It’s another “Fresh Hop Friday” to kick off the weekend! I hope you’re ready for fresh hops and Oktoberfest fun, there are ample numbers of both taking place this first weekend in October. Here’s the roundup; as usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. If you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

Friday, 10/6

The Springfield Fresh Hops Fest is hosted by Claim 52 Brewing in downtown Springfield on Friday from 3 to 10pm: “A celebration of the recent hop harvest with 20 Oregon craft breweries and cider & mead makers showcasing hops in all their bitter glory with specialty releases. The Springfield Fresh Hop Festival will be from 3 – 10 pm @ Sprout!, at the corner of 4th and A streets in downtown Springfield, just two blocks from the bus station. Admission is $12 for a special event glass and three taster tickets. Live music & great food from local food vendors will make for a fun-filled day. The Sprout building is an all ages venue.”

Block 15 Brewery (Corvallis): Their 9th annual Bloktoberfest kicks off on Friday at 4pm, and returns on Saturday from 12:30 to 11pm. “In celebration of the changing season and in the tradition of the German Oktoberfest, we are hosting our 9th annual “Bloktoberfest” on October 6th and 7th. The event offers Block 15 beer served in authentic tankards—including our seasonal Bloktoberfest release—German-inspired food, live music, yard games, and big-screen college football action featuring Pac 12 matchups. German tankards will be available for purchase, and you are encouraged to bring your Bloktoberfest mug from previous years. (No other drinking vessels will be permitted on-site.)” $5 gets you in for both days (as long as you have the valid wristband). Looks like a great fest overall!

Deschutes Brewery (Bend): On Friday both the Bend and Portland Pubs are kicking off a week-long Fresh Hop Celebration that runs through October 12. “Come down to the pub and join us for this years fresh hop celebration. Starting this Friday we will be featuring our fresh hop sample trays and other fresh hop beers, along side chef’s paired specials and more! These amazing fresh hop beers will not last for long so get here as fast as you can!” Here is the Bend Pub event (and beer list), and here is the Portland Pub event; those are some terrific (and proliferate) lineups all around. Get your fresh hop fix!

Cascade Brewing (Portland) is releasing their third fresh hop beer on Friday: “Today at opening, we’re releasing the third beer in this year’s Funky Fresh Hop Series: El Dorado. Within hours of picking, we transported the hops from the field to our Blending House, where the hops were immediately added to our barrel aged sour blond ale and held for 48 hours before packaging. Look for notes of pineapple, tropical fruit and hop resin!”

Viking Braggot Company (Eugene) is hosting a Fresh Hop Blind Taste Test all weekend long, starting on Friday: “We are celebrating Fresh Hop season by releasing our Fresh Hop Citra Pale braggot brewed with tropical blossom honey!! And becuause it is hop harvest season we have dry hopped 5 different kegs with 5 different varieties of hops. So how it works:
Step 1: Get on down to Viking this weekend (Friday-Sunday)
Step 2: Get yourself a blind flight of the 5 different hops
Step 3: Correctly pair up the hop descriptions to their correct taster
Step 4: Enter to win a $50 gift card to Viking Braggot!!”

The Bier Stein (Eugene) is hosting a cider tasting with Woodbox Cider from 5 to 8pm Friday: “Join us to taste some cider from Woodbox Cider. Based out of Northeast Portland, Woodbox uses apples from the Northwest, and primarily utilizes natural fermentation, which results in a complex, dry cider. Come by for a pint of Pippin and Heritage 8 on draught and in bottles, and some free samples!”

Portland’s Belmont Station is serving up a cider tasting as well, with Northwest Cider Brokers: “We welcome Kolin form NW Cider Brokers to pour free samples of the “fancy” ciders. Perfect timing for fall! And with the holiday season slowly approaching you will not want to miss this opportunity to taste some very special ciders.” It runs from 5 to 8pm.

