Maybe it’s a sign of the times, or perhaps this was an incident involving very specific financial mismanagement, but one of America’s OG craft breweries, Rogue Ale & Spirits, just filed for bankruptcy about a week after closing its doors. The move came as a shock to both patrons and employees of the nearly 40-year-old beer icon, many of whom first heard the news when trying to come to work last week.
Rogue was founded in 1988 by Jack Joyce in Ashland, Oregon, and over the years it grew to a global brand that included six pubs across Oregon, a cooperage, and the Rogue Spirits Distillery, along with the main brewery. One of the best known brands produced by Rogue was Dead Guy Ale, a maibock-style beer that has won many awards over the years. The distillery produced a lineup of Dead Guy American single malt whiskeys, along with gin and vodka, that were all produced in-house.
So what happened? According to a recent news report from KGW8 in Portland, Paula Miranda, the executive director of the Port of Newport where Rogue’s headquarters were located, said that Rogue had fallen behind on rent and back taxes to the tune of more than half a million dollars. About a week ago, Rogue’s president, Steven Garrett, told her that the 47,000 square foot brewery was shutting down, along with restaurants it owned in Southeast Portland, Astoria, and West Salem. About 60 employees have lost their jobs, and according to a report from Fox 12 Oregon instead of learning about this from Rogue, some only found out when they checked their work schedules.
Of course, this has led to questions about why the company decided to expand in recent months by opening a new brewpub in Salem if executives knew that the business was in financial trouble. And according to other reporting, that financial trouble extended well beyond overdue rent. The Street wrote that Rogue filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Monday because it owes nearly $17 million in liabilities (including a “contested ‘dram‑shop negligence’ claim tied to a 2022 fatal DUI crash”), while claiming just under $5 million in assets. Chapter 7 most likely means that all of those assets will be liquidated, making a future resurrection of Rogue unlikely, although of course it’s possible that a buyer could show up and try to revive the brand. Creditors will meet on December 29, according to the bankruptcy documents.
Rogue is certainly not the only brewery or distillery to go under in recent months and years—Anchor Brewing in San Francisco closed in 2023 and 21st Amendment Brewery shuttered a few months ago, just to name a few. And the spirits world has been having a tough time as well, with distilleries like Uncle Nearest, Luca Mariano, Alton, and Whiskey House of Kentucky all either filing for bankruptcy of dealing with financial turmoil. Bigger names like MGP have cut back on production, and Diageo has paused operations at some if its distilleries and malting houses. Blame tariffs, blame reduced consumption, blame the post-Covid course correction—whatever the case, this trend certainly does not seem to be reversing at the moment, so we will update you with more information as we get it.
Authors
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Jonah Flicker