Under the Microscope: American Maverick

Portland in Oregon, USA, is to ballistic boutique beer what Texas is to big hats, Gibraltar is to cheeky ice-cream-stealing monkeys and China is to unfeasibly large walls and giving Tibetans the right hump. For beer lovers, Portland is paradisiacal.

Craft beer sales account for just below four per cent of the entire beer market in America, but the category represents almost half of all beer (45 per cent) drunk in the liberal metropolis of Portland. Described as "Munich on the Willamette" for its wealth of brewing talent, Portland has the meteorological and political climate in which microbreweries flourish. The incessant rain precipitates a thriving pub culture, while the city's radical, left-leaning counter-culture cheerfully champions the 'small guy'.

The city's motto is 'Keep Portland Weird' and no brewery epitomises the city's character with more cheek and chutzpah than the Rogue Brewery.

Rogue is to celebrate its 20th birthday next year. In American craft brewing years, that's pretty old. While others have come and gone, Rogue has prospered through the shrewd and mischievous marketing of its kaleidoscopic range of experimental beers.

The man behind Air Jordan

The brewery is fronted and co-owned by Jack Joyce, a no-nonsense qualified lawyer and former director of the Nike clothing empire. While at Nike, he negotiated the classic product endorsement with basketball legend Michael Jordan.

"It wasn't pre-ordained that he would be a success," recalls Jack. "There was a handful of guys that we were looking at but I was convinced that Michael would be right. The guy is infectious. He loved champagne and the ladies but he never did drugs. He's a seriously bright guy."

Jack famously once took a bull, a cow and a steer onto a conference stage in front of 2,000 marketing delegates to highlight the importance of shoe leather. "They kicked over tables, munched on the decorations and did their business all over the floor," says Jack, presumably referring to the livestock rather than the marketing executives.

Tired of mounting paperwork and pestering bosses, he became restless and left to start up his own business. "When I realised I couldn't make things any more I decided I may as well quit before Nike realised I didn't know what the hell I was doing!" he says.Jack teamed up with partners Rob Strasser and Bob Woodell and set out to champion local Oregonian produce across America. "It could have been cranberries or hazelnuts, but it was beer," he adds. "Two brewer guys came to us with the idea and we put the money forward. We struck a deal whereby every year they made a penny, they'd get 10 per cent. If they lost a penny, they'd get fired." Something completely different A Budweiser drinker with no knowledge of homebrewing, Jack had never run a small business before.

"All I knew from my time at Nike was that you had to make world-class products, or at least try to, and put your money where your mouth is," he says.

"We knew we'd have to trust ourselves and not attempt to please other people. If you look at the beer market from a small guy's point of view, you're looking at an industry dominated by three main players and restrictive distribution. You have to do something different."

And, my, Rogue was different. Unpasteurised, hand-crafted, heavily hopped and highly irreverent ales packaged in tall, screen-printed 650ml bottles adorned with a 'rogue' character on the front.

"We chose the 22 fl oz bottle because, in the minds of the consumer, there's no perception of what it costs," adds Jack. "It was expensive and brave but the bigger bottle has been critical in our success."

Thanks to head brewer John Meier the sheer variety is staggering, with more than 60 different beers on the Rogue roster. These include, among others, the flagship Dead Guy Ale, a mocha porter, barley wine, an imperial pilsner, a cream ale, a Belgian saison, chipotle ale and a hazelnut brown ale served with a complimentary Oregonian hazelnut which, when its shell is cracked open, reveals a Rogue condom.

For such a small brewery, Rogue's reach is vast. It sent its beer east to New York in 1992, made it available in 48 states and now ships beer to Japan, Scandinavia and the UK - where it's distributed by the Freeminer Brewery in the Forest of Dean as part of a symbiotic trans-Atlantic import-export relationship.

"They share the same ethos as us and while we've never had success in the UK, the consumer is now ready over there," says Jack. "All we've got to do is find the right distribution channels."

• Ben is the British Guild of Beer Writers' Beer Writer of the Year​​