The Final Closure in a Terrible Week

We’ll have to call it Black October. Since the start of the month, Laurelwood was sold (following the earlier closure of one of its pubs), and in the space of a week, Lompoc, the Portland Rock Bottom, and Cider Riot all announced their closures. And then, while I was working on the Cider Riot closure announcement, Coalition Brewing joined their ranks:

“Over the last nine and a half years, we have had the distinct privilege of brewing and serving beer in one of the greatest cities and craft beer cultures in the world. This chapter has been one of the most exciting, challenging, and gratifying experiences of our lives...and like all chapters, it must have an ending. So today, with a decade of fond memories to smile back upon, we are announcing that Coalition has closed our doors, and we will be pursuing new adventures to honor changes in our personal lives. We are extremely happy to say that friends and colleagues will be taking over our location, so you can look forward to more great beer coming out of the brewery for the neighborhood and beyond.”

An early warning of this closure had already appeared; eagle-eyed watchers noticed a new license application filed with the OLCC by Gorges Beer Company. The listed address was 2705 SE Ankeny—Coalition’s current location.*

Coalition is very near my house, and I remember walking by its first location—the other side of Ankeny Street—where new Siebel graduates Elan Walsky and Kiley Hoyt had carboys of wort bubbling away. The brewery was tentatively named Hobo then, and there were only 30 breweries in the city—a heady time right before a massive industry expansion. That was April 2009, and Coalition has been scenting my neighborhood with wort for the past decade.

The brewery is most known for having integrated CBD into an IPA cleverly named Two Flowers. They were the first to make it through the thicket of regulations to legally use CBD and it became their calling card, available all over town. (I had meant to do a story on that process, but now…). Coalition made great beer that would have made it one of the best breweries in any other city—but in Portland they were never able to climb out of that second tier. My faves were Space Fruit, a juicy West Coast IPA (yeah, Boston, we have had those for a long time) and Loving Cup Maple Porter—an homage to Hoyt’s roots in Vermont. I’ll miss you, guys.

I’m going to have to try to process all this, and maybe have something intelligent to say next week.

Be well, Portland, and take heart: October is over. Let’s hope November is brighter.

PHOTOS: Coalition Brewing