Jack Harris loves stouts. He was brewing, drinking, and celebrating stouts before he co-founded Fort George Brewery with Chris Nemlowill in Astoria, Oregon. He had celebrated the first Stout Month in the 1990s while working at McMenamins, and everywhere he moved and everywhere he brewed, he took the stouts with him, including as head brewer at Bill’s Tavern in Cannon Beach. In February 2002, Harris launched the first Festival of Dark Arts in downtown Astoria with artist and master gardener (who oversees the Fort George campus) Jessica Schleif ss a fundraiser for the Astoria Visual Arts organization. They asked the artists to created dark-themed art to match the dark stouts, which Harris drove all over the region picking up stouts. Harris asked his fire dancer friends to perform. Opening Fort George Brewery in in March 2007, co-owner Harris of course brought the stout mentality with him. It wasn’t until the brewery expanded in 2010, buying both the Fort George Building and the adjacent Lovell Building, that Harris and Nemlowill started discussing the possibility of a carnival of stouts. That first Festival of Dark Arts on the Fort George block was held on the Saturday of President’s Day Weekend in 2012. Each year the Fort George staff tried to outdo the last with 30 stouts, 40 stouts, 55 stouts on the block. They added more craftspeople, more music, more random roaming entertainment. In 2013 the stout and music expanded into the public house. In 2014, the upstairs space opened, adding another set of taps to the festival along with a much larger music venue. In 2017, the festival expanded onto 14th Street (with an additional 20-tap trailer) and onto the second story deck of the Pizzeria. The last two years, Festival of Dark Arts hosts three stages of live music, dozens of artists, craftspeople, and performers, and a world-class list of stouts from some of the best breweries in the country. Today, Peaks & Pints offers our third Fort George Festival of Dark Arts stout flight this year with new stouts that were served last month at the festival. Stop by our craft beer lodge in Tacoma’s Proctor District for Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: More Dark Arts Stouts.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: More Dark Arts Stouts
Fort George Chocolate Banana Smoothie
6% ABV
The base stout for Fort George’s Chocolate Banana Smoothie is a 23-month, double barrel-aged imperial stout from Willet Bourbon barrels, Blanton’s Bourbon barrels to Heaven Hill and 10-month Heaven Hill Bourbon barrels. Then, chocolate and banana are added to the mix.
Fort George Swedish Grandma
6% ABV
The base stout for Fort George’s Swedish Grandma is a 23-month, double barrel-aged imperial stout from Willet Bourbon barrels, Blanton’s Bourbon barrels to Heaven Hill and 10-month Heaven Hill Bourbon barrels. Then, cardamom and cinnamon buns are added to the mix.
Fort George Bottom of the Bag
9% ABV
The base stout for Fort George’s Bottom of the Bag is a 23-month, double barrel-aged imperial stout from Willet Bourbon barrels, Blanton’s Bourbon barrels to Heaven Hill and 10-month Heaven Hill Bourbon barrels. Then, chocolate cookies, vanilla, and coconut are added to the mix.
Fort George Matryoshka with Vanilla Bean
14% ABV
In December, Fort George released Matryoshka 2024 – The Mother, a legendary 14-percent barrel-aged imperial stout. Since that release the brewers at the Fort have been adding more and more adjuncts to the original mother stout, siphoning off increasingly smaller batches to condition on increasingly delicious additions. This variant sports an added DryFly Whiskey barrel aging plus Brazilian, Congolese, and Guatemalan vanilla beans.
Fort George Matryoshka with Vanilla Bean, Cacao Nibs, Dates & Almonds
14% ABV
For better or worse, barrel-aged Russian imperial stouts are viewed by many (especially those who spend time on beer-rating sites) as the apex of craft beer achievement. Peaks and Pints tends to agree, especially the barrel aged version of From Astoria With Love, Matryoshka. Fort George’s 2024 Matryoshka, a Westward and Westland Whiskey barrel-aged Russian imperial stout, is slightly sweet with chocolate, caramel, cocoa, and mild whiskey notes and finishes with a little cardamom and cinnamon. This variant sports an added DryFly Whiskey barrel aging plus Brazilian, Congolese, and Guatemalan vanilla beans, cacao nibs, dates, and almonds.
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