The Company
The Pacific Northwest has been one of the hotbeds of the recent craft beer revolution. However, Oregon has been a central hub for craft brewing for the past 30 years. One of the most visible of the bunch has been Rogue, a small brewery based, not in Portland, but in Newport. Like most microbrewries, Rogue was started by a couple of home brewers who had more of a passion for their beer than for their respective professions. Eventually, in 1988, they took the plunge and built a small brewpub in the scenic city of Ashland, which also known for its
Shakespearian festival. Eventually, they outgrew that space, and settled into the waterfront town of Newport, about 120 miles south of Portland. The story about how they settled in Newport is the stuff of beer legend, but one of the conditions in their lease was that they “take care of the fisherman,” i.e., they provide for the local community.
Rogue has been striving to do just that during the ensuing 24 years, by remaining active in their community, even naming a number of beers after some of their first patrons. Recently, they’ve been taking that one step further. According to an
article in the
Portland Business Journal, in 2008, Rogue made a bold decision to go “all-Oregon” in the making of some of its craft brews, meaning it would locally source all the water, barley, hops and yeast used in production. They quickly acquired farmland in the surrounding areas, and is now supplying its own barley and hops. Rogue has not stopped there, continuing to expand its agricultural empire to other ingredients, including rye. honey, and even their own hop variety.
The Beer
Most know that Rogue seriously brings it with many of its beers, especially Dead Guy Ale, which is delicious on a number of levels. As mentioned, increasingly Rogue has been developing and expanding a “Farms” series (formerly Chatoe) from their farm-fresh ingredients. This includes the Good Chit Pilsner (right), a Czech style pilsner, made with Rogue hopyards liberty hops and Rogue Farms floor malted barley. It pours a translucent pale yellow, virtually see-thru, with a thin head on top. You can faintly smell the barley, and a bit of the hops, and it comes together in what can be described as a bit like an earthy, barnyard straw (that’s not bad). It has good, crisp carbonation, not unlike a traditional light American pilsner. Initially, it tastes mildly hoppy, as the style warrants, with a slight bitter bite at the end. Ultimately, it’s a pretty well-balanced beer, but ultimately uninspiring. To a degree, you can’t vary much within the Czech-style, and based on the price-point (about $8 for a 22 oz bomber), you might be better off picking up a 6-pack of Pilsner Urquell. Even so, I commend Rogue for their vision and look forward to future selections.
Ratebeer: 3.36/5
Beeradvocate: 3.81/5
Rogue: http://rogue.com/index.php
Rogue Farms:
http://roguefarmsblog.wordpress.com/