PORTLAND, OREGON – Body. Aroma. Mouthfeel. The characteristics of which most things are judged, beer being no exception. And as proven by this year’s Great American Nano Fest, size is not important.

The Great American Nano Fest – a celebration of all things Nano; breweries, food carts, music, craft vendors, and artists – was held outside the Buckman Botanical Brewery and Green Dragon in southeast Portland. The kid and dog friendly event offered festival goers the latest creations from more than 30 of Oregon’s smallest and most innovative brewers.

Nano brewers at this year’s festival included: Beetje, Ambacht, Coalition, Fire Mountain, Columbia River, Green Dragon Brew Crew, Mt.Emily, Two Kilts, Pale Horse, Occidental, Upright, Boneyard, Flat Tail, Heater Allen, Migration, Beer Valley, Oregon Trail, Natian Brewery, Everybody’s, Big Al, Mutiny and the Chatoe Rogue Farmstead Brewery

The Great American Nano Fest raised $2,000 for the Buckman Arts Focus Elementary School. A big thank you goes to the vendors, breweries, sponsors and attendees for their support.

See you at next year’s festival, August 25 – 26, 2012!

TYGH VALLEY, OREGON – The harvest season is over at the Rogue Farms Micro Barley Farm. Tests of Rogue’s GYO Certified Risk™ and Dare™ malting barley show the kernels met specifications for plump, protein and moisture.

Rogue plows, plants, grows and harvests 200 acres of Risk™ and Dare™ barley on its Micro Barley Farm in the terroir of Oregon’s Tygh Valley Appellation. Preparations are underway to seed next year’s winter malting barley crop.

But the harvest is just the beginning of the artisan, hands-on process of growing beer and spirits.

From the farm, the barley is bagged and divided into batches, some of which go to Rogue’s Micro Malting and Floor Malting facilities. Steeping, germinating, drying and roasting in small batches allows Rogue to ensure the quality, variety, roast and flavor of its micro and floor malts.

At the Rogue Brewery and Distillery in Newport, Oregon the Rogue Farms Risk™ Malt is milled, smoked, mashed and used to brew two unique products; Chatoe Rogue Good Chit Pilsner and Good Chit Whiskey, which is distilled, smithed, ocean aged and bottled by hand.

“Chit” refers to the start of the rootlets that emerge from the embryo of the kernel once steeping is complete and germination begins.

Located along the Oregon Trail – the Tygh Valley terroir includes 300 days of sunshine, cool winters, warm summers and fresh water from wilderness mountain streams. This virtually guarantees the Micro Barley Farm gets the right amount of sun, nutrients and moisture to produce world class crops of malting barley.

Rogue Creamery President, David Gremmels, and Rogue Brewmaster, John Maier, have completed Day 2 of the People’s Coast Classic – a benefit of for the Arthritis Foundation – with a wicked 83 mile leg, including a clime over Cascade Head! Keep up the good work Dave & John!

TYGH VALLEY, OREGON – The 2011 harvest of Rogue GYO (Grow Your Own) Certified Risk™ and Dare™ malting barley just wrapped up and everything points to another A+ year.

Lab results show that the barley, grown on the Rogue Farms Micro Barley Farm in the terroir of Oregon’s Tygh Valley Appellation, will hit ideal specifications for plump, protein and moisture. 200 acres of Risk™ and Dare™ malting barley were harvested this year and preparations are underway to seed next year’s winter malting barley crop.

“It’s an exciting thing to see the start of what will be next year’s Oregon Single Malt Whiskey” said Rogue Spirits President Beth Gilden. “This is just the beginning of a long, hands-on process for us. The barley that we grow here will be malted, smoked, milled, brewed into a whiskey mash, distilled, smithed, aged, and bottled all by us before it ends up in a glass, so I was anxious to get the barley out of the ground and get the whiskey going.” Despite the time and energy it takes, growing their own ingredients allows Rogue to ensure the quality and flavor profile of their spirits.

Rogue began distilling in 2003. Every Rogue spirit is distilled, smithed, and bottled by hand. Each spirit reflects Rogue’s unique terroir from the Tygh Valley appellation in the rain shadow of Mt. Hood to the Pacific Ocean in Newport, OR.

The full line of rogue spirits includes:

• Chatoe Rogue Oregon Single Malt Whiskey made • from 100% malted barley grown on Rogue’s barley farm in Tygh Valley
• Dead Guy Whiskey distilled from Dead Guy Ale
• Spruce Gin, a fourteen ingredient gin featuring the flavor or the Oregon Coast Range
• Pink Gin aged in Oregon Pinot Noir Barrels
• Hazelnut Rum distilled with crushed-toasted Hazelnut
• Dark Rum made from 100% Hawaiian Cane Sugar

For more information and updates, please visit the Almanacs page of www.ROGUE.com.

Download the Rogue Nation Department of Agriculture’s August 2011 Crop Report by clicking on the image.