Rogue Chocolate Stout with Chocolate Manna

For the holiday season, experience a unique pairing of Chocolate Manna with Rogue Chocolate Stout.  Rogue Chocolate Stout is now available at Heavenly Chocolates.

Rogue Ale is a dark beer imported from Oregon, rich with the flavor of oats, malt and real chocolate, balanced with bitter-sweet hops.

(Link)

In the recent episode of Supernatural, “Live Free or Twi-hard” which originally aired October 22nd on the CW, we learned that Dead Guy Ale is not only a favorite of the living, but the un-dead as well. Dead Guy appears to be the beer of choice in this Vampire bar.

Dead Guy is featured on Uncrate this week, with a great photo!

http://www.uncrate.com/men/culture/drinks/rogue-dead-guy-ale/

Although you can’t actually buy Dead Guy from our website, as the link suggests, you can visit one of our pubs for a pour.

Issaquah’s new brewer, Steve Luke, is profiled in the press this week.

For some, it’s all about the wine, for others the sweetest part of life is coffee, but when it comes to quenching a thirst for Steve Luke, 26, it’s all about the beer.

“Beer is fun, it’s social and you get to make a product not only you enjoy, but other people enjoy, as well,” he said at a Meet the Brewer event Aug. 4.

“What I like most about it, though, wow, that’s tough. I like drinking it,” he said, with a laugh.

Setting foot inside Rogue’s Issaquah Brewhouse June 15, just days after passing his international brewers’ exam, Luke has hit the ground running and is planning to take the brews served there to new heights as the new master brewer.

Continue reading at the Issaquah Press.

http://www.issaquahpress.com/2010/08/10/the-new-brew/

An article from the Washington Post on Cascadian Dark Ales – they are a little behind the scene, but better late than never.  Rogue Ales was there first…

A Revolution is Brewing.

“As with most emerging styles, there is a debate over who got there first.  ”The question is a sticky one,” allows Abram Goldman-Armstrong, a beer writer from Portland who organized a Cascadian dark ale symposium in January to help draw up parameters for the style. Goldman-Armstrong asserts that the “first true CDA” he ever sampled was Skull Splitter from Rogue Ales in Newport, Ore., a special release for the 2003 Oregon Brewers Festival. He credits a home-brewing friend, Bill Wood of Seattle, with coining the term Cascadian dark ale.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/02/AR2010080204847.html

Published in the Beer Traveler

Rogue Brewery is ranked 49.

