Oregon Beer News, 03/17/2016

Oregon BeerHappy St. Patrick’s Day! Here’s the news to accompany the plethora of Dry Stouts, Irish Red Ales, corned beef and cabbage, and more. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated as well.

Portland’s Belmont Station is celebrating their 19th anniversary today with a party that starts at 3pm and goes until whenever the kegs kick! “St. Patricks Day! A time-honored tradition that annually demands you have a beer. Well as fate would have it, this day is also Belmont Station’s Anniversary, and this year will make us 19! As we have in the past, our entire staff picked their own beers to share, and this year the staff outdid themselves! We’d hate to ruin the surprises that will be in store, but in case you need extra coaxing, these are but a few of the outstanding beers we will be pouring: Block 15 Intergalactic Hop Shop, Deschutes Abyss 2015, Upright Hearts Beat, Fremont Barrel-aged Abominable Stout and Lagunitas One-Hitter Imperial Stout with Hazelnuts, Cacao Nibs and Brandy-Soaked Vanilla Beans — the only keg of its kind in Oregon. Plus we will have a sneak preview of our 19th Anniversary beer: a bourbon barrel-aged barley wine by Ecliptic! Come help us celebrate our 19 years of bringing you the best beer selection in the region!” It’s hard to overstate the importance Belmont Station has had in the Portland (and Oregon overall) beer scene over the past two decades—Pete Dunlop has a good article about it here—but we wouldn’t be where we are today without it I think. Wish I could be at the party today! Congrats!

Feckin Irish Brewing (Oregon City) is naturally embracing the holiday in the best way possible, by holding their first-ever Irish Craft Ale Festival, which starts today and runs through Saturday the 19th. “The inaugural Feckin Irish Craft Ale Festival will host over a dozen local breweries and will be featuring craft brews with Northwest flavors and traditional Irish roots. The event highlights include live music, Irish dancers, bagpipers, Irish bar food, and a plethora of local delicious beers. Here is the link to purchase tickets (make sure to print at home and bring with you): http://feckinbrew.com/irish-craft-ale-festival/” They have a nice list of Irish-themed beers and this should be a fun few days.

McMenamins, of course, celebrates St. Patrick’s Day as one of their biggest holidays, and at the various locations they have St. Paddy’s parties going on, with live music, Irish Stout, Irish food specials, and more. The 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop has the release of their 2016 Devil’s Bit Whiskey (which Brewpublic has more about here). Make sure to get your Irish on at your local McMenamins!

And at their Kennedy School in Portland, they also have their “Extra Credit” beer tasting today from 5 to 7pm, featuring Jameson Oak Aged Irish Stout: “Our St. Paddy’s day seasonal, Irish Stout, has been kicked up a notch this year. Come celebrate the holiday with a pint of Stout that we aged on Jameson Whiskey soaked Oak Spirals. The result is a beer with a slight Whiskey flavor as well as a touch of oak and vanilla. A great beer for any day, but perhaps the perfect beer for kicking off a memorable St. Paddy’s!”

The BeerMongers (Portland) has a St. Paddy’s Day Open House event starting at 4pm today: “Join The BeerMongers for our annual St. Patrick’s Day Open House. It has been family tradition that we host an Open House on St. Paddy’s day. My great uncle would invite family and friends from all over New York and beyond to his home for an evening of music, food and drink. We keep the traditon alive. Our friends Bolt Upright will provide the tunes. We will have traditional Irish fare and some great Irish style beers. Slainte”

The Green Dragon (Portland) is hosting a preview of Double Mountain Brewery‘s 9th anniversary today with a tap takeover starting at 5pm: “Our regular Meet The Brewer goes on hiatus this week so we can celebrate the 9th Anniversary of Double Mountain Brewery with a huge 20-tap takeover! A chance to try so many of Double Mountain’s excellent brews doesn’t come often. So join us Thursday evening at the Green Dragon. Don’t put it off until next year!”

Saraveza (Portland) is hosting the release party for Son of a Baptist from Epic Brewing out of Utah tonight from 6 to 9pm: “Son of a Baptist is the slightly (only slightly) less evil spawn of Big Bad Baptist. Son of a Baptist weighs in at 8% ABV and made with cocoa nibs, and locally sourced coffee from our best buds and neighbors Red-E Cafe! This beer is surely going to be a tasty treat and we’ve got some other tasty treats to go along with it. Ray is going to be bringing in some delicious chocolates, and we’ll have some coffee from Red-E to taste along side the beer that contains that same coffee! We’ll also have some bags of coffee for sale from Red-E, just in case you want to take some home with you! We’ll be tapping Son of a Baptist, Big Bad Baptist, and be giving away chocolate and coffee. What’s not to love?”

