A prominent brewery in Bend that makes the top-selling porter in the U.S. sold the most beer within Oregon last year (not counting out-of-state brands), usurping the No. 1 spot from a major brewer in Portland that built its reputation on hefeweizen.
The bigger news is that both of these heavyweights sold significantly less beer to Oregonians in 2015 than in 2014. The Portland brewer sold 32,567 fewer 31-gallon "barrels" – the most common unit to measure beer production – a staggering 34 percent decrease.
The Bend brewer sold 2,832 fewer barrels, only a 3 percent reduction in-state, according to data from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
The swarm of young upstart breweries across the state seem be gobbling up (or chugging down?) the market share that the state's long-established breweries are losing as they set their sights on exports, while Oregon beer drinkers are perpetually looking for new and different brews.
The breweries that most dramatically increased Oregon sales last year were Buoy Brewery in Astoria, ramping up sales from fewer than 1,000 barrels in 2014 to nearly 3,000 in 2015, a 206 percent rise, followed by Three Creeks Brewing in Sisters (104 percent), Breakside Brewery in Milwaukie (79 percent), Pelican Brewing in Pacific City (76 percent) and Hop Valley Brewing in Springfield (54 percent).
See the chart below showing total taxable beer and cider barrels sold by Oregon brewers and cider-makers over the last decade. Remarkably, while the state's population has grown an estimated 9 percent, the amount of fermented beverages sold by these local producers in-state has increased 100 percent.
Yet, while Oregon's population has become ever more supportive of local beer and cider, that enthusiasm may have started to foam over: in 2015, total barrels sold in-state fell by 0.4 percent. Perhaps new out-of-state craft beer forces are beginning to chip away at local loyalty.
The Portland Business Journal is a KGW News partner.
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