PORTLAND — Portland Brewing, one of the Portland craft beer scene’s founding breweries, will stop production after 34 years in downtown and industrial Northwest Portland next month, according to a post on the brewery’s Facebook page. The brewery will produce its last MacTarnahan’s Amber Ale by Feb. 5.
The brewery was founded in 1986 in what is now the Pearl District by three giants of the city’s early brewing scene: Fred Bowman, Jim Goodwin and Art Larrance. Eventually, the brewery was renamed after lead investor Mac MacTarnahan, whose name graced the brewery’s flagship amber ale, and relocated from its original home to a sprawling Northwest Portland space with a copper kettle brewhouse and European-style beer hall up front.
Portland Brewing went through a series of mergers and ownership changes in the 2000s, including a sale to Seattle’s Pyramid Brewing, before landing in the portfolio of Costa Rican holding company Florida Ice & Farm Co. The Portland Brewing brand was revived in 2013 in a move that sought to revive interest in the company. But the Northwest Portland brewpub closed to the public in 2018, citing the “challenging restaurant market,” though the company carried on selling packaged beers on grocery store shelves and through its occasional dock sales.
“The history of the Portland brewery and its brands made this a very difficult decision,” Florida Ice & Farm chief executive Rich Andrews wrote in a press release. “It just no longer made sense to sustain the operation given the brand footprint, competitive craft beer landscape, and capital investments needed to update the brewery.”
According to Willamette Week, which wrote about Portland Brewing’s demise on Saturday, Florida Ice & Farm Co. has no plans in place for the Northwest Portland brewery and its signature copper tanks.
