Fort George Brewery Just Keeps Getting Bigger, Better and Wilder

For the truly rare and special beers, slip through a door on the brewing floor to the bare-bones Lovell Taproom to find inventive surprises

(Sam Gehrke)

1483 Duane St., Astoria, 503-325-7468, fortgeorgebrewery.com. 11 am-11 pm Monday-Thursday, 11 am-midnight Friday-Saturday, noon-11 pm Sunday.

Set on the former site of Fort Astoria, the birthplace of Oregon, Fort George is unapologetically expansionist. Since its founding in 2007, the brewery has swollen to fill two stories, an entire city block and about 20,000 barrels of beer a year—hovering around the 10th biggest brewery in the state—without any compromise in quality. From a first floor serving up excellent burger plates and fish and chips, you can ascend spiral steps preserved from the landmark Astoria Column to an upper deck that serves truly killer brewery pizza. Meanwhile, Fort George is building a distribution hub in nearby Warrenton, and by press time it will have finished construction on a two-story patio whose bottom floor is both heated and covered—just in time for its massive Festival of Dark Arts brimming with beers, like a perilously rich, 12-percent-alcohol Matryoshka Imperial Stout. But though Fort George is rightly known for stouts, like its roasty Cavatica flagship, lately the hoppy and sour beers have us excited, especially the brewery's annual 3-Way collaboration IPA and a fresh-hop IPA that was one of the best in Oregon last year. For the truly rare and special beers, slip through a door on the brewing floor to the bare-bones Lovell Taproom to find inventive surprises, like a spruce-tip Spruce Budd or a Shady Grove wine-barrel aged saison and cider blend.

(Sam Gehrke)

Nearby: Former Portland chef Eric Bechard moved out here a few years ago after the closure of his envelope-pushing wild-game spot Kingdom of Roosevelt. Albatross & Co. (225 14th St., 503-741-3091, albatrossandcompany.com) would be one of our favorite hangs in Portland, if it were in Portland. The $9 cocktails are stiff and stirred, the pork-centric Ol' Ironsides is an inspired cross between a Cubano and a Reuben, and the Dungeness-topped deviled eggs are heavenly.

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