It’s a hard time to be a craft brewery right now. Two years ago, Anchor Steam closed its doors; now, another long-running West Coast craft brewery seems to have called it a day. That brewery is Rogue Ales — an establishment known for embracing offbeat styles and making some genuinely bizarre beers. To glance at Rogue’s presences on X and Instagram, it looks like business as usual this week — but local media reports a much bleaker story.
On Friday, Shayla Escudero of The Lincoln Chronicle reported that Rogue had closed its production facility in Newport, Oregon — as well as its existing pubs around the state. The Chronicle‘s article cites a meeting between Rogue and local officials from the Port of Newport in which the brewery announced its immediate plans to close its facility. As of now, the brewery owes the port $545,000 in both rent and back taxes, as well as an additional $30,000 owed to the county.
One of Rogue’s location managers, Carinna Stanton, told the Chronicle that she and her colleagues received a message sent to all employees on Friday to the effect that “we were going to be paid until the end of today.” As Escudero points out, this large-scale closure follows some other cuts throughout the organization, including the closure of its distillery earlier this year.
Not surprisingly, some of Rogue’s posts on social media have received significant numbers of comments lamenting the brewery’s closure and criticizing the decisions that led to this point.
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Bacon Maple Ale was roundly mocked by the media and derided by online reviewers — but it still sold like crazyAnchor Steam is not the only high-profile craft brewery to close in recent years, and it’s left many businesses reckoning with uncertainty. The Chronicle notes that Oregon’s craft brewing industry saw a decline in sales in 2024 — though Escudero also notes that the 18% drop in sales that Rogue experienced was “one of the lowest drops” during that period. We’re still in the early days of learning about this closure, and it’s almost certain that more details will emerge. But for now, it feels like the end of another era.
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