WELCOME ABOARD!
We’re excited to welcome beer fans to Astoria Beer Zone, a blog focused on the North Coast’s vibrant craft beer scene. Expect a mix of fun stories and useful info about brews made here, and the people who make them.
MEET THE STEIN-HOLDING CHAMP
“I wish I could say I had a strategy,” says Josh Wickstrom, Astoria’s newly crowned stein-holding champion.
The first-timer swears he was just winging it.
Public Coast Brewing’s Fantastic Farm
East of Cannon Beach lies a 40-acre farm that serves as a test kitchen for chefs and brewers. And a summer playground. The farmers experiment with varieties of fruits, vegetables, hops and herbs, and the winners emerge on dinner plates and in pint glasses. Especially the abundant blueberries. Public Coast Brewing Co. is a rarity among its peers, a craft brewery that owns its own culinary farm, including a fruit orchard and 10 acres of blueberry bushes. There’s also a huge solar-powered greenhouse raising heirloom tomatoes and other veggies, plus a similarly oversized cold storage building. Brewers Will Leroux and Ben Christianson say the bounty has sparked them to be more innovative, devising beer and hard seltzer recipes that incorporate fruit and more exotic ingredients such as zesty peppers. “It’s a blessing. Farm to tank,” Christianson says with a smile. Fresh produce from the farm also appears on the menus for the Cannon Beach brewery’s adjoining brewpub and its sister restaurant at the oceanfront Stephanie Inn. Public Coast owner Ryan Snyder discovered the farm by chance during one of his regular trips between Portland and Cannon Beach. After touring the grounds, he couldn’t resist. Since acquiring the property a few
Q/A WITH TITUS BENTLEY OF NORTH JETTY BREWING
When Titus Bentley was about to become the head brewer at North Jetty Brewing in Seaview, there were some sleepless moments. Would he measure up? Could he handle the responsibility?
It was April 2022, about three years after moving to Astoria from Colorado. The job offer was pure happenstance – coming shortly after striking up a conversation with a stranger who turned out to be the mother of North Jetty’s co-founder. They talked about beer. She was impressed by his passion.
THE STORY OF A FRESH HOP BEER
For brewers and beer aficionados, it’s almost like Christmas morning.
We’re talking fresh hop harvest time in the Pacific Northwest, a glorious period when craft breweries dispatch delivery vans to the farms to collect the aromatic bounty. And then race back to the brewhouse as quickly as possible.
FRESH HOP FRENZY!
North Coast breweries are busy whipping up batches of fresh hop beer in a variety of styles, taking full advantage of the splendid harvest now underway.
Fort George Brewery is planning a whopping six special beer releases in September, each made with fragrant fresh hops grown at Willamette Valley farms.
BREW CUP DRAWS REVELERS TO ASTORIA
When the first Pacific Northwest Brew Cup happened in 2002, there was no craft beer scene in Astoria.
Astoria Brewing was still called Wet Dog. Fort George Brewery wouldn’t make its transformative debut for another five years.
And the downtown beer zone? A mere fantasy.
BUOY BEER’S BIG BASH
Buoy Beer Co. is throwing an Oktoberfest party with beer, brats and live music, and everyone is welcome.
BEER THAT BUILDS COMMUNITY
North Coast craft breweries do more than make great beer. They support a long list of nonprofits and civic groups.
Q/A WITH JOSH ALLISON OF REACH BREAK BREWING
Josh Allison wears many hats – brewer, business owner, family man – but in each role he seems, well, comfortable. Burly and bearded, quick to smile, he radiates fortitude like only someone who has overcome adversity can.
PNW BREW CUP RETURNS TO ASTORIA
Ending a three-year hiatus, the Pacific Northwest Brew Cup is returning to Astoria, featuring craft beer and live music.
Admission to the Aug. 18-19 festival is free. Beer fans can buy souvenir mugs and tasting tokens.
ONE YEAR LATER, BUOY’S BACK TO NORMAL (ALMOST)
Buoy Beer Co. is back to brewing all of its beer in Astoria. The gleaming lagering tanks are filled once again.
Credit an extensive remodel of a century-old former sardine cannery for creating the sorely needed space.