Prodigal Son Brewing (Pendleton) has their St. Patrick’s Day beer and specials worth checking out: “Be sure to stop by Prodigal Son for your St. Paddys day celebration! Nitro Fatted Calf Oatmeal Stout is on special all day, and JT’s featured cocktail is the “Fat Paddy” – a healthy dose of Jameson, fresh lemon, and club soda, poured over a mango/jalepeno evolution ice cube. And yes, that “savory Irish” skewer on top has corned beef, cheese, and more! Festive food specials as well.”

Vertigo Brewing (Hillsboro): More St. Paddy’s Day options! “Happy St. Paddy’s Day. No we do not have Corned Beef, Cabbage or Potatoes, but we do have a new classic Irish style dry stout. Come on by and try our O’Kinion Irish Stout on Nitro or CO2. And to sweeten the deal it, it also happens to be Thirsty Third Thursday, so $1 off your pints and glasses of beer. If it warms up enough, we will also have the big door open to get some vitamin D. Taproom opens at 4:00. Hope to see you then.”

The Raccoon Lodge (Portland) has their holiday happenings posted as well: “We will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all day today with Irish food specials, delicious beer and music from Stone Porridge – featuring our own Brewmaster Ron Gansberg – playing traditional Irish tunes. Order our new Dry Stout, we’ll be serving it upstairs as well as on nitro in the Den. Food specials include Corned beef and Cabbage, Dry Stout Braised Ribeye with Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, Shepard’s Pie, Corned Beef and Cabbage Pizza, Portland Ale Beer Cheese Soup and Irish Stout Beef Stew. Sláinte!”

Kells Brew Pub (Portland) has their own St. Patrick’s Festival kicking off today and running through Sunday the 20th. This looks to be a pretty big affair, with plenty of live music, Irish dancers, bagpipes, games, and more, and of course there will be plenty of Irish-themed beer and food as well.

Portland’s Culmination Brewing recently teamed up with the new 54-40 Brewing out of Washington to brew a collaboration beer for St. Paddy’s Day, a Soured Irish Red. Imperial Bottleshop today has the release for it: “Culmination Brewing Company and 54-40 Brewing Co collaborated to brew a Soured Irish Red that will debut this St Patrick’s Day! We’ll also be pouring a killer lineup of beers from Culmination and 54-40. And as an awesome added bonus — we are working with KOi Fusion to have a special St Patrick’s Day themed food offering for you to enjoy!” It runs from 5 to 8pm.

Sunriver Brewing (Sunriver): At their main Sunriver pub they have a special limited beer on for the day: “A special extremely small batch beer for you on St. Patty’s Day. One keg only and you can only find this at our Sunriver Pub. Two Thirds Leprechaun – Irish Cream Stout. Foreign style stout…check, Irish cream…check. Add a side of Irish whiskey and you have yourself a make shift Irish Car Bomb! We used all natural flavoring in the beer to attain this cross between Irish cream liquor and stout.”

Widmer Brothers (Portland): Today is apparently an auspicious day for the Widmer Pub! “Today is the 21st birthday of the Widmer Brother’s Pub! On this day – St. Patrick’s Day – in 1995, the Widmer Pub opened its doors to the public. At that time, the small mahogany and granite bar featured a few Widmer favorites being poured from its three 5-tap brass and ceramic towers: Weizen, Ambier, Weizenberry and Blackbeir. Thank you to Portland and all of our customers for their support and business. We wouldn’t be here without all of you! In celebration, the Pub will be serving $2.00 pints of Hefe – swing by, grab a pint, and wish the Widmer Pub a happy birthday.” Congrats on reaching the legal age to drink!

Three Creeks Brewing (Sisters): Tonight starting at 6pm, they are releasing their Homebrew Competition winning stout from last year, Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout brewed by Dylan VanDetta: “As part of our St. Patrick’s Day Celebration we will be debuting our 2015 Homebrew Winner’s Stout. Swing by the pub as we ring the bell, enjoy tasters and celebrate this award winning brew.”

Santiam Brewing (Salem): They have their Irish-themed beer on tap now: “Help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by coming down for The Craic Irish Coffee Porter. This smooth sipper clocks in at 6.2% ABV, 29 IBU, and won’t last long due to very limited supply. Sláinte!”

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