Apparently Friday the 6th is also Barrel-Aged Beer Day! To celebrate, Rogue Ales is partying at their Eastside Pub in Portland from 5 to 9pm: “Join Rogue for Barrel Aged Beer Day and get tastes of our latest barrel-aged brews. Get a taste of our latest Dead ‘n’ Dead, Dead Guy Ale aged in Dead Guy Whiskey barrels for 6 months. We’ll also be cracking open 2016 and 2017 Rolling Thunder Imperial Stout, a brew that we crafted with our Rogue Farms ingredients and aged in barrels we built ourselves at Rogue Rolling Thunder Barrelworks in Newport, Ore. Then challenge your friends in our Barrel Cornhole Tournament, try your hand at tossing a bung through a bunghole (it’s not what you may think) and guess how many barrel crowns we could fit into a barrel for a special prize.”

Rogue isn’t the only celebrating BABD: Fat Head’s in Portland is as well all day Friday: “You know we love Barrel Aged Beers over here! We are celebrating by tapping 3 state of the art beers!
-Russian Imperial Stout Aged in Cognac Barrels on Nitro
-Pimp My Sleigh Aged in Indio Whiskey Barrels
-American Barley Wine Aged in Sherry Barrels
-Zeus Juice Aged in High West Manhattan Barrels”

Zoiglhaus Brewing in Portland is hosting their latest Zoigl-Wort Share Friday from 4 to 7pm, featuring the “Schwarzbier Edition” of wort available to homebrewers: “Calling All Homebrewers! The Brewers at Zoiglhaus are excited to announce the fifth installment of our Zoigl-Wort Share – Schwarzbier Edition!
October 6th | 4pm – 7pm
Purchase specially-brewed Schwarzbier wort at our brewery.
Bring your own carboy and airlock or purchase one from us.
We brew, you ferment, bottle or keg.
November 4th at 4pm
MARK YOUR CALENDARS – all brewers meet back at Zoiglhaus Brewing Company to celebrate the beers! You will receive a commemorative glass and get to taste everyone’s creation!”

Saturday, 10/7

The 5th annual Peche Fest returns to Saraveza on Saturday! “A celebration featuring rare tart, juicy and funky peach infused beers and ciders in a variety of styles. The event takes place inside Saraveza and their adjacent event space The Bad Habit Room featuring 25+ taps and a special peach infused food menu of sweet and savory items. General Admission hours are 3 – 10pm in Saraveza and the Bad Habit Room with a $15 admission that includes 4 drink tickets and a collectible branded glass. Additional drink tickets are $2 each.” You can purchase tickets online here.

The Hood River Hops Fest is taking place on Saturday the 7th (postponed from its earlier date due to the fires) in downtown Hood River—a fresh hops extravaganza featuring more than 50 breweries pouring over 60 fresh hop beers! “The Hood River Hops Fest is an annual celebration of beer’s bitter friend, freshly harvested hops. Hood River County is surrounded by world-renowned hop growing regions, and since 2003 brewers have gathered each September in downtown Hood River to share their fresh-hop beer creations. The family-friendly event features more than 50 breweries with more than 60 fresh-hop beers, plus a variety of food vendors, live music, and an awesome collectable mug.” For $20 you will get entry, commemorative glass and five tasting tokens, with additional tokens presumably costing $1 each. They have the beer list posted here, and that looks pretty great, so get over to Hood River if you can!

McMinnville’s Heater Allen Brewing is bringing their 3rd annual ORtoberfest back on Saturday, teaming up with the new Allegory Brewing to host at their place: “Have a beer and help support public education in McMinnville! Back for the thrid year, Allegory Brewing and Heater Allen Brewing are happy to bring you another year of ORtoberfest, a beer fest featuring German and Fresh Hop beers from breweries around the state. Admission is $10 and includes a souvineer glass and 4 drink tickets. This year the event will be moving from it’s orginial spot outside the Bitter Monk to Allegory Brewing on 4th St. All proceeds from the event go to benefit the McMinnville Education Foundation.”

In Portland, Zoiglhaus Brewing is throwing their Oktoberfest starting at 2pm: “Join the Zoiglhaus family for a proper Oktoberfest celebration – doors open at 2pm on October 7th to the ultimate all-ages event! Entry into the event is completely free! But guests will have the opportunity to purchase an exclusive Zoiglhaus Beer Stein designed just for this event. The .5L stein is yours to take home and entitles you to exclusive beer discounts for the whole day. Our awesome friend Larry Wilder will be on hand to host a yodeling contest and back again for the second year in a row is the European Take Out Band, sure to provide a raucous good time with traditional German music.” Looks like that will be a fun day!

