It started with a simple enough idea: take a versatile, yet underappreciated style like stout, brew as many as your boss will allow, and put them on tap all at once. This was the idea Jack Harris, co-founder of Fort George, had over twenty years ago as a young brewer working for McMenamin’s Cornelius Pass Roadhouse.

“Nobody else was doing it,” Jack explains. “I certainly wasn’t paying any attention to marketing or filling niches, it was sort of dumb luck on my part that folks really responded to the idea of celebrating a variety of stouts during the cold, dark days of February.”

Throughout the years, as he moved from town to town, he took the stouts with him. “It’s the people I’ve worked with since then that have taken the idea and run with it. That’s what makes Stout Month such a big deal,” he continues. “It gets more sophisticated, elaborate, and popular every year.”

And now that he has his own brewery, February at Fort George is forever dedicated to Stout Month, a twenty-eight day celebration of the darker ales. Taps will pour invitingly black, overflowing with new stout releases each week, and all centered around the darkest single-day stout festival in the world — the Festival of Dark Arts.

Release the Stouts

Sit down for a heady pour or test your tongue on a blind stout taster tray. New stouts are on tap every week (with 19! from Fort George this year).

Released February 1st

• May The Oats Be With You – oatmeal stout
• Tuesday’s Lunch – roasted peanuts and blackberries (PB&J stout)
• Coffee Girl – brewed with Brasilian Santa Luzia coffee beans from Coava Coffee Roasters
• From Astoria with Love – Russian Imperial Stout
• Voluptas – fig & oatmeal stout
• Matryoshka – bourbon barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout
• Matryoshka with Cocoa Nibs (+bottle release)

Released February 8th

• All Seeing Pie – bourbon barrel apple pie stout
• Viva La Stout – Mexican chocolate stout
• Polish’s Black Walnut Stout

Released February 15th

• Kaiju Stout – plum and black tea stout
• Keg Nog – milk stout spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla beans
• Barrel Aged May The Oats Be With You – aged in Four Roses bourbon barrels

Released February 19th

• Matryoshka with Cocoa Nibs & Raspberries (+bottle release)
• Subtle Hyperbole – Candy Cap mushrooms, molasses, graham crackers, and cinnamon
• Dark Matter – oatmeal stout aged in Pinot Noir and bourbon barrels

Released February 22nd

• Nostalgia Trip – sassafras, sarsaparilla, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla bean (root beer stout)
• Kentucky Girl – Coffee Girl aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels
• Itsy Bitsy Stout – dry Irish stout.

Matryoshka with Cocoa Nibs will be available in 500ml bottles on February 1st, the second release from the Sweet Virginia Series bottle project. That’s followed by Matryoshka with Cocoa Nibs & Raspberries on Sunday, February 19th. All three Matryoshka stouts will be on tap in the Lovell Taproom that day. Bottled variations of Matryoshka are extremely limited and available only at the brewery.

Carnival of Stouts

Voted by Willamette Week Oregon Beer Awards as the Best Beer Festival in 2016, the Festival of Dark Arts is much more than a stout fest. It’s a full sensory immersion into art, craft, music, and macabre entertainment, with over sixty rare stouts all over the Fort George block. The event will sell out, but you can check www.festivalofdarkarts.com for full ticket, stout, and entertainment information. Buy tickets while you can or mark your calendar for next year – FoDA is always held on the Saturday of President’s Day Weekend.

When/Where:
Festival of Dark Arts – Fort George Brewery
Saturday, February 18th, 2017 – 2pm to 10pm
1483 Duane Street
Astoria, Oregon

Details:

• Live music with 1939 Ensemble, Ryan Sollee (Builders and the Butchers), Máscaras, Three for Silver, and many more.
• Dark Art Gallery, glass blowing, iron forge, tattoo artists, ice sculptor, fire dancers, contortionists, etc. etc. etc.
• Pig roast, cigar tent, chocolate & coffee, and other stout pairings.
• 60+ rare stouts pouring all over the block.

 

Traveling Carnival of Stouts

Can’t make make it to the coast? Get a taste of Stout Month at these events around the Pacific Northwest.

Fort George Stout Month Preview 
Arch Bridge Tap House – 207 7th St, Oregon City, Oregon
Saturday, February 4th – 5pm to 8pm
Tap list: May The Oats Be With You, Coffee Girl, Matryoshka, Beta IPA 12.1

Beer. Cider. Love.
Beer Belly – 1205 SW Washington St, Portland, Oregon
Tuesday, February 14th – 5pm to 9pm
Tap list: Five Fort George beers (including Matryoshka, May The Oats Be With You, and Coffee Girl & Vortex) paired with five ciders from Finnriver.

Road to the Dark Arts
Watershed Pub & Kitchen – 10104 3rd Ave NE, Seattle, Washington
Thursday, February 16th – 11am to close
Tap list: From Astoria with Love, Viva La Stout, Tuesday’s Lunch, Voluptas, Polish’s Black Walnut Stout, Coffee Girl

The Black & The Bitter
Beerworks – 323 E Main St, Medford, Oregon
Wednesday, February 22nd – 6pm to 9pm
Tap list: Matryoshka, Beta IPA 12.3 (Test Batch for 3-Way IPA), Subtle Hyperbole, Suicide Squeezet

Fort George Stout Month Night
The Park Way Tavern – 313 N I St, Tacoma, Washington
Wednesday, February 22nd – 6pm to 9pm
Tap list: From Astoria with Love, Viva La Stout, Tuesday’s Lunch, Voluptas, Polish’s Black Walnut Stout, Coffee Girl

Fort George Stout Month Cellar Night
Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom – 3090 SE Division St, Portland, Oregon
Thursday, February 23rd – 5pm to 8pm
Tap list: From Astoria with Love (2016), Bourbon Barrel Cavatica Stout (2016), North VIII (2015), Matryoshka (2017), Coffee Girl, Beta IPA 12.3

The Black & The Bitter
Cascade Locks Ale House – 500 NW Wanapa St, Cascade Locks, Oregon
Saturday, February 25th – 6pm to 8pm
Tap list: Cavatica Stout, May The Oats Be With You, Beta IPA 12.3, Suicide Squeeze *Special Edition IPA

Stout Month begins Wednesday, February 1st at Fort George Brewery. Bring your loved ones, your beloved growler, and your love of everything dark. Fort George promises you won’t go away light-handed.