Fort George Brewery and Public House on Duane Street in Astoria

Fort George Brewery and the old buildings it brought back on Duane Street

ByJoel Koskinen

Photo: Thing8756, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fort George Brewery takes its name from the post the North West Company ran here after it took over John Jacob Astor’s Fort Astoria during the War of 1812. The brewery itself is much newer. Chris Nemlowill and Jack Harris opened it in 2007 in the Fort George Building on Duane Street, a former automotive garage that had sat underused for years.

The site has a claim to history of its own. The building stands on part of the original fort grounds, and the brewery has said that remains of the stockade line run beneath the block.

Growing across the block

The pub came first, then a production brewery in the Lovell Building across the courtyard, a 1920s structure that had once been an auto showroom. Over the following years the company added a canning line and began shipping beer around the Northwest. Its 16-ounce cans, especially the hazy and IPA styles, are now a common sight in grocery coolers from Portland to Seattle.

For downtown Astoria, the brewery’s growth arrived at a useful moment. The city’s fishing and canning economy had shrunk for decades, and old commercial buildings were cheap but in poor shape. Fort George was one of several businesses, along with Buoy Beer on the waterfront and a string of restaurants, that gave visitors reasons to stay downtown after seeing the Column and the maritime museum.

A year-round staff

Brewing is less seasonal than most coast tourism work, which makes those jobs valuable in a county where summer and winter employment can differ sharply. The company also runs the Festival of the Dark Arts each February, a stout-themed event that fills Astoria’s rooms in what is otherwise one of the slowest months of the year.

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