The annual Cheers to Belgian Beers festival kicks off today in Portland, and this year there are a number of Central Oregon breweries present and pouring. Here’s the relevant bit from the press release:

The upcoming Cheers to Belgian Beers Festival in Portland will feature at least 70 Belgian-style beers brewed by Oregon craft brewers; seven breweries from the Bend area will be among them. The 11th annual event will take place June 2 and June 3 at The North Warehouse, 723 N. Tillamook St. Hours are 1pm to 9pm on Friday and 12pm to 8pm on Saturday. The event is for ages 21 and over.

Area breweries taking part include:

• Craft Kitchen and Brewery: C-Dub, Belgian-Style Dubbel Ale, 8%
• Crux Fermentation Project: Peche Gold, Belgian Golden, 5%
• Deschutes Brewery Bend Pub: Mango Lassi Gold, Fruited Belgian-Style Blonde Ale, 6.5%
• Immersion Brewing: Live Slow, Die Whenever, Belgian Style Golden Strong, 7.6%
• Sunriver Brewing Co: Belgian-style Quad,10.6%
• Wild Ride Brewing: Belgian Cloak, Belgian Dark Strong Ale, 8.8%
• Worthy Brewing: Cherry Card-a-Bomb!, Session Dubbel, 5.5%

A complete list of this year’s participants, including beer names and beer descriptions, is available at http://oregoncraftbeer.org/ctbb/.

The majority of beers for the Cheers to Belgian Beers Festival have been made using Imperial Organic Yeast strain Gnome B45, a yeast that produces peach and apricot esters with a spicy phenolic character. To ensure diversity, the color and strength most of the beers at the fest were predetermined by a dart throw earlier this year. Depending on where the dart landed on the board, the brewer was directed to brew a Belgian style beer either light or dark in color, with amber as the midpoint; and either lower or higher in alcohol, with six percent being the median.

General admission costs $20, which includes a beer goblet and eight drink tickets. Advance tickets are on sale now at Mercury Tickets, http://www.merctickets.com/events/42335109/cheers-to-belgian-beers-2017.

The central theme (or gimmick?) behind CTBB has always been an intriguing one: every beer uses the same yeast, with the only other guidelines being dark/light and strong/low ABV. This year’s yeast and beers should be awfully interesting—and I would expect to see these Central Oregon brews on tap locally at some point.