Right on the heels of the news that Portland’s Lompoc Brewing is closing after 23 years in business, there are two more closures to report on.

The day after the Lompoc announcement, Bent Shovel Brewing of Oregon City announced the closing of its tasting room and patio—but the good news there is that it’s closing due to excessive traffic, while the brewery itself is doing fine. From the release:

Bent Shovel Brewing has been forced to move its patio and tasting room operations due to the traffic impact the demand for its beer has had on its rural neighborhood.

For the past four years, Bent Shovel Brewing has been handcrafting a range of beer styles on a 10-barrel system in a retrofitted red barn located along the Clackamas River on the outskirts of Oregon City.

The brewery’s business is strong, and it continues to grow thanks to the support of craft beer lovers from around the region. Bent Shovel has experienced strong double digit year over year growth for the past three years. In early 2018, co-owner Rick Strauss was able to leave his corporate job and dedicate 100% of his time to the brewery. At that time, he doubled the brewery’s production capacity with the purchase of a new 10 BBL brewhouse to keep up with growing demand.

Bent Shovel Brewing is working on securing a nearby location with a similar patio atmosphere and customer experience.

Rural breweries and traffic is definitely something to be considered when opening a tasting room. The Ale Apothecary here in Bend, for instance, had a County-imposed limit on traffic to the brewery, which help spur the opening of its tasting room in the town proper.

The other closure was confirmed by Jeff Alworth today: Portland’s Rock Bottom Brewery is closed. Jeff confirmed by phone:

A few minutes ago, Niki Ganong posted a question asking if the Portland location of the Rock Bottom Brewpub was closed. It was listed that way by Google, and the website returned a “Page Not Found” warning.

Well, it’s true. I called and a cheery voice answered. I asked if they were open, though, and her tone changed to somber. “No.” When did you get the news, I asked? “This morning.” I gave her and everyone there my condolences. Three days after Lompoc Brewing announced its departure, we’ve lost another one.

And Brewpublic has a story on it now as well:

Rock Bottom first opened in downtown Denver in 1991 and was named after the fact that it was located at the base of the Prudential Building. The brewery then opened locations across the country, including one here in Portland that was located at 206 SW Morrison Street. Other locations across the country continue to do business, but after the closures in Seattle and Bellevue a few years ago, Rock Bottom is no longer part of the beer scene across the Pacific Northwest.

So with Lompoc that’s two Portland breweries closing that opened in the 1990s.