Oregon’s beer industry lost an iconic company when Newport-based Rogue Ales, an early pioneer in craft brewing, abruptly shut down its brewery and brew-pubs in mid-November, and filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy on Nov. 24.
Rogue was the 50th largest craft brewery in the U.S., according to industry group Brewer’s Association.
But for Jamie Floyd, co-founder of Eugene’s Ninkasi Brewing, the closure of Rogue Ales carries a personal connection.
“John Maier, the founding brewer there, was one of my mentors when I was a young brewer and still a friend of mine. So yeah, those are sad things to hear,” he said.
Maier oversaw production ranging from Rogue’s well-known Dead Guy Ale to unusual projects, like its Beard Beer, which used a strain of wild yeast that was cultured from Maier’s beard.
But Rogue is not the only brewery connected to Floyd to close this year. He was also close with Shaun O’Sullivan, the co-founder at California’s 21st Amendment Brewery, another large craft brewer that recently shut down.
“Shaun worked at the same company as I did, Steelhead [Brewery], and I have a very long connection with the owners of that company and us, and they're an iconic Bay Area brewery,” he said.
Steelhead Brewery closed in early 2024. Rogue and 21st Amendment followed more than a year later.
The latter two are among the roughly 250 breweries to shut down this year, according to Matt Gacioch, staff economist at the craft beer industry group Brewers Association.
While many of the closed breweries are not nationwide household names, the closure of leaders comes with a certain impact.
“I feel like there's just a lot of shock,” said Lisa Allen, Vice President of the Oregon Brewers Guild and owner and brewmaster of Heater Allen Brewing in McMinnville. “It is a brewery that people outside of Oregon know of. So when they hear it, they're like, ‘oh, Rogue closed. I know that brewery.’”
The beer industry went through a boom in the 2010s. That was led by breweries like Rogue, which took advantage of the local agriculture that Floyd cites as a reason Oregon became a beer hotspot.
“We're really blessed to have ingredients grown here locally, including hops. There’s been a long tradition for brewing,” he said.
But things have changed, especially since 2020.
“We've seen over the last couple of years, the production and sales of craft beer has been in low single digit decline,” said Brewers Association Economist Matt Gacioch. “We saw, in 2024, the first year in about 20 years that brewery closings outpaced brewery openings.”
Store shelves have become more crowded, according to Gacioch, not just with beer from a growing number of breweries, but also with alcoholic ciders, seltzers and other beverages.
That leaves all brewers searching for an edge.
“The types of challenges we have, people drinking less beer, it costing more money to make. It hurts a big brewery, just like it does a small brewery,” said Matt Van Wyk, co-founder of AleSong Brewing and Blending in Eugene.
Van Wyk started AleSong nine years ago, though its process of aging beer in barrels for 12-18 months means it was only a few years into selling its product when beer sales began to slow nationally.
That slowdown has led brewers such as Van Wyk to diversify. AleSong also makes cider and wine, and it runs a tasting room and restaurant southwest of Eugene, where its property butts against well-known winery King Estates, adding another stop for wine tourists.
“There are people who maybe don't like our beer, and it's totally fine, but if you drink wine or cider, maybe you can get that we've had people come out to our tasting room, where we have a full kitchen now, and not everyone knows it, but you can get lunch and dinner there,” he said.
Ninkasi has also diversified its beverages under the name Great Frontier Holdings, adding a cider brand and making seltzer. It also leases time on its brewing equipment to other beer makers.
Its growth from the Ninkasi and other brands means Great Frontier passed Floyd’s mentor at Rogue, making it the 28th largest craft brewer in the U.S.
“There are certain breweries that are better positioned to meet the demands of those changing habits, and I think that's what we're seeing,” said Allen.
Though, diversifying may not be enough. The Lincoln Chronicle reports that the first thing Rogue Ales shut down months before it shuttered entirely was its spirits operation. And it also closed several restaurants along with its brewery.
Van Wyk said what ultimately matters is patronage.
“The first thing I tell people when they ask, ‘Can you believe Rogue closed down?’ is when's the last time you went to Newport and bought a beer from them? When's the last time you cracked a six pack? Now, some people do, but if you don't support the breweries, they're going to go away,” he said.
Gacioch was careful to say these are not craft beer’s final breaths. He said the proper term is to call it an industry that is maturing after its early boom.
“There are something like eight, nine times as many craft brewers as there were 20 years ago,” he said. “This is an industry that has grown, and we're not kind of seeing a steep drop off. It's more of a leveling out over the last few years.”
Floyd compared the craft beer industry to the product itself.
“The beauty of beer is that beer is a biochemical set of reactions, and there's a biology to it that forces it to change all the time,” he said.
Change and mature, just like most industries.
