Island Towns
Fort George Brewery + Public House

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week glass. Pours a light to medium golden amber with a fine, one finger white head with great retention and slippery solid lacing. Aroma of pale malt, citrus and piney hops, spruce needles, orange and grapefruit. Flavor is pale malt, spruce needles, piney and citrus hops, lemon, pine and grapefruit. Citrus rind and spruce bitterness. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. This time of year brings two bounties: fresh hops and spruce beers and I'm a huge fan of both. This has a lighter malt body that leans in the direction of a pale ale, but the hops are fresh tasting and the spruce melds excellently with the piney element in the hops. This is my first beer of the year evoking the winter season. Very nicely done.

16-ounce can purchased at John's Marketplace in Beaverton, OR. Date stamp reads "SPRUCE WILLIS 09/22/25".

This is a bright gold beer with yellow highlights and a head that doesn't last long. Minimal lacing. But any deficiencies in the look are balanced out by that nose. So much spruce! Piny/fruity/hoppy with bright and clean spruce. The flavor follows, citrus up front with pine in the background and sweet (not too sweet) spruce front and center. Lemon zest and pine with a spruce-accented finish. Body is light and carbonation is appropriately vigorous. This beer is a perfect intro for Fort George's winter holiday seasonal, Magnanimous IPA. A lighter, leaner version. The pale ale version of Magnanimous, if you will. And plenty tasty.