Deschutes Brewery is holding a charitable event with the release of Savin’ Freshies Fresh Hop Pale on Saturday from 6 to 8pm at their Bend pub: “Deschutes Brewery has partnered with the Native Fish Society to create Savin’ Freshies, a fresh hop pale ale crafted with certified salmon safe ingredients. Join us to support the NFS, enjoy a damn tasty fresh hop beer, and buy a raffle ticket to win awesome prizes donated by Patagonia, Drinktanks, Confluence Fly Shop, Patient Angler, Raging River Sales, Beattie Productions and more. $1 per pint sold and all raffle ticket sales will be donated to the NFS to protect Native Fish populations in Central Oregon rivers such as the Deschutes and Metolius!” I wrote about this recently so I’m looking forward to this event!

McMenamins Grand Lodge (Forest Grove) is celebrating Oktoberfest on Saturday, with plenty of live music, beer, food specials, and more in the McMenamins tradition.

And McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop in Portland is hosting a viewing of the GABF awards ceremony (livestreamed) on Satuday, starting at 9am and lasting until all the awards are given out. They will be pouring all of the beers that McMenamins sent to the GABF this year.

Worthy Brewing (Bend) is holding their 2017 Hoptoberfest Brew-off on Saturday from 4 to 6pm, featuring the party and judging of their fresh hop homebrew competition: “Competitors must brew a fresh hop beer using hops from the Worthy garden, and are encouraged to source the rest of their hops from Central Oregon farms. It’s an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition, so both entrants and judges earn points toward their certification. Not a brewer? No problem! While we determine first, second, and third place according to BJCP guidelines, we also hold a separate “People’s Choice” competition in which the public gets to sample beers and vote for their favorite. This year, we’ll be holding the People’s Choice event in the Worthy Hop Mahal on Saturday, October 7th from 4-6pm.”

Falling Sky Brewing (Eugene) kicks off their week-long Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday, which will run through next Friday the 13th. “Falling Sky Oktoberfest Beer release Saturday 10/7 at 3PM! We will have specials all week including our house made sausage, pretzels, & sauerkraut. Cheers!”

Portland Brewing is hosting their 4th annual Fall Fest on Saturday, with a homebrew focus: “Homebrewers hold the spotlight in this year’s Home Brewers Series benefitting the Oregon Brew Crew. You be the judge! Join in on the free beer tasting and cast your vote for the winning home brew!Homebrewers hold the spotlight in this year’s Home Brewers Series benefitting the Oregon Brew Crew. You be the judge! Join in on the free beer tasting and cast your vote for the winning home brew!
• Live music from – Curtis Irie
• Raffles and prizes
• Food specials provided by Portland Brewing
• Free entry comes with 3 free samples• $10 to support Oregon Brew Crew gets you free samples of all 15+ homebrew entries• Free samples and pint specials for Portland Brewing’s 2017 Fresh Hop IPA”

Block 15 Brewery is releasing beers on Saturday at their south Corvallis tap room: Story of the Ghost and The Demon’s Farm. The Story of the Ghost is their “hauntingly pale” IPA available for $4 per 16oz can (limit 24), while The Demon’s Farm is a dark farmhouse ale aged in oak with cherries, available for $11 for a 500ml bottle (limit 3).

Coin Toss Brewing (Oregon City): On Saturday they are holding their Wheat Penny Ale Release & Fall BBQ: “Join us for the release of our newest beer: Wheat Penny Ale. An American-style wheat beer brewed with Mosaic & Magnum hops. 5.5% ABV & 33 IBU. Our awesome friends from Chicken And Guns will be here from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. barbecuing chickens that were fed with the spent grains from our brewery. So you’ll be able to drink a delicious, fresh & local beer while eating a fine meal that was raised on the ingredients used for that same beer in your hand.”