Located on the corner of Flanders and NW 14th Ave within what was long ago a milk plant and then more recently a collection of several pubs (Bogarts and Mickey Finn’s) and a brewery (Portland Brewing Company), the Rogue Distillery & Public House is one spoke in the giant wheel of Rogue’s Northwest Empire, which includes breweries, pubs, spirits houses, public houses, nanobreweries, hops yards, tasting rooms, a bed and breakfast, and a barley farm spread out across the seaside towns of Newport, Newport Bay, and Astoria, as well as Portland, Eugene, Independence, Tygh Valley, San Francisco and Issaquah. Rogue’s geographic footprint is massive, but so is its product line of ales, beers, lagers, pilsners, barleywines, and spirits, which ring in at, by my count, 41 proud beverages. The Flanders location includes a rum distillery, born 2003, which produces both dark and white rum and may well be the only distillery in these here parts. If you are here strictly for the beer then they also have 27 brews on tap, homemade Rogue root beer, and food. They also have outdoor rinkside seating on benches and chairs, which is exactly where I plant my bony ass on this beautiful 75 degree August day.
Rogue is known to most of us beer drinking hacks as the brand that we stare longingly at in supermarket shelves and convenience store coolers but end up not purchasing due to how damn expensive it is. It’s not that we doubt the quality of the beer in terms of the price, it’s just that we implicitly understand, by looking at the militant packaging and attention to perfection spelled out on anything that carries the Rogue name, that this is not the type of beer that you casually grab a 6-pack of and chug while playing cards with your pals. Instead, this is the type of brew that you buy a 22oz. bottle of, take home, turn off the cell phone and all the lights (save your favorite Tiffany with the tacky aqua and salmon glass), pour a short glass in some ancient crystal and lead snifter, and close your eyes as you drink slowly but deeply, savoring each texture and note. In other words, this is a beer that one studies, swishes, contemplates, and, hell, even worships.
All this goes to say that I am in no position to criticize the brew that I am pulling down here during my visit, as I have no formal training in beer tasting and wouldn’t know a hawk from a handsaw. As such, first I have the Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout, which is very smooth, rich and bitter with a kingly head. Expecting something sweeter and less bitter from an oatmeal stout I am mildly disappointed and wishing I had went with the chocolate stout. I then have the Hazelnut Brown Nectar, which stands up to its name as a well balanced English Brown Ale and which blows my left testicle out in nutty delight upon tasting. My God, man! Could God’s sweat be any sweeter? The bartender brings out a sample of Juniper Pale Ale, which is crisp and highly bitter, but with a spicy finish. I contemplate whether ordering a third beer is inevitable or a prelude to drunken stupor. I wish silently to myself that I had a strong spirit guide to help me find my way. What would Ronald Reagan do? I ask myself. Well, considering that I am at a distillery I order a Rogue Hazelnut Spice Rum. Unlike more commercial products, none of the ingredients here at Rogue include “natural flavors”, which I consider a short cut that only a man who sold his soul to the devil would take when crafting a brew. The hazelnuts are indeed actual hazelnuts which have been toasted and locally grown in Oregon. Also included are orange peel, vanilla bean, cinnamon, clove and ginger. The main bastard ingredient is Hawaiian sugar cane. The rum goes down smooth and spicy, and the hazelnut departs a sweet aftertaste that smooths out the sharpness of the rum.
The premises of the Flanders location could be described as a “dive” if it weren’t for the large windows that let in a good amount of light. The floors are colored in pool table felt green where they are carpeted, otherwise they are tiled in something that looks like mental institution red or high-school-locker-room-shower white, and the tables are medium brown wood and mostly come in booth form as opposed to chair. One senses that the only alteration Rogue did when they actually bought and moved into the old pub location was to throw up a couple of flags and set up some Rogue merchandise. In any case, its refreshing to see a brewpub that isn’t trying to be something more than a brewpub. I just wouldn’t sleep on their floor, if you know what I mean. The menu features basic pub fare with a healthy smattering of Kobe beef strewn throughout. Nothing that would impress any vegan, mind you, but enough carcass and starch to make a bunch of college frat boys rub one out in ecstasy yucky cookie style. More than likely the relatively high priced but lackluster food is offered as a second thought, due more to the gun-to-the-head Oregon liquor laws that require food be served if spirits are also offered than any desire to compete with other posh downtown Pearl locales in the arena of cuisine. In any case, I suspect that Rogue understands Portlanders will flock to this location regardless of whether or not it looks like a swan or an ugly ducking or whether it tastes like a truffle or a turd. The beer is just that good.
View larger map