Oregon Beer News, 02/16/2018

Oregon Beer, Crux Fermentation ProjectI hope you’re ready for a busy weekend! Besides being President’s Day weekend, this Friday is Chinese New Year (the Year of the Dog). There are plenty of things going on so let’s get to it with the weekend’s news! As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please let me know and I can get that updated as well.

Friday, Feb. 16

Crux Fermentation Project (Bend) is releasing its lastest specialty beer, Tripelcross, in bottles on Friday: “You may have seen our tripel on tap lately, maybe you’ve even given it a try, but now it’s time to take a bottle of it home with you. We hope you’ll join us as we celebrate our first bottling of this Belgian-style delight with free samples and a special pairing from our kitchen.”

Baerlic Brewing (Portland) has a can release on Friday featuring their Dad Beer Pre-Prohibition Lager: “Dad Beer Pre-Prohibition Lager with notes of ripe fruit, fresh cut spring flowers and citrus. The kind of ‘Beer Flavored Beer’ your great great grandpappy used to drink in the 1880s. 4.8% ABV. Limited Can Run, so when they’re gone, they’re gone!”

The Bier Stein (Eugene) is hosting an Urban Family Brewing event from 5 to 8pm Friday: “Friday, February 16th from 5-8 we will be featuring some of the best beer that Urban Family Brewing Co has to offer! 2 delicious hazy IPAs will be included in the mix along with sour ales; Duality, Flooded Heart, Pinot Cuvee, and Preservation. Not only will there be free samples, Urban Family will be holding a “Cards Against Humanity” raffle with plenty of swag to give out!”

The Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub is celebrating the launch of their canned beers starting Friday (and lasting through the weekend): “Yes, we can. Now we CAN! Join us to celebrate our official can launch. Fresh Squeezed IPA, Mirror Pond Pale Ale + our Pacific Wonderland Lager (now available in cans) are center stage for this weekend-long event. Chef Specials Menu highlighting our canned beers and “can recipes”; Canned Food Drive benefiting our friends at Oregon Food Bank; Check out our epic can display; Sampling station on Saturday, 2/17…  And more!”

McMenamins Old St. Francis School (Bend) has a limited-edition beer tasting Friday evening with new brewer Vance Wirtz, featuring his “Bean Me: Vanilla Bean Aged Robust Porter” on tap from 5 to 8pm at the O’Kane’s bar: “Dancing the line between Porter and Stout, the Robust Porter style is a much bolder version of your typical Porter. It’s characterized by a heavier use of dark malts and more attention to notes of roast and coffee. To spice things up a bit, we spiked this batch with some fresh vanilla bean to give it that perfect one-two punch of roast and sweetness.”

McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop (Portland) is hosting an Agrarian Ales Pop-Up on Friday from 6 to 8pm, featuring Agrarian Ales from Eugene: “Agrarian is located just north of Eugene, and grow 100% of the hops used in their farmhouse ales. The majority of other ingredients come from a 30-mile radius around the farm.”

Speaking of Agrarian Ales, visiting their webpage shows this message appear: “We received a notice in late January from Lane County that we had to update a permit for the operation of our business. We proceeded by submitting the appropriate documents to the county for approval, but have not yet received authorization to re-open our business. We are diligently working to accelerate the approval process with Lane County. We hope to be allowed to open by February 24th for Zwickelmania.” Hopefully they will get this resolved soon, good luck!

Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider (Portland) is hosting a release party for their New Moon Mandarin cider starting at 4pm: “Celebrate the advent of my long-awaited Spring seasonal with New Moon Mandarin on draft, two special cocktails and small bites!
New Moon Randall: Fresh Orange Zest & Canned Mandarin
Harvey Wallbanger: New Moon, Star Anise, Vanilla, Tangerine”

Saturday, Feb. 17

It’s Zwickelmania in the Portland region on Saturday! From 11am to 4pm breweries across the Portland Metro region will open their doors to the public to offer special tours, tastings, meet the brewer events, and more. It’s become something like Oregon’s beer holiday for President’s Day weekend (though ultimately it was so busy it was split into two weekends). If you’re planning to partake, be sure to plan for having a driver (there’s a lot of beer to sample) or even look at Portland’s free transportation options for the day. And don’t forget you can play Zwickel Bingo on the card generator I built and keep updated!

Migration Brewing (Portland) is celebrating its 8th anniversary on Saturday! “To think how far we have come in 8 Years and the fact that we couldn’t have done any of it without the support of so many of you. On the 17th of February we will be celebrating in style with:
>Brewery Tours 11AM-4PM
>Free Samples of 2 specialty beers while on tour
>DJ Queasy spinning the cuts form 6-late
>Lot’s of specialty beers pouring in the Annex
>Barrel Aged Frankie and Porter
>Collaboration With Widmer Brothers Brewing
>Collaboration with the amazing Trever Bass
>8-Year anniversary beer “There Gose Another”
>Thomas and Sons Distillery will be hanging out pouring samples of their amazingly unique spirits.
>Merchandise giveaways
>Specialty bottle releases
>Special 8-year anniversary food menu
So please stop by and join us for a pint, brewery tour, and some of the best food being created by a brewery in Portland.”

Deschutes Brewery is celebrating Brew Bash 5000 at their Bend Pub from 5 to 9pm on Saturday—the party for the 5000th brew (wow!): “Come kick off Presidents Day weekend at the Bend Public House with our 5000th Brew Bash and CAN release celebration! With 30 years in the making our original brew house at the Bend Pub has pumped out some of the best beers of all time, and we finally reached 5000 brews. Also late to the party but here for celebration…..CANS!! Join us Saturday, February 17th for the big celebration in the Upstairs Taproom at the Bend Pub. Beers will start pouring at 5:00pm and live music from Boxcar Stringband will start at 5:30pm. Gather all your friends and family to enjoy a night of live music, throwback Deschutes Brewery beers on tap, and the all new Deschutes Brewery Cans!”

Belmont Station (Portland) is hosting a Beer and Girl Scout Cookie Pairing on Saturday: “Belmont Station’s very own Rosalia Porter will be sharing some Girl Scout love by sampling 3 of your favorite Girl Scout Cookie flavors along with Captian Neil Yandow who will be pouring samples of 3 beers that will pair with those cookies. Rosalia will have boxes of Girl Scout Cookies for sale so you can try your own beer pairings.”

Saturday is of course also Fort George Brewery’s Festival of Dark Arts, their Stout Month culmination of “a magical menagerie of dark art and macabre entertainment.” If you have tickets… well, I’m jealous, and will attend the fest some day. Enjoy!

Sunday, Feb. 18

Walkabout Brewing (Medford) is holding a fundraiser, Pints for Ashley Mayer, on Sunday from 1 to 7pm: “Ashley was diagnosed with chronic kidney insufficiency when she was only twelve, this has led to her developing End Stage Renal Disease. Ashley is in need of a kidney transplant and currently endures dialysis treatments three times a week. In order to help pay for Ashley’s medical bills her father has been collecting cans and bottles to return for deposit. This Sunday Walkabout will donate 50% of our pint sales to this cause. If you would like to bring cans, bottles or any other donations anything can help. Help us help Ashley and feel great about having a beer!”

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