What’s Under a Rogue Six-Pack?
Win a trip to visit Rogue in Oregon like this guy.
“This is the first thing I’ve ever really won, so it was a good way to start off.”
Aaron Douglas was talking about the Rogue box-bottom contest that we hold yearly. After filling out the entry form on a bottom of a six-pack, throwing it away two months later, and then finally changing his mind and mailing it in, Aaron ended up winning the contest.
He claimed his contest prize in early October: an all-expenses-paid trip to Oregon from his home state of Rhode Island with his college friend Nathan Cartier for the full Rogue Ales & Spirits experience.
The pair of self-proclaimed beer geeks flew into Portland on a Thursday afternoon and got right to work visiting the Racket Club, what we call Rogue’s Portland business office, and the Rogue Distillery and Public House in the Pearl District for a little more than six taster flights of all the Rogue beers they hadn’t tried. Aaron and Nate have been longtime fans of Dead Guy and were excited to get to know new and harder-to-get Rogue beers that they don’t see as often on the East Coast.
The next day, they toured Rogue Farms in Independence and the brewery, distillery and cooperage in Newport before toasting a weekend well spent with the Rogue Nation President himself, Big Al Jorgensen.
Both avid home brewers, Aaron and Nate were already familiar with the brewing process and appreciated seeing Rogue’s ground-to-glass philosophy.
“One of the most interesting parts was actually visiting the farm,” Aaron said. “Everybody always thinks beer starts in the brewery, but it doesn’t. It starts way before that.”
“We’ve done brewery tours, but no one could really take us out to a hop farm and talk about the process of harvesting. That was pretty cool to be able to do that and then end up at the brewery and taste what you guys were doing. It was really an excellent day,” said Nate.
The duo enjoyed their trip to Oregon, a first for both. Even though they were 3,000 miles from home, they were struck by the similarities between the fishing communities in Newport and Aaron’s coastal Rhode Island home.
One big difference? What’s growing on Oregon farms.
“Being able to stand in the Willamette Valley, knowing that’s where the hops are grown in the United States, and being able to pick a hop off the vine and just stand there in the sunshine and smell it… That was pretty awesome,” said Nate. “That’s a pretty rare opportunity.”
Want to win your own trip to Rogue in Oregon? Look for the entry form on the bottom of any Rogue six-pack and mail it in.
