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Just catching up to the fact that Rogue has taken its Spirits to the next logical extension and canned cocktails. For me, the green cucumber lime is the first choice since I am a gin man with the ginger lime mule being my second choice. I am wondering where the whiskey drinks are though.
Readers of the blog will know that I am a Gin drinker but I also am a bit of a whiskey fan too. And this new offering from Rogue. A Oregon grown/distilled Single Malt Whiskey is the first 5-year aged spirit from the distillery arm of Rogue Brewing.
From the Rogue folks, “The yeast is Rogue’s Proprietary Pacman Yeast. It was distilled on site in Newport, Oregon, and transferred to barrels Rogue coopered and toasted onsite. Then, of course, bottled by hand.”
I am sure the distillers are anxious to release this after five years.
Now, I have been to a fair share of Portland breweries and ale houses but the Buckman Botanical Brewery eluded my trained eye. Part of it is that it is literally based in the back of the Green Dragon Pub. It is also a not so advertised part of Rogue Nation and finding it on that website is no easy task.
I wanted to include it this month because they focus on the fringes and not on hops. Apple, pumpkin, ginger as ingredients cysers, meads and braggots can be found from brewer Danny Connors.
I would add to my taster tray the Double Fruitcake Stout, the Cherry Cyser, the Fresh Hop Mead and the Rum Barrel Braggot but they also have IPA’s and collaboration beers that look interesting too.
Rogue Brewing has it’s own hop farm, fruit trees, malt and rye and now they are taking the vertical integration one step further with the Rolling Thunder Barrel Works that they call with typical Rogue-ishness “a tree to table cooperage at the Rogue Ales and Spirits World Headquarters in Newport, Oregon.”
They are going to age their “Oregon made beer and spirits, crafted with Oregon grown ingredients, in barrels we crafted ourselves from Oregon White Oak.”
They will harvest wood from the Oregon Coast Range and then the “white oak pieces will be seasoned in terroir of the Willamette Valley and in the ocean air of Newport.”
And they are going to do it old-world style which means hand-crafted. Which means it will take time but I love the idea and I hope that more breweries with the means and supply see this as an example of taking the art of brewing into the art of cooperage too.
Dogfish Head brewery has announced plans to open a hotel, the Dogfish Inn, sometime in or around spring 2014.
Each room will have a mini-fridge that you can fill along with beer glasses and a bottle opener on the wall. This is a trend that I think will accelerate in the coming years. Craft Beer tourism is big. McMenamin’s runs a few boutique hotels and resorts. (I even had my wedding reception at one!) Rogue has their own Beer and Breakfast. And Stone has been toying with the idea as well. Much like a casino wanting it’s whales on the premises, a brewery wants its fans close by too.
Maybe you can stay the night and try their Moondust beer.
On the heels of “OREgasmic” comes Creek. A dual meaning beer name in the Chatoe Rogue series that also includes Dirtoir Black Lager and Single Malt Ale.
“Creek” is a cherry beer (AKA Kriek). Montmercy cherries to be exact. The beer is dedicated to the creeks of Oregon and the really large creek, the Willamette that is on the eastern edge of the Rogue hopyard.
As with the other Chatoe beers, all ingredients are incredibly local and all Oregon. Including their own Revolution hop and Dare and Risk Malts.
A BEER PREMIERE TODAY!
A 21 ale salute, a special event will be held at the Horse Brass Pub in Portland on July 21st (of course) for the new Rogue Oregon Beer Festival offering.
Here are the old ale beer details:
“21 Ale is dedicated to Art Larrance and Teddy Peetz, the founders of the Oregon Brewers Festival.
21 Ale is brewed with 14 ingredients: 2 Row, Briess Amber, C-40, Wyermann Carafa & Rogue Farms RiskTM Malt; Willamette, US Goldings & Rogue Farms Revolution Hops; Simpsons Golden Naked Oats; Franco-Belges Carawheat; Molasses, Brewer’s Licorice, Wyeast Old Ale Blend Yeast & Free Range Coastal Water.”
Do you know of a university with a namesake beer? Now you do. It’s Portland State.
PSU IPA is less bitter than most India pale ales with hints of chocolate and coffee.
“Rogue Ales founder Jack Joyce said the university agreed to let him brew the Portland State brand to honor the university’s commitment to sustainable practices that are part of his company’s culture.”
Oregon is full of ideas in the beer world. Here is one that should make any home-brewer cry with joy:
“For many homebrewers it’s a dream to brew their own recipes on a large scale brewing system. Well not only do the members of the Oregon Brew Crew (OBC) have the opportunity to do just this, but the beers are sold commercially and the club is receiving some money for it.
Thanks to the OBC’s efforts, Green Dragon Bistro & Pub in Portland has grown to the 94th largest brewery in Oregon since the club began brewing there. Led by the Green Dragon Project Committee (made up of OBC members John Heasley, Todd Beach, Rich Hawthorne and Josh Blender), the OBC has been brewing at the Green Dragon for the last year and have consistently put out big new beers every couple weeks including Alpha Dragon IPA, Golden Dragon Ale and the recent 5-Point Exploding Palate Technique.
Designated as The Green Dragon Project, the joint venture between the Oregon Brew Crew and the Green Dragon Bistro & Brewpub is more than just allowing club homebrewers to brew recipes for public consumption. The emphasis of the project is aimed at the educational aspects of all-grain brewing techniques, recipe formulation, marketability, as well as quality control. Furthermore, the group is hoping that the project will help improve the link between craft breweries, their customers, and the homebrewing community.
The Green Dragon Project Committee is responsible for nominating brewers and their recipes in order to meet the goal of releasing a new beer from Green Dragon every two weeks. This means that the OBC is brewing a batch of beer two to three times a month, with one of those slots typically filled by the winner of the club’s monthly homebrew competition.”
