Eugene has seen some recent closures and changes in its breweries. KLCC’s Rachael McDonald spoke with Portland-based brewery industry consultant Ezra Johnson-Greenough who writes about the beer industry in his blog, New School Beer.
McDonald: In a recent article, you described recent brewery closures in Eugene as a microcosm of what's happening in the craft beer industry overall. Would you share a little bit of what you've observed of what's happening in Eugene with craft beer?
Johnson-Greenough: Eugene is one of the oldest cities to have a great craft beer scene in Oregon. You know, craft breweries have existed there from the beginning. You know, there was, Steelhead Brewing to Track Town. But it also hadn't really grown that much for a while like it had been kind of a stable scene. And then in the past, you know, four or five years, a number of breweries have popped up and breweries have popped up all across the country and it's unclear based on the current market if the industry or if the fans can support all these breweries, especially some that have grown quite large or they grew anticipating continued growth, that then has completely flatlined or even decreased, especially with all the competition from breweries across the country
McDonald: I think the most high profile closure was Ninkasi’s Better Living Room, which was the restaurant in its brewery building in the Whiteaker. But the brewery itself will remain. Can you describe kind of what's happening with Ninkasi right now?
Johnson-Greenough: Ninkasi is the perfect example of one of those breweries that became really popular and really blew up when craft beer was kind of exploding in growth, which was circa 2011. And they really caught that wave and were one of the hottest breweries in the country. And I believe they're still one of the top 50 largest breweries in the country. But, they put a lot of money and time and expansion in there and that market has really shrunk, especially for breweries that have been around for 10-plus years. And they're just feeling that the bottom line is suffering because they're trying to run a restaurant while food costs are exploding and beer costs are exploding, and the profit margin is not there.
McDonald: There is some good news for beer lovers too with Gratitude Brewing reopening in partnership with Trade Winds catering. Do you think this might be a good way to go about combining beer and food service?
Johnson-Greenough: Yes. And it's becoming a model that a lot of breweries are going with now. A lot of breweries are partnering with food trucks or other food vendors to run the kitchen and food program to take that off their hands and maybe give it to somebody that's more capable of running that and make it their focus. We're certainly seeing that happen a lot in Portland now where a lot of breweries do not run their own food. Customers want food. But, it's hard to deliver it to them and make it profitable.
McDonald: Other changes we're seeing are Alesong Brewing, which has closed its tasting room in the fifth street market in Eugene and then Old 99 Brewing, which opened a restaurant in Eugene, but the Roseburg based brewery has since closed their Eugene location. What's happening with that?
Johnson-Greenough: Yeah, the Old 99 Brewing is a perfect example of a brewery that I think expanded quickly a lot at once. They haven't been around that long and then they merged with this other restaurant called Loggers Pizza. And they were on this kind of rapid growth ascent and this was in circa 2019, when the craft beer industry was already beginning to slow, and then we know what happened in 2020 with COVID. So it really hasn't panned out and seems like it was probably a little bit of an ill-conceived plan to expand so much, which is another thing you're seeing a lot of breweries do is they pull back, focus on their main core market, and on what they do best instead of trying to branch out to new areas, new neighborhoods.
McDonald: Well, anything else you think is important to mention about what's happening with the industry?
Johnson-Greenough: I think that it's really important to support your local craft brewery. If that's something you're interested in, if you want to see those businesses survive. I mean, the combination of Dry January and Sober October and people's changing lifestyles, drinking less alcohol. Which, has obviously health benefits. But also, it can be done in a sustainable manner and we gotta support these small business owners, especially going into the winter.
