Oregon Beer News, 03/12/2012

Oregon BeerHappy Monday once again! Here’s the news in Oregon beer for the 12th, which I’ll be updating periodically throughout the day. If you have some news you’d like to share, please contact me and I can get it updated.

Fort George Brewery (Astoria): They’ve got beers rolling off the canning line! Just recently they added Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale to their canned beer lineup, and this weekend they added a sneak peek of another soon-to-be-released beer in cans: their Quick Wit “Belgianesque Ale”. Quick Wit is a mostly traditional Belgian-style Witbier, though instead of orange peel it has lemongrass and elderflower accompanying the coriander.

Deschutes Brewery (Bend, Portland) is holding the official bottle release parties for Chainbreaker White IPA at the Bend and Portland pubs. From 5 to 11pm both pubs will have special menus on hand, and you’ll be able to buy the first six-packs of Chainbreaker as well as score some gear (bike chain bottle openers, t-shirts, etc.). In addition the Bend Pub says, “Spend a dollar to spin the “wheel-o-fun” for your chance to win some sweet swag donated by the good folks at Sunnyside Sports, Webcyclery, Cog Wild Tours and Pine Mountain Sports. The money from the wheel goes back to COTA (Central Oregon Trail Alliance) that helps maintain the mountain bike trails of our beloved Central Oregon!”

Belmont Station (Portland) has a number of events going on this week, starting with a tasting tonight from 5 to 7pm with Pyramid/MacTarnahan’s: “If you haven’t noticed these folks have really stepped up their game recently and are not only brewing great beer but also selling it at very attractive prices. Taste the Pyramid Dischord Dark IPA, Outburst Imperial IPA, and Thunderhead IPA, and the MacTarnahan’s Slingshot Extra Pale Ale and Goosebump Coffee Imperial Stout. The very tasty Smoky Helles will be on draft.”

Then tomorrow (Tuesday) there’s a tasting and meet the founder from 6 to 8pm featuring Bend’s Silver Moon Brewing, with founder Tyler Reichert pouring a selection of his beers. And Thursday the 15th is the big event: Belmont Station’s 15th Anniversary! All day long they’ll be celebrating with specials, breaking out the good stuff, and more: “Thanks to you we’re still here so we’ll be breaking out some vintage bottles to sell (Abyss, Top Sail, Roots Epic, Oregon Trail Bourbon Porter, Stone Vertical Epic Ale, we’re still digging in our cellar) and will be joined by two brewers with whom we have a long and special history: Ted Sobel of Brewers Union Local 180 and Shawn Kelso of 10 Barrel (and former brewmaster for Barley Brown’s). Ted is bringing us two firkins of his unbeatable genuine cask-conditioned ales: Wotcha A La Citra, Bitter, ABV 4.0% and a special cask-conditioned Belmont Station 15th Anniversary Ale “15-15-15″, named for the fact it will be served on our 15th, which is March 15th and it has 15 grains in the malt bill.”

This weekend, Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th, is the Pouring at the Coast Craft Beer Festival taking place in Seaside. I’ll have a more detailed write-up on this later this week, but this fest features a Brewers Dinner at 5:30 on the 16th (food paired with beers from the Oregon Coast region breweries, including the premier of Seaside Brewing), and then a tasting and food pairing event on the 17th from 4 to 9pm.

Southern Oregon Brewing (Medford) has released a sneak peek of the label for their latest beer, Holy Water Maibock. 7.1% abv, and kind of has a Holy Grail/”Last Crusade” thing going on there. Presumably it’s a spring seasonal (being a bock and all).

Today seems to be the first day of the soccer season for the Portland Timbers, and yes, there are beer happenings related to it. Hopworks Urban Brewery today released Yellow Card Premier Ale, a “sessionable English ale” that’s 5.2% abv. And over at McMenamins Ringlers Pub, they’re going to donate some of the proceeds of one of their beers to support soccer in Portland: “Every Portland Timbers home game, Mcmenamin’s Ringler’s Pub will donate 25 cents from every pint of their Scottish Rite 70 Shilling Ale sold, to The Portland Timbers 107 IST.  The 107 Independent Supporters’ Trust is the machinery behind the Timbers Army. It supports soccer in and around Portland, Oregon, from the grassroots to the highest professional level.”

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