1. Great American Beer Festival, Denver, CO
2. Augustiner Keller, Munich, Germany
3. Abbaye de Notre-Dame d’Orval, Orval, Belgium
4. Monk’s Café, Philadelphia, PA
5. Great British Beer Festival, Earls Court, London, England
6. Schlenkerla Heller-Brau Trum, Bamberg, Germany
7. Horse Brass Pub, Portland, OR
8. Kulminator, Antwerp, Belgium
9. The Hopleaf, Chicago, IL
10. Toronado, San Francisco, CA
11. Zum Uerige, Dusseldorf, Germany
12. The Market Porter, Stoney Street, London, England
13. Oregon Brewers Festival, Portland, OR
14. U Fleku, Prague, Czech Republic
15. Andechs Monastery, Andechs, Germany
16. Falling Rock Tap House, Denver, CO
17. Fruh au Dom, Cologne, Germany
18. The Bull & Castle, Dublin, Ireland
19. Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany
20. Brouwer’s Cafe, Seattle, WA
21. Spuyten Duyvil, Brooklyn, NY
22. Brick Store Pub, Decatur, GA
23. Cantillon Brewery and Gueuze Museum, Belgium
24. Brauhaus Sion, Cologne, Germany
25. Henry’s 12th Street Tavern, Portland, OR
26. The Gingerman, Austin, TX
27. t’Bruges Biertja, Bruges, Belgium
28. The Brickskeller, Washington, DC
29. Bruxellensis Festival of Characterful Beers, Brussels, Belgium
30. The Flying Saucer, NC, SC, TN, MO, AR and TX
31. d.b.a., New York, NY
32. Kaffe de Hopduvel, Ghent, Belgium
33. The Great Lost Bear, Portland, ME
34. Spatenhaus au der Oper, Munich, Germany
35. Uber Tavern, Seattle, WA
36. The Blue Tusk, Syracuse, NY
37. Brauhaus Spandau, Berlin, Germany
38. The Wynkoop Brewery, Denver, CO
39. World Beer Festival, Durham/Raleigh, NC, Columbia, SC, Richmond, VA
40. Cadieux Café, Detroit, MI
41. Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, NY
42. Porterhouse (Temple Bar), Dublin, Ireland
43. Mondial de la Bière, Montreal, Quebec
44. Krčma, Ceske Krumlov, Czech Republic
45. Le Bier Circus, Brussels, Belgium
46. Library Ale House, Santa Monica, CA
47. Pizza Port & Port Brewing, Solana Beach, CA
48. Akkurat, Stockholm, Sweden
49. Rogue Brewery, Newport, OR
50. Great Canadian Beer Festival, Vancouver, BC
51. Marine Hotel, Stonehaven, Scotland
52. Clark Street Ale House, Chicago, IL
53. Baumgartner’s Cheese Store & Tavern, Monroe, WI
54. Czech Beer Festival, Prague, Czech Republic
55. The Beer Engine, Lakewood, OH
56. Au General Lafayette, Paris, France
57. Great Lakes Brewing, Cleveland, OH
58. Hofbrauhaus, Munich, Germany
59. Blue Moon Brewing at the SandLot, Coors Field, Denver, CO
60. Beer Club Popeye, Tokyo, Japan
61. Volo, Toronto, ON
62. Weihenstephan Brewery, Freising, Germany
63. Selin’s Grove Brewing, Selinsgrove, PA
64. Clark’s Ale House, Syracuse, NY
65. Piece Brewery, Chicago, IL
66. Wilimantic Brewing Co., Wilimantic, CT
67. Great Taste of the Midwest, Madison, WI
68. Brasserie Federal (Hopbahnhof), Zurich, Switzerland
69. Gritty McDuff’s, Portland, ME
70. Halve Maan Brewery, Bruges, Belgium
71. Sapporo Beer Garden, Higashi-ku, Japan
72. Blind Tiger Ale House, New York, NY
73. Brewer’s Art, Baltimore, MD
74. Birreria l’Orso Eletricco, Rome, Italy
75. Pivovarsky Klub, Prague, Czech Republic
76. Stumbling Monk, Seattle, WA
77. Belgo Central, London, England
78. Anchor Brewing Tasting Room, San Francisco, CA
