1811 Pre-Prohibition Lager is the "Official Bicentennial Beer of Astoria" and one of two beers now being canned by Fort George! Looking at this can you may find yourself saying, "what is all that?". It's a timeline detailing the history of Astoria - yes, that Astoria, the one where The Goonies was filmed. You can learn quite a bit from this can of beer and I'm enjoying checking it all out while I drink this beer. Did you know that the Astoria Brewery first opened back in 1872? Hmmm, I had no idea...

From the Fort George site:

"Many West Coast brewers in the 19th Century had no ice, so they improvised an effervescent beer by brewing lager yeasts at higher than normal temperatures..Described as "refreshing drink much consumed by the laboring classes’, it’s the inspiration for 1811 lager."

Here we go...

Pour - golden straw color, very pale when held to the light. Lots of little bubble making their way to the surface and forming a very nice, foamy, white head that sticks quite well to the inside of the glass.

Aroma - some citrus, a bit cereal and grainy sweetness as well as some hints of honey and biscuit mix.

Taste - the tangy zip of citrus hits the tongue first and is followed by an earthy hop flavor that is slightly astringent and mineral-like. Dry and crisp and definitely refreshing. This a very solid lager with some great malt flavors and spicy Saaz hop notes. The addition of those Centennials also plays a nice background role in the more pronounced citrus flavors in this beer. The more I drink this the more I like it. I'm left lapping my tongue a bit and trying to make it more tastes to describe. As this warms a bit the sweetness begins to come out more which makes me want to drink a little faster as I'm enjoying this nice and cold. 

Overall - if you're looking for a quality lager than this is it. One full pint of well-brewed American lager in each and every can. Fort George did a great job with this brew and that can sure can teach you a lot about the history of Astoria!

Would I buy more of it? - sure thing. Great beer, another canned winner from Fort George. Very well done!

Note - Fort George Brewery began canning their beers earlier this year. To date they've released two canned offerings; 1811 Pre-Prohibition Lager and their Vortex IPA. 

A while back we made some mock-ups of cans to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of The Goonies - yeah, we're pretty sure the folks at Fort George are sick of Goonies references...but...we were pretty proud of them, especially "Hey You Geuze!".