Fort George Brewery’s waterfront expansion brings more small batch beers to cans and consumers

Leveraging their status as an industry leader and driving force of revitalization in the quiet coastal port city of Astoria, Oregon, Fort George Brewery is nearing completion of a long-term growth project announced in 2019 that doubles down on their commitment to canning and creativity. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in Oregon and was once a trading hub for fishing and fur with as many as 30 canneries along the Columbia River. But since the mid-70’s the canneries have all but disappeared until recently as Fort George and their neighbors at Buoy Beer Co. are changing the fortunes of the city by exporting beers - and importing beer tourists.

Fort George Brewery opened in 2007 as a small 8.5 bbl brewpub initially known for their eccentric creations and sometimes murky IPA before hazy became a thing. Many expansion projects later and Fort George is ranked as the 6th largest craft brewery in Oregon based on taxable barrels and 12th overall if you factor in corporate macro owned brewing operations. With their latest expansion they add a third brewhouse and hundreds of thousands of square feet of upgraded equipment that recall the heyday of canning along the Columbia River in the 1800’s.

Fort George doubles down on cans and lagers

If you thought that Fort George already had an impressive output of craft beer in cans since they began packaging in late 2018, you ain’t seen nothing yet. With the completion of an expansion project into the west waterfront of Astoria, Fort George had turned on a new pipeline for craft cans fed by the newly installed 60 bbl “Kingpin” brewhouse purchased from the now shuttered Bridgeport Brewing in Portland. They also salvaged four of Bridgeport’s 180bbl lagering tanks that will allow them to invest in the resurgence of craft lagers.

When Ft. George first launched 16oz cans near the end of 2010 one of those initial beers was 1811 an pre-prohibition style lager that was a little bit hazy, hoppy, and ahead of it’s time. Now with the popularity of clean, crisp and much hoppier lagers and with new conditioning tanks Fort George has launched “The Meadow” a hoppy pilsner now available year-round in 12oz cans and 6-packs. As the brewery gets it’s feet under them with the new expansion, they will be launching a Lager Series that will kick off with the return and 10th Anniversary of 1811 Lager bringing things back full circle.

Yet the expansion is not complete, this month Fort George will be adding four more 240bbl fermenters and one 240bbl brite tank from Marks Metalworks and have already upgraded the packaging with a new Krones Canning line which can operate at a speed of 267 cans per minute with lower dissolved oxygen then the previous machine. That output nearly doubles the 140 cans per minute the previous line could produce. The packaging team takes another weight off their shoulders as they unload the responsibility of hand folding cardboard trays of cans by installing a packer tray to make the job that much easier and quicker.

“That was honestly one of the most frustrating jobs on the canning line,” says Fort George marketing/sales director Brian Bovenizer. “It is pretty hard on your hands folding trays and filling them with beer. Having that automated makes so that person can monitor the machine without getting developing carpal tunnel. This line is running so fast that you really have to catch them as they are coming down the line and there is no time to fold trays.”

Even better news for fans of their beer, the production improvements will take pressure off of Fort George’s previous production facility in the Lovell Building and allow them to do even more fun stuff. Their second brewhouse, the one formerly brewing all major releases was a 30 bbl system dubbed “Little Miss Texas” is staying in operation where it will become the new source of small batch releases that will be more easily accessible now. As if the lightning fast new Krones machine wasn’t enough, Fort George is installing a Wild Goose canning line that is more compact and opens up space in the Lovell building for barrel storage, and even more 45-60 bbl tanks and an in-line labeler.

“We expect to have at one unique small batch can release a month with very limited distribution, outside of the PNW-wide seasonals that we do from the larger facility,” says Bovenizer.

The investment of more than $12.5 million from loans, grants and new markets tax credit allowed Fort George to purchase the property on Astoria’s waterfront that includes three different warehouse spaces with room for the growing Fort George Distribution business. It also brings back more than 25 jobs that were lost in the food handling business when the Astoria Warehousing closed in 2018 opening up the property for the brewery. The building was once the historic Elmore Cannery where Bumble Bee Seafoods packaged tuna, and later it was used for labeling, storing and distributing Alaskan salmon in cans.