79. Eulogy Belgian Tavern, Philadelphia, PA
80. Arend’s Nest, Amsterdam, Holland
81. The Gravity Bar, Guinness St. James Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland
82. The Australian Hotel, Sydney, Australia
83. Zly Casy, Prague, Czech Republic
84. Cooter Brown’s, New Orleans, LA
85. Delerium Café, Brussels, Belgium
86. The Olde Mitre Tavern, Ely Court, London, England
87. Delilah’s, Chicago, Illinois
88. Deschutes Brewery & Publick House, Bend, OR
89. Mahar’s, Albany, NY
90. Nederlands Biercafe ‘t Arendsnest, Amsterdam, Holland
91. Dogfish Head Ale House, Rehoboth Beach, DE
92. Sail and Anchor Brewpub, Fremantle, Australia
93. Mecklenburg Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio
94. The Map Room, Chicago, IL
95. The Publick House, Brookline, MA
96. Gosenschenke Ohne Bedenken, Leipzig, Germany
97. Holiday Ale Festival, Portland, OR
98. Olympen Mat og Vinhus, Oslo, Norway
99. O’Brien’s Pub, San Diego, CA
100. Antares Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
101. Bierproeflokaal In de Wildeman, Amsterdam, Holland
102. beerbistro, Toronto, Canada
103. Charlie’s Bar, Copenhagen, Denmark
104. McSorley’s Ale House, New York, NY
105. Die Weisse, Salzburg, Austria
106. Irseer Klosterbrauerei, Irsee, Germany
107. Max’s Tap House, Baltimore, MD
108. McMenamins Kennedy School Hotel, Portland, OR
109. Chez Moeder Lambic, Brussels, Belgium
110. Sunset Grille & Tap, Boston, MA
111. McNellie’s Bar, Tulsa, OK
112. PINT Bokbierfestival, Amsterdam, Holland
113. Redbones Restaurant, Somerville, MA
114. Sleeping Lady Brewery/Snow Goose Restaurant, Anchorage, AK
115. Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa, CA
116. The Happy Gnome, St. Paul, MN
117. Milltown, Carrboro, NC
118. Zythos Bier Festival, Sint Niklaas, Belgium
119. The Thirsty Monk, Asheville, NC
120. Goose Island Brewing, Chicago, IL
121. Sierra Nevada Brewing, Chico, CA
122. Moan and Dove, Amherst, MA
123. Neuzeller Kloster Brau, Neuzelle, Germany
124. Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield, England
125. Taco Mac, GA & TN
126. American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, Burlington, VT
127. The White Horse Pub, Parsons Green, London, England
128. Tinkoff, Moscow, Russia
129. 5 Seasons Brewing, Atlanta, GA
130. The Church Brew Works, Pittsburgh, PA
131. The Alibi Room, Vancouver, BC
132. Gösser Bierklinik, Vienna, Austria
133. Stockholm Beer & Whiskey Festival, Stockholm, Sweden
134. The Bell, Aldworth, Berkshire, England
135. Brouwerij ‘t Ij, Amsterdam, Holland
136. TY Harbor Brewery, Tokyo, Japan
137. The Heart & Thistle, Halifax, Nova Scotia
138. Ye Olde Chesire Cheese, London, England
139. The Sugar Maple, Milwaukee, WI
140. Mitchell’s Waterfront Brewery & Scottish Ale House, Cape Town, South Africa
141. Kelly’s Caribbean Bar, Grill & Brewery, Key West, FL
142. Cole’s, Buffalo, NY
143. Heineken Brewery, Amsterdam, Holland
144. The Dubliner, Washington, DC
145. Matt Brewery Tasting Room, Utica, NY
146. The Shakespeare, Aukland, New Zealand
147. Boxing Cat Brewery, Shanghai, China
148. Old Ebbitt Grill, Washington, DC
149. Bar 35, Honolulu, Hawaii
150. Mr. Sancho’s Beach, Cozumel, Mexico

