When Professor Tom Shellhammer started working in OSU’s Fermentation Science Program in 2001, he remembers there being around 3,000 breweries in the United States. Each fall, when he would teach his Introduction to Wine, Beer and Spirits class, he would update the statistics on his slideshow and watch the number jump.
“The question was how big it was going to get,” Shellhammer said. “Those numbers went from 3,000 to close to 10,000, and you start to wonder how many breweries our country can actually support.”
It seems that, in Eugene, breweries have found the tipping point. Locally owned craft breweries have been closing, downsizing, or moving to wholesale production out of town in line with a nationwide slowdown in the craft beer industry. In 2025, Manifest Brewing, Viking Brewing, and HOP Valley all closed their Eugene taprooms. This year, Arable Brewing followed suit…