February 12 is the birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, and while I don’t know how they tie into beer specifically, I’ll raise a toast to them regardless. Do the same today with the Oregon beer news, rounding up the news and events from around the state. As usual I’ll be updating this throughout the day so check back often.

Conversion Brewing (Lebanon) has its monthly Head to Head beer tasting and pairing event, this month comparing coffee beers: “We will pit two beers in the same style against each other and see who comes out on top. This is a blind beer tasting with food pairing sample. We will have an open discussion about the beers and what we like about them. This Head to Head will include two (2) 5 oz. samples of Coffee beers. Our special complimenting food sample pairing will be yummy donuts! Cost is $20. Seating is limited & tickets may be purchased online.”

Hop Valley Brewing (Springfield) celebrates its 10th anniversary today, with a party at its original Springfield location (the Eugene location will be partying tomorrow). The party starts at 5pm and will feature a special anniversary beer release, dinner specials, raffle and giveaways, live music, and more. I don’t know what the anniversary beer is, but I’ll wager it’s hoppy.

Standing Stone Brewing (Ashland) has its February Pints for a Purpose fundraiser tonight, benefiting The Children’s Advocacy Center: “For every pint sold between 5PM-10PM, $2 will be donated to their cause. Root beer is also included, so children are welcome! ‘The Children’s Advocacy center of Jackson County is a non profit agency that facilitates a multi-disciplinary team approach to child abuse interventions. We are a Child Abuse Intervention Center serving Jackson County. We work with many agencies located in Jackson county who share our goal of helping children recover from child abuse and find safety.'” It’s a great cause so make sure to get in there tonight and enjoy some beers!

McMenamins is hosting several Friends & Family Night fundraisers today, in which 50% of the night’s dining and drinking proceeds are donated to a local group or cause. They are:

• The Highland Pub in Gresham is benefiting Centennial Youth Cheer
• The Oak Hills Brewpub in Portland is benefiting Bethany Elementary School PTO

The fundraiser nights start at 5pm and last until closing.

The Bier Stein (Eugene) is hosting Seattle’s Fremont Brewing for the release of Fremont’s Sky Kraken hazy pale ale: “Fremont Brewing has a new beer hitting the market and we are celebrating on February 12th! We will start off the day by tapping a keg of Sky Kraken, along with a few classic brews – Lush IPA and Dark Star Imperial Stout. Stop by at 5pm to spin the prize wheel, and enjoy free samples of Fremont beer!” It runs from 5 to 8pm.

Bend’s Broken Top Bottle Shop is welcoming Bale Breaker Brewing for a beer tasting tonight from 5 to 7pm: “We’re excited to have 3 Bale Breaker Brewing Company brews on tap for this tasting! Get ready for: Field 41 Pale Ale, Instant Karma IPA, and Abeyance Baltic Porter!”

Huge, surprising news broke this morning from Oregon’s oldest brewery, BridgePort Brewing: “Today we unfortunately announce that the BridgePort Brewery will cease brewing operations effective immediately, while the BridgePort Brew Pub will close effective March 10th, 2019. The decision to close was extremely difficult for all involved. Back in April 2017, declining sales caused the brewery to restructure its operations. However, sales and distribution continued declining in the extremely competitive craft beer market of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, which resulted in this final decision.” I’ll have a full post later.

The annual Best of Craft Beer Awards took place over the past weekend, and the winners have been announced (I’m seeing my Oregon Beer Facebook feed fill up with the announcements). Congrats to the Oregon winners, including: 10 Barrel, Alesong, Allegory, Ancestry, Back Pedal, Baerlic, Bend Brewing, Boneyard, Breakside, Gigantic, Golden Valley, Great Notion, Immersion, Mazama, Migration, Monkless, Mt. Tabor, Old Town, Ordnance, Oregon City, Pelican, pFriem, Rogue, Silver Moon, Stickmen, StormBreaker, Sunriver, The Ale Apothecary, Three Creeks, Three Mugs, Thunder Island, Von Ebert, Widmer Brothers, Wild Ride, and Worthy.

Brewers Union Local 180 (Oakridge) is now on Instagram, and yesterday posted about the newest beer on tap, which is probably the highest ABV beer I’ve seen on tap there as well: “NEW BEER ALERT. 10W-180 Imperial Stout. This is a ‘one-off stout that we made with yeast that died.'” It’s 8.3% ABV and I’m… not sure about the yeast that died.