Rogue Ales Files Chapter 7, Iconic Craft Brewery Declares Bankruptcy

Rogue Ales and Spirits, along with affiliates Rogue River Brewing Company and Yaquina Bay Beverage Company, filed for Chapter 7 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon on November 25, 2025. The filing followed the closure earlier in November of all restaurants and operations in the brewery hometown of Newport and the shuttering of its Southeast Portland restaurant.

Court documents show the company and its subsidiaries reported $17 million in liabilities and $5.6 million in assets. That total includes a $10 million unliquidated, contested claim from the Estate of Nancy Vickstrom in Salem. Craft Brew News noted the debt is listed as a "dram shop negligence claim," a legal allegation that can hold an establishment responsible for harms linked to a patron served on the premises. The contested claim accounts for more than half of reported liabilities, leaving roughly $7 million in uncontested debt.

The filings also revised previously reported tax and rent shortfalls. Rogue listed $594,000 in unpaid rent to the Port of Newport and $510,000 owed to the Lincoln County Tax Collector. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives appears as a creditor for $65,600 in unpaid alcohol taxes.

Secured and trade creditors named in the documents include $2.3 million in secured debt to Alaska based Northrim Bank and $100,000 to Columbia Bank. Rogue listed $1.7 million owed to hop and malt suppliers, with $865,000 to Hops Direct and $476,000 to Yakima hop supplier John I. Haas. The company also reported $361,000 owed to its own subsidiary, Yaquina Bay Beverage Company.

Founded in 1988 by Jack Joyce, Bob Woodell, Rob Strasser and Jeff Schultz, Rogue grew into one of Oregon's best known craft brewers and reached distribution in all 50 states. The Chapter 7 filing raises immediate questions for the brewery s creditors, for employees affected by the closures, and for hobbyists who have long followed Rogue for its recipes and limited releases.

Representatives for Rogue could not immediately be reached for comment. For community brewers and suppliers, the filing underscored how legal claims and accumulated operating debts can rapidly alter the local craft beer landscape and complicate longstanding vendor relationships.