Rogue Celebrates 100 Years Of Hops & Heritage

For the fourth year in a row, Rogue Farms was a primary sponsor of the Hop & Heritage Festival in Independence, Oregon – the historic Hops Capital Of The World. This year’s festival was a celebration of the last one-hundred years of hop growing in the region.  

The streets of downtown Independence were closed for the weekend long festivities that included fireworks, a home-brew competition, hot-air balloon rides, artisan food and craft vendors, and the Rogue Farms Beer Garden located next to the town’s historic fountain.

Above: Longboard Larry of Independence, Oregon, declares the winner of the 2nd Annual Longboard Push race from downtown Independence to the Rogue Farm some 8 miles away. 

This year’s event ended at Rogue Farms as dozens of longboard skateboarders raced from the downtown festival all the way to the Rogue Farm located nearly 8 miles away.

Following the longboard awards ceremony, competitors were treated to a tour of the full farm operation and were offered bottomless glasses of Rogue Root Beer. They also delighted in Rogue’s life-sized game garden which includes jumbo versions of Scrabble, Jenga and Angry Birds.

Since 2009, Rogue has been committed to growing its own ingredients to fuel its beer and spirits lineup. Ingredients produced in Independence include seven varieties of hops (used in Rogue’s entire beer line-up), Rye (used in Rogue ales as well as spirits), Pumpkins (for Rogue’s annual Pumpkin Patch Ale), Jalepenos (used in Rogue’s Chipotle Ale & Chipotle Spirit) and honey from Rogue’s own bee hives (used in Rogue Honey Kolsch and 19 Original Colonies Mead).

Rogue also grows two varieties of malting barley at its 242 acre farm in Tygh Valley, Oregon. The barley grown here is micro malted and floor malted on the farm in the Farmstead Malt House before going to the Rogue Brewery in Newport where it’s brewed or mashed for one of Rogue’s ales, porters, lagers, stouts, whiskeys or vodka.

Rogue Ales & Spirits has been growing its own since 2009 and is committed to saving the terroir of Oregon hops & barley one acre at a time.
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