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Beer adventurer John Lovegrove likes to go big.
In 2012, we wrote about his quest to visit 50 Portland-area breweries in a single day. In 2015, he topped that, doing 77 Portland-area breweries in one day, and getting coverage in Food & Wine.
To celebrate his birthday, Lovegrove decided to do something—uh, extreme.
Lovegrove drank at all 11 North American locations of Rogue in a single day.
He also ate food at three Rogue pubs.
"I've thought about it for years. I've always had it in the back of my mind," he says. "I was drinking with [WW contributor] Don Scheidt and we found out that we shared a birthday. So I thought, 'This might be the year that I'll do it.'"
Lovegrove started at the Rogue in San Francisco's Union Square District after midnight and ended in Issaquah, Washington at 11 pm. Lovegrove even went to the controversial new Rogue Eastside location in Portland.
"I like the new Eastside location. I think the changes they made are better," he says.
After hitting the three Portland locations, the suburban man was driven to the hop farm in Independence and to Newport where he went to Brewers on the Bay and the Rogue pub on the Bayfront.
"Everyone was super nice," Lovegrove says. "We called ahead to order food and they had it all ready for us, and signs wishing me happy birthday."
Lovegrove says his favorite beer was the honey Kolsch, which he describes as "surprisingly good" and that the worst was a German-style IPA at that "wasn't my bag."
Lovegrove did not have any of the doughnut beers during this quest, but says they've "gotten better" from the early releases, including the maple beer WW once described as tasting "like a candied ashtray."
One nice thing about the quest? Lovegrove got free beers. You can, too. All Rogues except the Portland airport location give customers a free 32 ounce beer on their birthday, though Lovegrove only had one 32 ouncer, a Hazelutely Choctabulous— the beer blend formerly known as Snickers.
What's next for the man who not only survived drinking at 76 non-Rogue and one Rogue breweries in one day, but survived drinking at 11 Rogue pubs at one day?
"I've thought about doing all of Oregon, every brewery, in nine days, or I might do Seattle one day," he says. "If Breakside had 11 locations I'd definitely do that."