MEET FORT GEORGE’S ‘RESIDENT HUMORIST’

May 1, 2023

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.

While nearly all breweries play their beer announcements straight, Pierce has been given the green light to get a little weird. Okay, a lot weird.

The “resident humorist” recently wrote about a group of starving filmmakers who’ve been living in a storage room above the brewing tanks and produced a 15-part Netflix documentary series. The account was linked to Netflix and a video on Instagram.

Loads of readers thought it was true and headed en masse to Netflix, but it was just an elaborate April Fool’s joke.

Pierce, of course, loved the reaction. (As did just about everybody at Fort George).

For more about Pierce and her beer-related humor, read the Thirsty Growler column in The Astorian.

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.

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.

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