Skip to main content
Rogue Ales & Spirits, a legacy craft beer brand that helped put Oregon on the microbrewery map, appears to be in trouble.
Rogue is hundreds of thousands of dollars behind on rent and taxes, owing $545,000 to the Port of Newport and up to $30,000 to Lincoln County, according to a report by the Lincoln Chronicle in Newport, where Rogue is headquartered. The newspaper also reported Nov. 14 that the company had just abruptly closed all of its Newport operations and restaurants.
Rogue’s Portland location, on Southeast 9th Avenue, is also shuttered. A sign on the door says, “Closed Until Further Notice,” but some lights are on, the to-go fridge is still stocked, and autumnal decorations are up.
Steven Garrett, Rogue’s president, did not respond to a request for comment.
Rogue was founded in 1988 by Jack Joyce, Bob Woodell, Rob Strasser and Jeff Schultz in Ashland, near the Rogue River. Rogue has some of the widest distribution of any Oregon beer brand, available in all 50 states and more than 50 countries. Its first flagship product was Dead Guy Ale, a Maibock-style beer.
In 2020, Rogue closed its 20-year-old pub in the Pearl District, followed in 2021 by its tasting room in Independence, Ore.
The company has won more than 2,000 awards for taste, quality and packaging for a line that currently includes beer, spirits, CBD seltzers, canned cocktails and sodas.
Jeff Alworth, executive director of Celebrate Oregon Beer, says Rogue was unique in having a national vision for its brand and experimenting with flavored beers before that was commonplace. He says Rogue’s founding brewmaster John Maier was a “brewer’s brewer” that played an important role in developing craft beer in the U.S.
Rogue’s struggles are indicative of a contracting beer industry, Alworth says. The Brewers Association estimates craft beer volume is down 5% this year compared to 2024.
“I think at this point we’re all aware it’s not a growing industry,” Alworth says. “COVID was incredibly hard for brewing, and it seemed to be harder in Oregon than it was for others.”
