Name: Fort George Brewery
Type: Production brewery
Available in DC Market: No
What you need to know: Fort George Brewery and Brewpub opened in 2007 in Astoria, Oregon. Founded by two men who had worked at other breweries in northern Oregon, they put out a number of beers in traditional styles that have a slight twist. For example, their pale ale has oatmeal in it for a thicker mouthfeel and their wit uses lemongrass instead of orange peel. I like a little quirkiness with my traditional styles, so I’m all about what Fort George is trying to do here.
Beer #1: 1811 Pre-Prohibition Lager
Notes: The 1811 lager was brewed in honor of Astoria, Oregon’s bicentennial. This beer was fermented with lager yeast at warmer-than-average temperatures, which would make it, technically, a steam beer. Hopped with both Saaz and Centennial, this beer is reported to have a very assertive floral hoppiness attached to a clean, summery lager base. Sure sounds like a steam beer to me! If you’re a fan of Anchor or even Dogfish Head’s My Antonia imperial pilsener, then you’ll probably want to try this one. Here’s a good post about this one.
Beer Advocate: A- (5 reviews)
Rate Beer: 70 overall, 100 style
Beer #2: Vortex IPA
Notes: “We designed this not to rip your taste buds off your tongue, but rather vigorously stimulate them and your palate into a lupulin-ecstasy of pleasure.” Well, they may not have intended to rip your taste buds off, but at 97 IBUs, they very may well do so anyway. Hopped with Cascade, Simcoe, and Palisade hops, this should have both an intense citrus flavor and bitterness. Look at it this way, Stone’s Ruination is 7.7% and 100+ IBUs. Vortex is 7.4% and 97 IBUs. I’m sure this is a very tasty IPA, but it’s also likely to be a palette wrecker. Tread carefully!
Beer Advocate: A- (21 reviews)
Rate Beer: 94 overall, 89 style
Summary: I’ll definitely be stopping by to try the 1811 Lager because I really like the steam beer/heavily hopped lager style. The Vortex has good ratings for an IPA (it’s not easy to get an 89 score in that style on Ratebeer), but I do have concerns about palette fatigue to begin with, and having too many 95+ IBU (I’m looking at you, Dogfish Hellhound) beers will only exacerbate that issue. Still, from the articles I read about this brewpub, these are folks I definitely want to meet and chat up. Seems like a trend…all the Oregon people are people I want to drink with. Interesting how that turns out.
This profile is a part of the DCBEER.COM SAVOR Brewery Profile series. For more information, follow the link to see profiles of all 2011 SAVOR participants.
Beer Review Disclaimer: The beer reviews found on Beer Advocate and Rate Beer do not represent the opinions of this site. We provide these in the hope that they will serve as a resource showing what some craft beer fans have thought of the beers. These reviews can be a helpful guideline, but are not the be-all end-all about a beer’s strengths or weaknesses.