Published May 3, 2010 on NBC New York, by Courtney Humiston

Rogue Ales, a microbrewery in Newport, Oregon, has made a reputation for itself in the world of the micro brew for making their beer in the traditional cask-conditioned style, which means allowing the live yeast to ferment the beer and create carbonation naturally as opposed to the filtered, pasteurized, gas-pressured keg method most often used today.

Tomorrow and Wednesday, May 4-5, Rogue is bringing 31 of their thoughtfully prepared brews to the Blind Tiger on Bleecker Street for the annual Pacific Northwest Celebration, which has been taking place for over 12 years (since the Tiger was on Hudson Street).

But wait, it gets better. Rogue was also kind enough to dig up 2,000 oysters from Newport’s Yaquina Bay (“we have a a special beer/oyster terroir going on,” says Sebbie Buhlre from Rogue), which are sweet and mild enough to suck down all night. (Although, it’s probably a good idea to get there early since last year they ran out at 6 p.m. on the second day.)

Beer may not be the first thing you think to pair with oysters, but oysters and stout have been a popular combination in Britain for a long time.

Lucy Saunders, author of “The Best of American Beer & Food” recently told the Washington Post that “depending on the method of cooking or garnishing, oysters can be sublime with stout because the dark-roasted malts provide a toasted sweetness to offset the brininess of the oyster.”

Buhler says they will have several stouts on tap that fit the bill: The Shakespeare Stout, Chocolate Stout (made with real bittersweet chocolate) and the Double Mocha Porter. Alan Jestice, a partner at the Tiger, recommends the Brutal Bitter, which “has big hoppy citrus flavors that activate the palette and create a third flavor beyond beer and bivalve.”

Where: The Blind Tiger Alehouse, 291 Bleecker Street nr. Barrow

When: May 4-5, 1 p.m. until the oysters last or the casks run dry

Published April 23, 2010 in GQ Magazine, by William Bostwick

We’re living in a golden age for beer. Chances are there are more taps at your corner bar these days than Creedence songs on the jukebox—and maybe more than you know what to do with. Come prepared with our list of the best beers out there and never fumble for a perfect pint again.

Published February 28, 2010 in the New York Times, by John Holl

BY 8:30 a.m., Glen Nile was elbow-deep in a bucket of Cascade hops, pulling apart the dry pods and releasing the lupulin, a resinous substance that plays a crucial role in the creation of beer. Meanwhile, Errol Chase, who goes by “Butch,” was pouring pints of oatmeal stout.

“When it is something you enjoy doing, it can hardly be considered work,” said Mr. Nile, 40, of Cumberland, R.I. “Plus, to work on a system like this is a real treat.”

Mr. Chase is a brewer. Mr. Nile is not. We were at the rustic Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery along with 20 others for an educational weekend of brewing. For some it was a chance to learn about the craft or to get advice on home brewing from the professionals. For others it was a gastronomical delight: two days of eating and drinking in the heart of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

As the American craft beer movement grows, so does the desire of drinkers to learn even more and to pry into the process. Breweries like Woodstock, it seems, are happy to oblige, offering experiences that go well beyond popping the top on a bottle of suds.

“People embrace it. They get into the tanks and clean them and everything,” Mr. Chase, Woodstock Inn’s head brewer, told me with a big grin. “It is like Tom Sawyer and painting the fence.”

If we were being taken advantage of, it sure didn’t bother us.

On a Saturday morning in November I found myself in the brew house watching John Andre Courchesne, a mail carrier from Rehoboth, Mass., heft a 55-pound bag of grain into a gristmill. It was the first step in what would be an hours’ long process of brewing a batch of Loon Golden Ale, which, after fermentation, would be ready to drink in a few weeks.

“It can seem a little strange to roll up your sleeves and get to work on vacation,” Mr. Courchesne said. “Something like this is a one-of-a-kind experience.”

Brewery tours are not new, of course. Back in the late 1800s Anheuser-Busch recognized that consumers were interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the process and created a theme park-like attraction at their flagship brewery, still popular in St. Louis.

According to Jeff Pitts, general manager of the brewery, roughly 350,000 people toured the 142-acre complex last year, learning the history of Budweiser and its sister beers, seeing decades’ worth of advertising and company trivia, and ending with a sample.

Until recently, most tours followed that model: a view of the brewing system, a quick history of the place, a sample or two of whatever is on tap and a T-shirt at the gift counter. But today, it’s not just the small craft breweries taking a more hands-on approach.

Jim Koch, president of the Boston Beer Company, which produces the Samuel Adams line of beers, has for years been making an annual trip to Germany to select and harvest hops (you may have spotted one of those excursions in a Samuel Adams commercial). It occurred to him a few years ago that others would be interested in joining him on his trips — visiting the fields and centuries-old breweries, learning about beer in the place that perfected it.

