Saturday, September 12, 2009

Is that the Rogue Brewery down there?

"Is that the Rogue Brewery down there?"
"What? Where? I don't know."
"Looks like it. It says Rogue on the roof and there's a lot of big tanks around it."

D'oh!! How could we be driving through Newport, OR and I completely forget that the Rogue Brewery is located there?!? Thanks to my observant wife who spotted the brewery as we were driving across the bridge, the potential tragedy of missing out on fresh Rogue beers in their hometown was averted. Since we also wanted to grab some lunch, we went to the Rogue Ales Public House across the bay from the brewery instead of the brewery itself. Various beers from Rogue are available down here in Texas, but there were many listed on the board that I had never heard of. Knowing we were only there for a quick lunch before continuing our drive up the Oregon coast, I settled on ordering half-pints so I could experience a few more beers. The notable ones were:

Latona 20th Anniversary Ale - An American Strong Ale, it was brewed in honour of the first draft account for Rogue in Seattle. Its brewed using only one malt (a special aromatic malt from France) and one hop (a new variety of Mt. Rainier hops).

Sesquicentennial Ale - Brewed in honour of Oregon celebrating 150 years of statehood and designed to showcase Oregon-grown Ingredients. I really enjoyed this one and picked up a bottle of it to bring back.

Menage a Frog Ale - A Belgian Style Trippel that is actually brewed at the Issaquah Brewhouse in Seattle which was acquired by Rogue Brewing in 2000. It was fantastic and I bought a bottle of this to bring back as well.

As far as the food goes, I had the best fish and chips that I've ever tasted. The fish was moist and juicy with a light batter that had lots of dill mixed right in it. I think it may have ruined me for any other fish and chips.

At our server's insistence, I joined the Rogue Nation which then got us a discount on our bill as well as on the bottles of beer I bought to take home. In addition to the Menage a Frog Ale and Sesquicentennial Ale, I also brought back a bottle of their Smoke Ale. I had no idea they even made a Rauchbier. We can buy their Chipotle Ale down here and I often pair it with barbecue, so I'm looking forward to doing the same with their Smoke Ale.

I could have easily spent the rest of the afternoon working through the list of their beer, but we had more beautiful Oregon coast to see as we made our way up to Cannon Beach for the night.

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