The origins of Stout Month date back over three decades when a Boulder, Colorado brewer decided to capture additional Stout sales during one of the darkest months of the year, February. Here in the Pacific Northwest, Fort George Brewery has been marketing the month of February as Stout Month for quite some time now.
For the past eleven months, Fort George Brewery has been prepping for the day when the shortest month of the year arrives. Yes, when the darkest month of the year arrives on the darkest coast, It is Stout Month! And in 2024, Stout Month lasts even longer as this year just happens to be a leap year! Fort George will dedicate 29 days of Stout at its taprooms in Astoria, Oregon with the highlight being its annual Festival of Dark Arts on February 17.
During this month, Fort George will be serving up plenty of stouts. This means that 20 unique, one-time stout releases throughout the month of February! Delight in stout diversions, stout-focused food specials, guest taps, and for the first time ever, a pop-up, free-play arcade.
The Lovell Arcade is open all month long featuring free play of vintage arcade games. Open during regular taproom hours from Wednesday – Sunday, grab some beers and food through the taproom window while reliving your younger days with these great vintage games!
With so many stout releases this month at Fort George, it all culminates on Sunday, February 18 during The Aftermath. This day is dedicated to Matryoshka and its variants. In December Fort George released Matryoshka 2024 – The Mother, a legendary 14% 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.
All of the resulting Matryoshka 2024 variants will be released the day after Festival of Dark Arts along with 4 other limited releases:
- Full Pastry Send – An imperial stout collaboration with Moksa.
- Fantastic Barrels and Where to Find Them – A 24-month barrel project blend.
- Crysknife – Hazy IPA collab with OMF in 16oz cans (to break up the darkness).
- 2024 Matryoshka Barrel Select – A special blend of the best of the best hand selected imperial stout barrels from the last two years.
Every weekend in February is a Carnival of Stout at Fort George. Any day this month you can taste your way up from a London Foginspired stout to a 24-month Westward Whiskey Cavatica Whiskey barrel aged version of Fort George’s beloved Cavatica Stout.
Visit Fort George during Stout Month and bathe your sun-starved skin in the radiance of this rotating carnival of stout. You can find all the Stout Month Releases here.
About The Author
DJ
D.J. is a Portland, Oregon based writer that spent his formative years in the Midwest. With over 25 years under his belt of drinking beer at festivals across America and the world, he has developed a strong appreciation and understanding of craft beer and the industry that surrounds it. He can be found in any of the great breweries or beer bars that make Portland the best beer city in the world. His writing can also be found in the archives of Northwest Brewing News and can be followed on Twitter and Instagram at @hopapalooza.
