Economist: No Need to Panic About Brewery Closures But More Are Coming

Josh Lehner says Oregon's beer industry is maturing, although still much healthier than other industries.

(Commons, Christine Dong)

A state economist says it's premature for craft brew lovers to start crying in their beer.

Last week, WW reported the closure of The Commons, located at 630 Southeast Belmont St.

Related: The Commons is closing and will be replaced by a California brewery.

The Commons won critical acclaim, including from WW, which named its Urban Farmhouse saison the 2013 beer of the year. It will cease production at the end of 2017.

Today, Josh Lehner, a state economist offered his perspective on the closure. Lehner noted that the failure rate for Oregon breweries has been far lower than the failure rate in other industries.

Lehner thinks closures like that of the Commons will become more frequent.

"I do think the brewery closure rate will increase in the coming years. It is likely to converge toward the rates seen in other industries," he writes.

"Currently, the growing and largely successful beer industry is enticing even more breweries to enter. Eventually this will lead to (over)saturation and for closures to rise as a result. Given that consumer trends, size of brewery, location of brewery and the like all play huge roles, I don't know where exactly the industry is in this process, but it is in there somewhere."

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