So last summer, Boston Beer partnered with Abercrombie and Kent to create a weeklong excursion to Bavaria’s beer country. The itinerary included visits to various biergartens; the centuries-old Stanglmair Farm and Hops Field, just north of Munich; and the Weihenstephan Brewery, which dates back to the year 1040.

Mr. Koch said that there were no immediate plans to do another such trip, which cost about $3,000 a person, but that his company would focus its efforts closer to home, through a partnership with the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. In addition to a stay at the hotel, participants will get a private tour of the company’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood brewery, where one of the brewers — not the usual tour guide — will show off the facilities and lead a tasting in the barrel room, a space usually closed to the public. Samuel Adams merchandise and a beer dinner with a brewery expert are included.

“Just like baby boomers adopted wine, their kids are adopting beer, and the parallels are extraordinary and enormous,” Mr. Koch said. “People want a better experience with their beer.” Even Anheuser-Bush realized that visitors wanted more. Two years ago it began offering a $25 Beermaster tour that includes a visit to the floor of the bottling line, a beer sample directly from the tanks, and other experiences not included on the free tour, according to Mr. Pitts.

But the craft breweries still offer the most intimate experiences. The Woodstock Inn began offering weekend packages within a year after opening its brewery in 1995, both to capitalize on the growing popularity of craft beer and to drum up business during the off season, said the owner, Scott Rice.

Mr. Rice estimated that about 1,500 visitors had attended Woodstock’s brewery weekends. Guests can take part in every step of the brewing process — including the messy work of removing hundreds of pounds of processed grain from the “mash tun,” where grain and water are mixed. The early morning brewing leads into a hearty Saturday lunch (featuring bread made from the spent grain); later, there’s a five-course dinner and souvenirs. (Breakfast is included in the cost of the room.)

Other breweries across the country offer similar packages with varying specifics. For example, Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales, a Delaware-based brewery, has partnered with a local inn where visitors are welcomed with amenities like beer soap and a library of brewing books. A tour of the brewery is also included.

In the Pacific Northwest, Rogue Ales, one of the more celebrated American craft breweries, has a six-bedroom house on its 42-acre hops farm in Independence, Ore. Brett Joyce, president of the brewery, said that staying there gives visitors a chance to better experience one of beer’s main ingredients. “We even have a wedding scheduled there next summer,” he added.

As the weekend at Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery came to a close, I settled in at the bar next to a tired-looking but happy Tim Larkin of Portsmouth, R.I., who had spent the weekend at the brewery with his wife, Ginny. “I wasn’t expecting to work up a sweat, but shoveling spent grain will do that,” he said.

“It felt good. I’ll do this again,” he added, before taking a satisfied sip from his pint glass.

IF YOU GO

Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery (135 Main Street North, Woodstock, N.H.; 800-321-3985; woodstockinnnh.com). Brewery Weekends are offered in April and May; $118 per person, not including lodging. The weekend package includes a Friday reception, meals on Saturday and the chance to brew with professionals.

Samuel Adams/Copley Plaza package (138 St. James Avenue, Boston; 800-441-1414; fairmont.com/copleyplaza). The brewery experience package is offered January to May and September to December, subject to availability. Doubles start at $429.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales has a weekend package through the Inn at Canal Square (122 Market Street, Lewes, Del.; 888-644-1911; www.theinnatcanalsquare.com) that includes a brewery tour and a $50 dinner certificate for the Dogfish Head brewpub. Packages start at $480, double occupancy, depending on the season.

Rogue Ales (Chatoe Rogue Micro Hopyard, 3590 Wigrich Road, Independence, Ore.; 503-347-8288; www.rogue.com). Double rooms at the house on this hops farm start at $90 per night.

Anheuser-Busch St. Louis Budweiser Brewery Tours (12th and Lynch Streets, St. Louis, Mo.; 314-577-2626; www.budweisertours.com). General tours are free. Beermaster tours are $25 for those 21 and older and $10 for ages 13 to 20.