Rogue Brewery Closes It's Doors After 37-Years

Workers at Rogue Brewery showed up to work on Friday morning November 14th to find out that the company had closed its operations. The company started in 1988 by Jack Joyce, Rogue’s founder and started out in Ashland, and then relocated their brewery to Newport. Rogue became behind in their lease payments to the Port of Newport for the last year and owes the Port over $500,000 and is also behind in their property taxes. The port has been working with Rogue management over the last year, however the company was not able to keep up with the payments.

The community responded to the unexpected news with shock and sadness. Tony Thomas worked for Rogue for over 20-years he said "It was a great place to work. I'll miss going there everyday, working with friends and packaging the beer." Thomas has performed a variety of jobs over his long tenure at Rogue including the bottle line, filling growlers, driving hyster, kegging and then working the can line. "Rogue was truly like a family; they were one of the leaders in the craft beer industry." Rogue was one of the Port of Newport's largest tenants and now they are looking at having to adjust their budget to accommodate a loss of the $444,000 that Rogue paid yearly.

About Rogue

Jack Joyce, was driving through Oregon looking for a location for a second brewpub when he found himself stuck in Newport, in an unusual snowstorm. There he met Mohava Niemi, aka “Mo” the founder of Mo’s Restaurants, who extended her signature hospitality. Over a bowl of her famous clam chowder, Mo told Jack she’d always dreamed of living above a bar and offered to rent Jack the vacant storefront and her garage under two conditions: Rogue promises to “feed the fishermen.” This was Mo’s way of saying give back to the community. Jack agreed and the Rogue Bayfront Public House soon opened on the Newport Bayfront. Then as operations grew they opened the south beach location for production. Jouce passed away in 2014, and the company was taken over by his son Brett.