Culmination Brewing plans to close its Northeast Portland taproom this month after a decade of producing some of the city’s most lauded beers.

“Since COVID, craft beer has been a very tough business, and with much gratitude and thanks to all the people who have supported Culmination Brewing Company, we have decided that now is the time to close both the tap room and the brewery,” the company posted Friday on Facebook.

Culmination said its last day will be Feb. 15. The brewery didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking additional details on the circumstances that triggered its closure.

Since opening in 2014, Culmination had won a succession of awards for its brews, including the Oregon Beer Awards’ Best New Brewery for 2015, Medium Brewery of the Year in 2020 and the gold medal for best beer in Classic UK Styles in 2024.

But Culmination had been struggling financially since the pandemic.

The company borrowed $400,000 from small investors in 2021 through a crowdfunding platform. It planned to spend $350,000 on new equipment and $50,000 on operations.

By 2023, though, the brewery was in a desperate position.

“We’re circling the drain,” co-founder Tomas Sluiter told The Oregonian/OregonLive at the time. “There’s no way out of this.”

Culmination blamed its woes on the pandemic shutdown and the loss of its deal with Columbia Distributing, which sharply curtailed the number of outlets carrying Culmination beer in cans.

The brewery held on, for a time.

Culmination hired business consultant Steven Shomler in 2023 to improve the brewery’s operations and branding. Last week, though, industry news site New School Beer reported that Culmination was 10 months behind in its bond payments. The website reported that the crowdfunding platform had sent Culmination to collections in December because it wasn’t repaying its backers.