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Hood River's Full Sail Brewing was one of the pioneers of Oregon craft brewing.

(Mike Francis / The Oregonian)

This story has been updated.

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Full Sail Brewing, one of Oregon's pioneering craft breweries, has agreed to sell a controlling interest to a group led by Encore Consumer Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm.

The result of the employee vote was first reported by The New School Beer blog.

The Hood River-based brewing company has been owned by its employees through an employee stock ownership plan. As The Oregonian reported last month, the employees were preparing to vote on whether to pass control to a new group of investors.

Full Sail was in the forefront of Oregon's craft brewing revolution, launching in 1987 with a $250,000 investment from the state's lottery-backed Oregon Resource and Technology Development Corp. It repaid that investment, plus a profit, to the state and launched on a path to become one of Oregon's most popular breweries, producing more than 115,000 barrels in 2013.

Encore Consumer Capital has invested in a variety of consumer products companies, including Aidells Sausage Co., Ciao Bella Gelato, Van Law Food Products, Juice Tyme, Isopure and others. It has exited some of those investments through sales of its stake to companies such as J&J Snack Foods and Nestle Purina.

-Mike Francis

@oregonianmike

mfrancis@oregonian.com