Beer Moon: Brewery #11 Rogue

More driving, an argument about closed roads, misread signs, whether to turn back or keep going, and finally, at just about dinner time, we arrive in Newport, OR for our last stop of day 4. Newport is the home of Rogue. And I'll tell you, I was so excited to see Rogue. I love their chocolate stout, it's hands down my favorite beer. So I was totally excited to buy a shirt from here, eat dinner, and drink Rogue beer!

Entry to the Brewery

Rogue Nation

Menu

Inside the restaurant, totally fisherman hall-style.

Bleu Cheese Kobe Beef Balls, sooo yummy.

To order your tasters, fill our this sheet!

Then they arrive in a ship!

Ah, end to a long day.

Relax with a beer.

Mac and Cheese.

Fish N Chips

And a brownie for dessert :)

Haha, it's a Growwwler

Inside the gift shop.

Overall, I was kind of disappointed with Rogue. Maybe I had just built it up too much, I expected it to be the best of all the breweries, but it was okay. The food and beer was great, totally lived up to what I wanted, but I was surprised about the brewery. It was totally a warehouse, a place where I could see fishermen walking off their boats after a long day and coming right in to sit down. The gift shop was also a let down. I really wanted a shirt from Rogue, but none of the shirts looked like the bottle labels, like I thought they would. They were all too big for me, and tie dye. Sigh. They didn't have any great glasses either, we ended up buying a little taster glass for the glass collection.

Here was drank: Mogul Maddness, Sig's NW IRA, Love and Hoppiness, Mori Soba, Chatoe Oregasemic, Dad's Black IPA, John John Dead Guy, Double Mocha Porter.

Beer Moon: Brewery #10 Ninkasi

Ah, a second attempt at Ninkasi! This place reminded me some of Stone, or even 10 Barrel, as far as the trendy atmosphere. Definently a place I would hand out at if I lived in Eugene. (Which I would totally live in Eugene, I LOVED the small town mixed with big city feel. You can walk/ride bikes to a lot of places, tons of trees, and weather. Love it.

Oh, and Ninkasi, love it! (You can get Ninkasi at BevMo, and you should go and get some!) Probably some of my favorite overall beer of the trip. Can't rave enough about the entire Ninkasi experience.

These flowers are everywhere! They are so pretty.

Great metal work on the gates.

Tiles on the floor.

Look at the cool lights!

Outdoor seating.

Inside the tasting room.

Dive into those tasters!

Cheers!

Look, a wedding ring!

I liked Ninkasi's taster set. It was custom metal design, and had slots behind each taster to hold a card that had a description and information about each beer. Ninkasi was the only set up like this. While we were there, Ryan recognized a guy he had been on a backpacking trip with a couple years earlier! Crazy small world, huh.

Here we drank: Spring Reign Ale, Believer Double Red Ale, Total Domination IPA, Oatis Oatmeal Stout, Tricerahops Double IPA.

My favorites were the red and the oatmeal stout, and Ryan raved about the Tricerahops. Basically, great brewery, all their beers were solid. One of the best of the trip!

Beer Moon: Brewery #9 Steelhead

Day Four of the Beer Moon, we say goodbye to Bend, OR, and head west. Driving through the mountains, we make a stop for lunch in Eugene, OR. We first find Ninkasi, only to find out we are too early, they're still closed! So we head out to grab a sandwich, and then waste some time before they open. We end up finding ourselves at Steelhead. Pretty good!

Mountains!

Aborted visit to Ninkasi

Lunch time in Eugene.

Stopping at Steelhead

Which one to try first?!

Cheers in Eugene!

I love the phone booth!

Steelhead was fun. Nothing too crazy or unique, but seems like a nice, slighty upscale restaurant with American style food. Some guys were there at the bar who thought they were totally cool because they were getting a keg of Steelhead for a party. I could tell because they talked really loudly about how the brewer let them sample the different IPAs before they ordered their keg. You know the type. The atmosphere at Steelhead was pretty cool. They had big oversize leather chairs around some of their tables, and a huge old British style phone booth.

We drank: Hairy Weasel Hef, Barracuda Blonde, Raging Rhino Red, Bombay Bomber IPA, Twisted Meniscus IPA, and Dublin Dry Stout. My favorite was the Twisted Meniscus, just because the story goes they made this beer for the Eugene marathon!

Beer Moon: Brewery #8 Bend Brewing Co.

Only on day three of the Beer Moon, and already on brewery #8! We came to the Bend Brewing Company for dinner and of course, beer. We were both pretty beat at this point, lots of beer, hiking, helicoptering, it's been a long day! Still, I liked this place. The back looked out onto a little river, had lots of big windows, and the inside had lots of wood and felt very northwoods lodge. My kinda place!

Windows overlooking the river.

Hmmm what's for dinner?!

Circle tasters!

Ryan's ready to dig in!

Another set of tasters, finished!

At Bend Brewing Co. we drank: Metollus golden ale, Belgian Dubbel, High Desert Hef, Dry Irish Stout on Nitro, Pinnacle Porter, Outback X, Outback Old Ale, Dobbelbock, Elk Lake IPA, Scotch Ale.

Phew. Day three of the Beer Moon ends with full bellies and tired feet. What's in store for day four?!

Beer Moon: Brewery #7 Silver Moon

We had to take a break from breweries (Ryan surprised me with an hour long helicopter ride around Bend!) but then jumped back into it at Silver Moon. So, the goal of our trip was to get a glass at each brewery that we visited. We almost had a set back at Boneyard because they thought they were sold out, but no worries, the awesome girl behind the bar found us one back in the corner of the back closet...or somewhere. But alas, we missed the mark at Silver Moon. Maybe we were getting tired, or hungry, it was after 7 pm and this was our 5th brewery of the day, but this is the only brewery of the whole Beer Moon we are missing a glass from.

This place has a kind of local pool hall kind of feel, close to the freeway, lots of seating, it was pretty empty when we were there. We only had one beer here, we shared the Snake Bite Porter, but it was pretty tasty!

Helicopter Ride!! (Had to throw this one in here)

Welcome to Silver Moon

One Snake Bite Porter split in two!

Feels pool hall like, right?

I think it's time for food!

Phew. Brewery #5 of the day down. Can we fit one more in for the day??

Beer Moon: Brewery #6 Boneyard Beer

Leaving 10 Barrel, we followed google maps to our next destination...Boneyard Beer. It was kind of, let's say, off the beaten path. Basically based out of a warehouse, this place was great. Probably because the girl behind the tasting bar was totally our kind of person, knew a ton about beer, and was thrilled to let us tell her all about our Beer Moon. Oh, and the beer rocked.

The Tasting Room

Cheers!

Oh look, a little puppy. Beer break for puppies!

I think this was the Girl Beer.

Again, walking through the brewery to get to the bathroom.

Pouring growlers.

Ryan loved this place. I liked this place a lot. Here we drank: Girl Beer (cherry wheat), Wit Shack Wheat (hef), Black 13 (light black ale), Bonafide (pale ale), Diablo Rojo (red), RPM IPA, Hammered Fist (imperial cascadian), Shug Nite (14% ABV and 80 IBU).

My favorites were definitely the Girl Beer, not too sweet but realllly good, and the Diable Rojo. I love a hoppy red.