In a place and an era when small, independent breweries are proliferating and their beers are selling better than ever, Portland Brewing represents a kind of third stage in the evolution of the industry.

The company was founded in 1986 by Portland brewing pioneers Fred Bowman and Art Larrance, who helped introduce Northwesterners to the idea of small-batch, independently brewed, full-flavored beers. Six years later, Portland developed the beer still regarded as its flagship, MacTarnahan's Amber Ale.

About that same time, the company starting building its showpiece on Northwest 31st Avenue and Industrial Street – a brewery and restaurant called the Portland Brewing Taproom and Grill. In keeping with the industrial neighborhood, its dominant feature is the pair of massive, gleaming copper kettles just inside the entrance.

As it turned out, the company overestimated its future growth, borrowing money to invest and expand. It even conducted a series of direct public offerings, raising about $7 million by selling shares to investors who were promised a pint of beer a day for life.

But the public financial reports showed that brewery was in trouble. In 1998, original investor Robert "Mac" MacTarnahan took control by assuming $3.5 million in the brewery's debt. Six years later he sold the increasingly unprofitable and financially precarious company to Pyramid Breweries. Pyramid renamed the subsidiary MacTarnahan's Brewing.

Then Pyramid was sold. Three times.

Now the ultimate owner of the Northwest Portland brewery is Florida Ice and Farm, a Costa Rican company that acquired North American Breweries of Rochester, N.Y. in 2012. Doug Hodges, brewery manager for the Northwest Portland facility, now known again as Portland Brewing, says he reports to managers in the Eastern time zone. And he said, after some lean years in northwest Portland, these owners are investing in the business again.

The Portland Brewing Company Taproom still draws a crowd, especially on sunny days when the patio fills with people quaffing a MacTarnahan's, ZigZag River lager or one of the other beers brewed on premises.

The names have changed, but the brewing never stopped.

-- Mike Francis