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14 The Cheese Guide Creamery used those ales to make two new anniversary cheddar cheddars. HUB makes Organic HUB Survival Stout, which is an ingredient in Rogue Creamery's HUB Survival Stout Cheddar, and because there's more to a good life than just beer and cheese, Rogue Creamery has also teamed up with Chocolatier Jeff Shepherd, who makes top-quality confections at his Lillie Belle Farms in Central Point, Oregon, for Lillie Belle Cacow Belle cheese. "It's a good partnership. That's been successful," said Plowman. "We try to make sure that the cheddar – and this goes back to the time of the Vellas – that the primary taste is the cheddar and then you taste the other flavor afterwards." Plowman refers here to Tom Vella, the creamery's founder, and to Ig Vella, the legendary cheesemaker who created Rogue Creamery's Oregon Blue, the West Coast's first cave-aged blue cheese, in 1954. Rogue Creamery's current owners, David Gremmels and Cary Bryant, took ownership of Rogue Creamery in 2002. Since then, the creamery's original product line of raw milk cheddars and two blue cheeses has expanded to include the eight new blue cheeses for which Rogue Creamery is best known today and the flavored cheddars that include the beer cheeses as well as cheeses like Organic La-Di-Da Lavender; Organic Rogue's Mary, an herbed cheese with rosemary; Pistol Point, which includes chipotle peppers; and Habanero Cheddar and Jalapeno Cheddar, for those who like cheese that bites back. "Rosemary, lavender have been a big part of the business," Plowman said. "In the part of the business we're in, it's not enough BY LORRIE BAUMANN Human beings have most likely been enjoying beer and cheese together for thousands of years – the earliest documented beer has been dated to around 3,400 B.C through an analysis of residues found in vessels excavated from Iran's Zagros Mountains, while the earliest evidence of cheesemaking dates from the sixth or seventh millennium B.C. For Rogue Creamery, though, the history of pairing cheese with beer really dates to 2004, when the company began partnering with Rogue Ales, itself founded in 1988, to make a cheese that combined Rogue Creamery's cheddars with Rogue Ales' beer. Fueled by a shared passion for quality, environmental sustainability, and the fruits of fermentation, Rogue Creamery is still working with Rogue Ales as well as with other local brewers to create cheeses that celebrate the happy marriage of beer with cheddar. "We have a very close partnership with Rogue Ales, but we also do a local partnership with Standing Stone Brewing. We work with HUB [Hopworks Urban Brewery]. We work with a number of local people to do beer cheddars with them so they can have a beer cheddar made with their own signature beer in their restaurants," said Francis Plowman, Rogue Creamery's Director of Marketing. The relationship with Rogue Ales is responsible for Rogue Creamery's Chocolate Stout Cheddar Cheese, Morimoto Soba Ale and Hopyard Cheddar, for which Rogue Ales supplies the hops. In honor of Rogue Creamery's 80th anniversary, the brewery even made Rogue Creamery Anniversary Ales, and then Rogue with a side of passion cheddar cheese

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