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Tag: Brewery

  • Rogue Brewery and Distillery

    Rogue Brewery and Distillery

    This week I joined the Rogue Nation and became a Citizen. What does all that mean? Well basically you fill out a quick form and get your picture taken them boom. They hand you over a Rogue Nation ID card which entitles you to discounts at their breweries, museum, and hotels, along with other cool stuff like the privilege to vote on stuff they do.

    I visited Rogue Distillery and Public House in downtown Portland. Mostly known for their Dead Guy Ale, this company has really expanded in all directions. They are big on doing their version of a “farm to table” movement. Currently they own several farms growing their own hops, barley, rye, and pumpkins (used in their seasonal pumpkin ale). Of course they do not own enough to use 100% of their own products to brew all their own beer so they outsource the rest to local famers. Their Farm Series beers are the ones that use their freshest own grown products for. Take their pumpkin ale for example. They hand pick the ripest ones and then immediately drive them to the brewery where they are roasted and brewed into beer. That is how fresh they are making things.

    The pub has 35 taps which included 2 beers from other companies, 2 ciders, a cocktail, 2 home made sodas, and a hand pumped cask ale. Their taster is a great way togo. They do not pre determine what beers you will get but instead allow you to chose any 4 beers that you want to taste. They also greet you with a welcome taste of that days featured beer for free. You are also welcome to take a small sip of any of the beers before you decide to buy a pint. I was really excited to be able to try their Wet Hoped Ale. This is the only time of the year that you can get a wet hopped beer since the hop picking season just ended. The also feature a barrel aged cocktail and several other cocktails that they make from their own distilled spirits. If you want to get a little creative, they also do some mixed beers to create a unique experience. My bartender Mike made me a Mole beer by mixing their Chipotle Ale with their Chocolate Stout.

    After grabbing a bite to eat I did the tour of their original distillery which is located in the upstairs part of the pub. Make sure to check out the video below so you too can take the tour. Although it is no longer used, as all of their products are made out in Newport, Oregon, they have one of their original copper stills up there. The tour is quite informative and they have some really cool spirits they are producing.

    Rogue Original Distillery Tour

    They started out brewing rums but have ventured out into whiskys, gins, and vodkas. They feature a single malt Oregon vodka and whiskey as well as a gin made with spruce and aged in pinot noir barrels (and one that is not aged in the barrels). Some of their more out there products include their Dead Guy whiskey and Chipotle spirits. Both are made by brewing they Dead Guy Ale and Chipotle Ale, without hopping them, and then they distill that juice. They have even dedicated a bacon maple vodka to Voodoo Donuts, a local donut company downtown that is well known for creative donuts.  Rounding out the list they also make a Rogue Farms Oregon Rye Whiskey, Dark Rum, and Hazelnut Spice Rum made with their own gown hazelnuts.

    Make sure to stop at one of Rogue’s tasting rooms located in Newport, Portland, Independence, Eugene, or Astoria in Oregon or in San Francisco, California, Issaquah, Washington and Sapporo, Japan.

  • Full Sail and Session Brewery

    Full Sail and Session Brewery

    I returned to Full Sail Brewery out in Hood River, Oregon to do a VIP tour with one of the brewers. Now this was an incredible opportunity to get some more details on them. It was really cool for me because I use to distribute their beer when I worked in Las Vegas, so I have been through a few presentations and tasting with their reps but have not had the opportunity to have a person who actually makes the beer walk me through their facility.

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    I started the cloudy yet beautiful day in the tasting room enjoying their Session Cream on Nitro. Now Nitro will give a beer finer bubbles, a denser head, and creamer mouth feel than CO2, which makes it better such beers as stouts. Usually I am not a big fan of nitro beers as they tend to come across flat but this one was not. The nitro did make it smooth and creamy as well as easy to drink, a perfect way to start off the day. The surprisingly light beer did have some subtle notes of coffee adding to the fresh start to the day.

    So my brewer came to give me the grand VIP tour.  First I had to ask him about his profession. As a graduate of Oregon State with a Bachelors in Fermentation Science he told me that he just had a passion for making a beverage that people would love, enjoy, and can create good times. Now you could see that he was a man of passion for beer while not being a beer snob. By this I mean he was vey humble and not this crazy guy how over thought the process, he just loved brewing beer and drinking it like you or I.  So I asked him what recommendations he had if anyone wanted to become a brewer? He told me that, at least in this state, that pretty much having a degree was an easy way to get a job. With the most breweries per capita in the US, brewers are in high demand.

    We did the whole tour starting outside to where the trucks would export their grain into containers that lead to the inside. Founded in 1989 by brew master Jamie Emmerson and CEO Irene Firmat, this building was once a juice processing facility that the company had bought and expound upon, just one of the many ways they remain green. From there they have a machine that grinds the grain into a powder rather than having it germinate to extract more fermentable sugars out of the grain. This is one of the processes that allows them to save water. An average brewery takes between 6-8 gallons of water just to produce 1 gallon of beer. Full Sail has been able to reduce this to under 3 gallons. The the grain is sent through the normal process to the mash tun, hop pellets are added (pellets are used to create consistency), into the fermentor, and on to the bottling and keg line. All of their brewing process is able to be computer controlled which allows them to monitor the entire process and regulate all aspects of the brewing process, such as temperature to the exact degree, insuring a quality product. A couple of other ways they conserve water and energy along the way is using a machine that presses all of the mash together to extract every possible drop of water out of them. This has 2 advantages as they get the most possible use of of every drop of their beer and dries out the grain as much as possible which is sold to local farms as food for cattle. The machinery, although expensive, adds to their sustainability and long term profit. Another way they save water is by restricting their work force to 4 10 hour shifts which reduces their energy and water consumption by 20%.

    With this passion and love for beer, Full Sail has won numerous awards for their philanthropy, sustainability, and beer. Their most prestigious award is craft brewer of the year 2014. Make sure you stop by the pub and grab some of their 20+ beers on tap, including their rotating seasonal and cask beers.

    Beer Menu 

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