Here is the news in beer from around Oregon for Tuesday, May 3. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day, so check back often for the latest news. If you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated as well.

Cascade Brewing (Portland): Today’s Tap It Tuesday at the Barrel House at 6pm is featuring Margarita Sour, “made in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. This sour blond ale was aged for 20 months in tequila barrels with lime and sea salt. Just like the classic margarita cocktail, this northwest sour ale delivers flavors of fresh lime juice and tequila with a slightly briny finish from the sea salt – the newest addition to our series of cocktail inspired sour beers.”

The Hop & Vine (Portland): Today they are invoking the spirit of Cinco with their “Saison de Mayo” event starting at 3pm: “Taco Tuesday doesn’t get any better than this! Saison/Farmhouse beers pair famously well with food and our weekly tacos provide the perfect partner in our 4th annual edition of Saison de Mayo! The beers: Upright Dry-Hopped Saison, Ordnance Saison Af Urt (“of herbs”) – red-wine-bbl brett saison w/ lemongrass, chamomile, cayenne, cadamom, & rosebuds, Firestone Walker Opal – dry-hopped saison, and Blackberry Farm Classic Saison”

Deschutes Brewery (Bend): Tuesdays at the Bend and Portland pubs are Deschutes’ “Community Pints” days, for which they donate $1 of every pint of beer sold to a local charitable organization. In Bend, they will benefit the Bend Spay & Neuter project all through the month of May, and in Portland, they will benefit Luke-Dorf (creating a better community one day at a time, Luke-Dorf helps the greater Portland area through mental health recovery, homeless outreach, as well as housing placement and support). Stop by today and have a pint or three.

McMenamins also has a several “Friends and Family Nights” taking place today, for which they donate 50% of the total sales of the evening (starting at 5pm) to a local benefit. They are taking in Eugene at the East 19th Street Café, the Old St. Francis School in Bend, at Roseburg Station, and at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland. It’s a good night to eat and drink out at one of these locations!

Block 15 Brewery (Corvallis): Their Dine-Out benefit night this Tuesday benefits Mountain View Elementary School all day long: “Join us on Tuesday, May 3rd at our downtown Corvallis pub for a Dine Out to benefit Mountain View Elementary School. A portion of the day’s food sales will be donated to this awesome local school!”

Burnside Brewing (Portland) is introducing a new limited-edition series of bottled beers named COAX, where they will be playing with new and unusual hop varieties. First up, from the release: “The first to be released is the COAX No01: a Polish Marynka & Mosaic hopped IPA, which has finishing aromas of mango and tropical fruit with a sweet malt and wheat flavor that is followed by a mellow hop bitterness and herbal hop flavor. COAX will be sold at most high-end bottle shops and specialty groceries, in addition to all New Seasons markets, throughout Oregon. However, only one 15-barrel batch will be made of each COAX brew, so they will only be available for a limited time.”

Oregon Fruit Products has launched a new limited-release program of fruits in their “Fruit for Brewing” line of fruit purees—for, as the name implies, brewers. Their tentative plan and schedule for new releases are:
– Spring 2016 (available May 11th) – mango
– Summer 2016 – pineapple
– Fall 2016 – passion fruit
– Winter 2016-2017 – rhubarb
They appear to only be available on a commercial brewing basis, in a minimum of 42-pound boxes, but I’ve also reached out to find out if there are homebrew-friendly sizes as well.