Fort George Celebrates 17 Years of Vortex IPA

In April, we’re celebrating the beginning of Fort George Beer with Vortex Month. If you haven’t cracked a can of Vortex in a minute, now is the perfect time to raise your glass to an original West Coast IPA – going strong for the last 17 years. 

We’re always coming up with new beer here at Fort George. We like new stuff and our brewers have a lot of weird ideas. Burger beer. Pickle spices. Mushroom powder. Pies. Our truck drivers and dishwashers and office managers all have beer ideas, too. The Fort requires all our employees to have at least one cool idea per fiscal quarter. It’s basically the only requirement for working here. Due to this medium-strict company policy, lots of different beer recipes are pouring at the tap wall every week and we’ve always got something new to try. 

But in April we’ll all be drinking Vortex. Last year we packaged our first ever Double Dry Hopped Vortex – like Vortex but with more Vortex in it. DDH Vortex is back this year alongside Cryotex – our original Vortex recipe made with Cryo and CGX Hops from Yakima Chief and Crosby Hop Farms. It’s like the Vortex of the future… in cans!

Also releasing in April is a long-awaited, loving tribute to two of the PNW’s most beloved IPAs: Fort George’s Vortex IPA and Block 15’s Sticky Hands IPA. Vortex Hands is a collaboration with our good friends at Block 15. Like Vortex – with the spirit of Block 15’s strong, smooth and piney Sticky Hands, or Sticky Hands with the spirit of a bright and balanced Vortex. 

In April, you can sample a holy trinity of new Vortices at the Pub in Astoria, Oregon. 

All three canned releases will also be available around the Pacific Northwest wherever you get good beer. 

VORTEX: 

Dappled sun beams on a forest floor. The yellow flash of a summer tanager. The taste of crisp, cool melon. Particles of forest pollen in the mist and the roar of an oncoming hop storm. Heaps of pale malt, flaked wheat & 2-Row shore up a blazing whorl of familiar hop additions that make up this Northwest original. Fort George has been brewing Vortex IPA for seventeen years. Is it possible to make the perfect IPA? We don’t know. But we keep trying. See for yourself.  Vortex is a curiously flavorful IPA hand crafted in Astoria, Oregon. 

Releasing 4/1 – DDH VORTEX: 

Our first brewhouse was almost scattered to the winds by a tornado as we drove it from Virginia to the coast of Oregon in 2006. We’ve been harnessing the power of the elements ever since. April is Vortex Month – a celebration of firsts and bests and the wildness of the natural forces that could have crushed us before we even began. This month, we Doubled the Dry Hop to produce a fiercer, bolder, wilder version of this Northwest favorite.

Releasing 4/1 – CRYOTEX: 

April is Vortex Month – Fort George has been brewing (and drinking) Vortex for 17 years. At this point, we know what we like. But we’re never going to stop experimenting.  This month, we’ve switched up our beloved Vortex recipe to produce a wild, fruity, futuristic version of our year-round favorite pint with Cryo hops, hop hash and thiolized yeast for extra flavor conversion.

Releasing 4/15 – VORTEX HANDS: 

A collaboration with Block 15. Imagine if the legendary Sticky Hands IPA and your year-round, all season’s go-to Vortex IPA met at a sports bar half way between Astoria and Corvallis. Hot, clear summer day, a cool breeze off the water and the barest hint of a summer storm gathering on the horizon. They hit it off, obviously, and a few short months later – Vortex Hands is born. A bright, aromatic, perfectly balanced IPA. You’ve got Vortex Hands – but you’ve got your father’s lusciously sticky hop aroma. 

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