Sluiter, and a group of investors in 2014. Crowds were immediately drawn to the brewery’s imaginative, refined beers and cozy setting.

But when the pandemic hit, Sluiter said Culmination’s distributor, Columbia Distributing, turned its attention away from craft breweries in favor of national brands. That caused a precipitous drop in can sales — essentially Culmination’s lifeline during COVID-19.

Sluiter still owns a minority stake in Culmination but said he gave up control to the brewery’s board of directors.

“I saw the writing on the wall a while ago, so I was trying to put together a separate (company) that could buy Culmination’s assets and some other breweries to create a brewing alliance,” he said. “But the person who was going to bankroll that isn’t going to be able to fund it for a year.”

Mark Hush, Culmination’s CEO, or George Spady, Culmination’s board secretary, didn’t immediately return calls seeking a comment.

After buying out its contract with Columbia, Culmination signed with Running Man Distributing, but Sluiter said the arrangement hasn’t allowed the brewery to return to sales anywhere near its production capacity.

“Running Man owns our rights now, but they don’t have the scale to get us back to where we were,” Sluiter said.

Phil Birnbaum, Running Man’s owner, said he wasn’t aware the situation was so dire.

“I’m finding out with the rest of the market here, but they’ve always been a strong brand and I hope they can continue to make great beer,” he said. “We are an admittedly small distributor, but in the year and a half since we’ve been selling them, they’ve always been a really strong, fast-moving brewery for us.”

Sluiter said increased labor costs, among other increased expenses post-pandemic, added to the brewery’s approaching demise.

“Before COVID, people had the mentality that, I love this business and I love working in it and I’ll take whatever amount of money for it,” he said.

“A lot of people were working for less than their value, and that was a mindset correction after COVID hit. Afterward, people weren’t coming to work for $35,000 a year, and rightfully so.

“But when labor costs go up, utilities go up, your rent goes up, while your wholesale production stays bottlenecked and your retail hasn’t recovered, it’s just not a sustainable equation.”

Sluiter said he’s spent the past 23 years of his life in craft beer as a professional, and it’s “a really strange prospect” to not be submersed in the culture and the business of craft beer.

“I think I’m just going to take a minute and focus on my music and my family and the other parts of my life that I care about,” Sluiter said. “Maybe just go home and have a glass of wine.

“I just want to say it’s been a joy being part of this industry, and I got to work with some of the most talented and creative people around the world that I have ever met in my life,” he said. “In general, my partners have been incredibly supportive and great people to know and work with.”

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