NEWPORT, OREGON
Native Oregonians take beer drinking very seriously. Charming resort town, Newport, along the Pacific Ocean and Yaquina Bay sixty miles west of Corvallis, boasts premier ROGUE ALE PUB HOUSE and Rogue Brewery on opposing sides of Yaquina Bridge. I had consumed at least a dozen different Rogue brews in Jersey before making Oregon-Washington trip, March ’03.
I owe Rogue a big shout out not only because I’ve always admired brewer John Maier’s beer judgement, but because these friendly-as-hell northwesterns put my wife and I up at an Alehouse loft apartment and gave us free tickets to the aquarian during March Madness basketball tourney. We quaffed Rogue’s Shakespeare Stout and Dead Guy Ale early in the evening at the Public House our first night in town.
I reviewed Pike “5X” Stout, Stone Smoked Porter, Cascade Ales Monkey Face Porter, and Butte Creek Roland Red with Rogue promoter-tour guide Billy Stout. Imbibed Rogue’s Black Brutal, Chamomile, Charlie 1981, and Issaquah Bullfrog Ale at the Alehouse loft the second night (all reviewed in Beer Index).