HOOD RIVER — Full Sail Brewing Company, Oregon’s third-oldest craft beer producer, has sold to an international spirits giant that subsequently laid off at least 20 people on Nov. 2, according to four current and former employees.
The restaurant, beloved for its beer cheese soup and chicken pot pie, is shuttered for good. And while production staff remains employed, the Full Sail and Session labels will likely phase out of existence as new owner Sazerac brings its beer-less portfolio of more than 525 brands — including Fireball, Margaritaville, BuzzBallz and Paddy’s Irish Whiskey — into the former pear cannery on Columbia Street.
“We were all in shock that morning,” said Brenya Rayo, a former line lead in the brew pub’s kitchen who started working at Full Sail in January 2024. “Even after leaving, we were not able to grasp it.”
On Nov. 1, Rayo’s shift went along as normal, apart from the extra prep work she had to complete because the head chef was about to leave on vacation. Then, all of the brew pub staff were told it would be closing immediately during a 9 a.m. meeting last Monday.
Stacy Hogan was a senior server and bartender, part of the core group that stayed when staff swelled to roughly 40 people during the summer months, then dipped as winter came around. Having worked at Windmer Brothers when its pub and tasting room shut down in 2019, she saw some warning signs over the weekend, but Hogan said there was still “a lot of tears shed.”
“My coworkers at Full Sail were my first friends when I came out here,” she said, noting how they would celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas together. “That’s definitely one of the hardest parts to digest for a lot of us — that we’re not working together anymore.”
One current employee, who works in production and requested anonymity to protect his job, wasn’t surprised by the sale, though he remains bitter about losing the pub that senior management “begged and pleaded” to save without notice.
After nearly two decades of employee ownership, a private equity firm called Encore Consumer Capital purchased Full Sail in 2015. The goal was always to flip it for profit, and the fact that it took so long speaks to how much the craft beer industry is struggling right now, he said.
When Full Sail opened in 1987, there were only 150 breweries across the United States, according to the Brewers Association. That figure peaked in 2024 at 9,922 locations. Paired with generational consumption differences and equipment only designed for massive batches, Full Sail’s brands have been struggling for years as beer routinely expired on store shelves.
“There is such a thing as peak beer, and I think we may have hit it,” the employee said. “Full Sail was doing ‘90s beer well after the ‘90s ... What was becoming cutting edge and hot and selling well, they didn’t really do.”
At one point, he explained that Full Sail was churning out three full-sized batches of its signature Amber Ale a week, which eventually slowed to once every five months. To reverse the financial slide, contract brewing for other companies became the priority under Encore and accounted for roughly 95% of total production when it sold.
Sazerac has yet to tell staff what they’ll be brewing in the coming months. The building will be busy, and Full Sail has existing contracts to complete; however, it’s all but certain that beer won’t be getting canned and packaged unless the industry takes a dramatic turn.
“They’re very good at whiskey, bourbon and slick, high-end cocktails,” he said. “They’re at the top of the food chain. They’re amazing at it, but beer? No.”
Full Sail’s brewery office did not respond to a phone call placed last week, and Sazerac declined to answer additional questions beyond the following email statement: “The Full Sail team has created a strong business plus production and manufacturing capabilities, and this acquisition enables us to add additional capacity and capabilities to our network.”
With the transition unfolding, Full Sail’s impact on local craft beer remains undeniable. The brewers who founded pFriem, Double Mountain, Kings and Daughters, Solera, Everybody’s and Ferment all started at the company, another current employee shared. Full Sail would have celebrated its 40th anniversary next year.
As for Reyo and Hogan, they’re both looking for new jobs and want to stay local. Reyo assured that the back of house crew is resilient, thanking community members for their outcry following the announcement. Between her one-week severance package, a side hustle and unemployment insurance, Hogan has enough to stay on her feet for now, and she encouraged folks to remember the memories shared.
“The true face of the company was the pub. We know what we meant to the community, and the community knew how much they meant to us,” Hogan said. The reputation of it, the history of it — I hope people don’t forget that.”
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