TRY THESE CRISP SUMMER BEERS
It’s nearly summer!
That bright circle in the sky is the sun. The heat you feel is perfectly normal.
So, find your shades, try not to burn your pale skin and stock your fridge and cooler with easy-drinking beer because the days are long (again, normal) and you’ll want to party on.
Q/A WITH BRIAN BOVENIZER OF FORT GEORGE BREWERY
We sat down recently for a wide-ranging discussion with Brian Bovenizer, Fort George’s decidedly unconventional marketing director. He first visited Astoria in 2008 and immediately was smitten by the fledgling brewery. From a bar stool, he asked co-founder Jack Harris for a job, but that didn’t happen until a year later when he started working as a cook with zero experience.
The company expanded quickly, so it didn’t take Bovenizer long to land a marketing/sales job. He’s been helping chart Fort George’s future ever since. He lives in Astoria with his wife and two children, and still manages to find time to play in a band and surf.
Warrenton may finally get its brewery
One look at Jonathan Elliott’s face as he describes the ongoing experiment that is craft brewing – breathlessly rattling off exotic ingredients and fermentation tricks – and you know.
You know this man will succeed. He’ll open a brewery, and it will be in Warrenton, where he was raised and graduated from high school, Class of 1998.
“Oh, man,” he says, envisioning that day. “It’d be a dream come true for me.”
REACH BREAK’S BUBBLY BREAKOUT
Astoria’s Reach Break Brewing has launched a line of hard seltzers with natural fruit flavors as a lower-alcohol beer alternative. Founder and head brewer Josh Allison says his Beachcraft seltzers will be available in 16-ounce cans this summer – in time for beach outings, barbecues and respites on the trails.
FORT GEORGE’S SUDSY PIER TO OPEN ALL SUMMER
By now you’ve probably heard that Fort George Brewery has a cool pier that slices into the Columbia River, offering awesome views. The Beer Pier (official name) made its debut in time for the fireworks show last July 4, totally refurbished with seating and decorative lights. Oh, and there was a pop-up taproom, a food truck and a place for a band to play.
NEW ASTORIA BREWPUB
Breakside Brewery opened its downtown Astoria brewpub at noon on Friday, with a little help from its friends. The pub had just passed a final city health inspection and Breakside’s Dan Brownhill was eager to roll up the garage doors for the Memorial Day weekend. The problem: He had no chairs or barstools. The delivery had been delayed until Tuesday.
FESTIVAL LURES BEER LOVERS AND A WATCHFUL DOE
We all wondered why, on this particular day, at this particular time, the doe would appear. The graceful animal pranced in front of the stage as The Cave Singers rocked, then wandered through the flower-fringed grounds of the Flavel House, the Astoria sea captain’s majestic old haunt.
BEER FANS FLOCK TO LAGER FEST
Cold beer and hot, sunny days. The God of Hops certainly blessed Buoy Beer Co.’s Lager Fest in Astoria. Or maybe just made up for last year’s outdoor festival, when it rained and was unseasonably cold. Whatever. The big takeaway here is heat plus sun equals thirst divided by beer. Or as Brenda of Warrenton put it as she sipped a lager in her Adirondack chair: “I only drink beer when it’s hot. It’s hot.”
Q/A with Dave Coyne of Obelisk Beer Co.
Astoria Beer Zone sat down with Dave to chat about his craft brewery – Astoria’s sixth! – opened recently in a refurbished warehouse on Bond Street, just west of downtown. He and co-owner Nathan Lampson were previously at Fort George Brewery.
Astoria Brewing loses general manager
After guiding Astoria Brewing Co. through a promising revival, general manager Brad Kenoyer is moving on. He’s landed a top management post for a private company that provides restaurant and visitor services at Yellowstone National Park.
MEET FORT GEORGE’S ‘RESIDENT HUMORIST’
Kirsten Pierce doesn’t think she’s funny. Not in a classic stand-up sort of way. And her father, she says with a shrug, doesn’t get her humor at all. But those weekly newsletters she writes for Fort George Brewery? They’re always tongue-in-cheek amusing, and sometimes downright hilarious.
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