Beer and boats are a specialty in Newport.

It was a nice capper to earn us our local-foods merit badge: lunch and a beer at the Brewer's on the Bay brew pub, part of the "Rogue Nation World Headquarters," as it says in very large letters outside the home of Rogue Ales on Yaquina Bay in Newport, Ore.

Oregon is a vortex of the craft-brewing world, and the roguish folks who brew Rogue are among the cardinals of that religion. We were nearing the end of our Oregon Coast tour, and this was a nice spot to sit on a barstool with a view of the yacht basin and reflect on the trip.

"First we offer everyone a free sample of the day -- today's is our Chatoe Single Malt, one of our 'grow your own' series, made from hops and malt from our own hop farm and barley farm," said the friendly bartender as he set shot glasses of a pale ale on the counter in front of us. "On the wall above you is a list of about 26 beers you can choose from."

Barbara chose Shakespeare Stout (dating to the origins of Rogue Ales in Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival). We were making a long stop, so I had time for a glass of Capt. Sig's Northwestern Ale, what they call an India Red Ale ("that's an IRA rather than an IPA," Friendly Bartender quipped).

They take life lightly but beermaking seriously at Rogue. From the "tasting notes" for Sig's: "Deep red in color, this ale starts off with a floral, slightly citrus hop nose, then the hop flavor soon fades into the malty backbone." The malts are listed as 2-Row Pale, Munich, Carastan and Chocolate; hops as Amarillo and Cascade. And they say it's made (like all their beers) with "free-range coastal water."

I'll say this: It went really well with fish and chips.

And from the gift shop downstairs we took along a bottle of Hazelnut Brown Nectar, a brown ale flavored with another Oregon farm product, hazelnuts. (It went really well with our roast chicken dinner.)

The Newport brewery offers tours daily at 3 p.m.