Innovative Collaborations and Experimental Beers in Cans

Ft. George’s main rotating can series of IPA’s not only changes with the season but each year the same beers have a whole new recipe. Most of us know about the fan-favorite 3-Way IPA that is a different collaboration with two other breweries every year. Last year they added Fanzine IPA to that program, each Fanzine a different west coast/clear IPA with a different brewery and comic strip artist on the label. Also introduced last year was Farmers’ Annuary, an annual collaboration with a different hop farm. Farmers’ Annuary launched in 2020 with a Crosby Hop Farm collaboration and will be back this summer with Roy Farms from Washington’s Yakima valley.

Fort George 2021 Farmers’ Annuary collaboration with Roy Farms

The latest is “The Throwback Series” which was born out of the pandemic and desire to come back to familiar things we lost along the way.

“Like many, we found ourselves a bit nostalgic during this period of reflection and revisited some old recipes and designs,” says Bovenizer. The first Throwback Series release is out now and its the brewery’s first ever seasonal Tender Loving Empire NWPA. Next we will see the limited comeback of previous mainstays Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale, Quick Wit and Overdub IPA.

This Fall will also see a new release in the record label and brewery collaborations called the 45 Series.

“We have two 45bbl tanks in our "Little Miss Texas" brewery. The idea is that we collaborate with a brewery on two different sides or versions of the beer. Then we collaborate with an independent record label to make two sides of a 45rpm record,” explains Bovenizer.

Each release in the 45 series has the name and artwork of a record and when you buy the mixed case with side A and Side B from each brewery then you get the record included. This Fall will see Fort George return to the 45’s and teaming with two Seattle favorites - Reuben's Brews and Light in the Attic Records.

Next up on the experimental side is a new collaboration with Our Mutual Friend Brewing out of Denver, CO called “Laza Tiger.”

What makes Laza Tiger special is the use of ingredients from Oregon and Colorado, each partner brought their own hops, grains, and mixed culture of yeast and bacteria to play on this funky sour. The base mixed culture blonde ale was re-fermented half on Brooks cherries and half on Rainier cherries. The extra strange part is that it will be packaged into totally clear 750ml bottles to really let the color shine, and perhaps contribute some extra skunkiness to a style that some argue is benefited by it.

Sustainable Growth

Fort George produced a little over 27, 000 barrels of beer in 2020 and by 2022 they expect to get to 35K with the capacity to grow even much further than that. But with all of this growth Fort George is still dedicated to staying true to their tagline seal “Distributed only in the Pacific Northwest” that you find emblazoned on every one of their cans.

That includes even their burgeoning Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) shipping program that’s become a popular option for beer geeks. Not only can you get cases of 3-Way IPA or whatever floats your boat sent directly to your home, but they now have a limited release membership club called the Lovell Auto Co. that also ships.

“The idea was that we would reserve one off bottles and Lovell Auto Co exclusives so that our out of town guests wouldn't have to worry about missing pub only releases - which we do a lot of,” says Bovenizer.

That was before the pandemic that hit not long before what would be the annual 2020 release of 3-way IPA. To keep the beer moving and to prevent over crowding from people traveling to pickup cans at the brewery they decided to figure out how to get into DTC shipping.

“We understand that traveling is not in everyone's cards right now, so if we can deliver a small-batch Fort George experience directly to someone's door, that is the next best thing.”

view of the Astoria-Megler Bridge from the new Fort George Brewing production space on Astoria waterfront

Even with the pandemic very slowly abating the brewery doesn’t see an end to their DTC program anytime soon. If anything the recent expansion will see even more small batch beers for fans who can’t even make it out to Astoria. By ordering online consumers will be able to get the next mixed-culture barrel-aged hard pickle sour seltzer IPA from Washington down to northern California while Fort George stays true to distributing only in the map of Cascadia.