INSIDE: DEAR ABBY, HOROSCOPE, PUZZLES & FEATURES
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B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 2021
bendbulletin.com/business
Stacks of canned beer are ready to go March 19 as Luke Krall uses a forklift to move
kegs at Sunriver Brewing Co.’s production facility in Sunriver. Dean Guernsey/Bulletin photo
Despite losses in sales, Central Oregon
breweries
remain flexible
BY SUZANNE ROIG • The Bulletin
N
o one has to remind
craft brewer Packy Deenihan
that he must remain flexible
and innovative.
It’s an integral part of his
business plan.
Brewers innovate with
flavors all the time. The past
year is no exception. Some
used the COVID-19 period of
great disruption as a time to
renovate, revamp and rebrand.
Others used the time to shift
to selling more packaged
products to consumers because
their keg sales were depressed
by restaurant closures or
limited capacity imposed by
the government as a way to
The results of their work line
store shelves, jockeying with the
next brewer for consumer atten-
tion. In 2020, more than 1.14 mil-
lion barrels of malted beverages
were sold in Oregon by 224 brew-
ers, compared to 1.46 million bar-
rels sold in 2019 by 265 brewers,
according to data provided by the
Oregon Liquor Control Commis-
sion.
“No one knows what the dis-
tribution (difference) is between
packaged beer versus keg beer,”
said Deenihan, president and co-
owner of Bend Brewing Co. “I
think it will still tilt toward pack-
aged beer. A large part of the com-
munity still feels safer at home.”
As the number of positive
COVID-19 cases wane and fewer
people die from the virus, brewers
are seeing draft beer sales increase .
At the height of the pandemic
when deaths and cases soared,
draft beer sales at Bend Brewing
Co. w ere nearly zero, Deenihan
said. They are also seeing sales
from their collaborations.
On March 19, Bend Brewing
Co. and Newport Avenue Mar-
ket released a limited-release beer
to benefit the Hunger Prevention
Coalition of Central Oregon. A
portion of the sale of every 4-pack
goes to the coalition.
While partnerships, or beer
for a purpose, are not unusual, it
is unusual for a grocery store to
partner with a brewer.
“Two big iconic super-local
businesses collaborating,” Deeni-
han said. “It’s unique for a brewery
to collaborate with a grocery store.
Normally we collaborate with
other breweries , but this one really
works.”
At the start of the pandemic,
it became quickly apparent that
brewers needed their product in
consumer-ready packages, said
Christina LaRue, Oregon Brew-
ers Association executive director.
Quickly they had to rev up their
canning lines, obtain more cans or
hire a mobile canner.
“There are more cans out there
now, but there’s only so much re-
tail space in the market or bot-
tle shops,” she said. “That won’t
change. For every brewer who
falls off the shelf, there’s another to
replace it.”
At established large brewer-
ies like Deschutes Brewery and
Sunriver Brewing
Co., they were able to
shift easily. At Bone-
yard Beer, which
is now under the
Deschutes Brewery umbrella,
the brewery had to ramp up can-
ning plans because keg sales were
nearly extinct. Some of the larger
breweries will be able to keep up,
La Rue said. Others will have to
juggle.
“Everyone is pretty tentative
right now,” La Rue said. “We’ve
seen in the past 12 months how
quickly things can change. Resil-
ience is the main lesson from the
past 12 months. The craft brewing
industry will hold on to that.
“They’ve learned how to adapt
and change and not to jump too
quickly.”
Draft beer sales are increasing
every day, said Michael LaLonde,
Deschutes Brewery CEO. It’s a
question of managing production
schedules between bottles or cans
and draft that’s based upon de-
mand, LaLonde said.
“With the reopening of the
on-premise sales, our keg racking
line is super busy,” LaLonde said.
“Everyone is cranking away, work-
ing hard to deliver to demand.”
See Breweries / C2
contain the spread of the virus.
Whiskey makers face worsening
hangover from EU tariff dispute
BY BRUCE SCHREINER
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A hangover
from Trump-era tariff disputes could
become even more painful for Amer-
ican whiskey distillers unless their en-
tanglement in a trans-Atlantic trade
fight is resolved soon.
Bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and
rye whiskey were left out of recent
breakthroughs to start rebuilding
U.S. trade relations with the Euro-
pean Union and the United King-
dom in the wake of Donald Trump’s
presidency. Tariffs were suspended
on some spirits, but the 25% tariffs
slapped on American whiskey by the
EU and UK remain in place. And the
EU’s tariff rate is set to double to 50%
in June in the key export market for
U.S. whiskey makers.
A leading spirits advocate is im-
ploring top U.S. trade envoy Kather-
ine Tai to not leave whiskey producers
behind. The Distilled Spirits Council
of the United States urged her to press
for an immediate suspension
of the European tariffs and to
secure agreements removing
them.
“Swift removal of these tar-
iffs will help support U.S. work-
ers and consumers as the econ-
omy and hospitality industry
continue to recover from the pan-
demic,” the council said in a recent
statement after Tai was confirmed
by the Senate.
See Whiskey / C2
Kentucky
distilleries craft
95%
of the world’s
bourbon supply