This Presidents’ Day, raise a glass of porter, a style of beer of which George Washington was quite fond of. Or, find a “small beer” to toast the day (it doesn’t have to be a molasses-based brew). Here is the Oregon beer news for this Monday, February 18; as usual I’ll be updating this post throughout the day, so check back often.

Roscoe’s (Portland) welcomes Ecliptic Brewing and Brooklyn Brewery for a tap takeover featuring the breweries’ collaboration brew for Ecliptic’s 5th anniversary: “Come celebrate the new Ecliptic + Brooklyn Cosmic Collaboration, Tangerine Farmhouse Ale. We will have several beers on tap from each brewery to celebrate and the brewery folks will be in attendance.” The event runs from 5 to 8pm.

Freebridge Brewing (The Dalles) is releasing its Checkered Flag IPA today: “Our ExBEERimental highlight! Brewed with the assistance of the awesome, Jess Dirks, the winner of the Bi-Coastal Auction “Brew Day With Steve.” Be sure to come by on Monday after 4PM and see if it revs your engine. Mug Club members don’t forget to come get your first pour!”

On Saturday the 23rd, the second “half” of Zwickelmania takes place across the rest of Oregon outside of the Portland area. That will be breweries in central and eastern Oregon, the Gorge, the Coast, Willamette Valley, and southern Oregon all opening their doors for tours, tastings, and more. Don’t forget to look for the official Collab West Coast IPA!

The 26th annual Hillsdale Brewfest takes place this Saturday at McMenamins Hillsdale Brewery—the event that determines the winning brewer that will represent McMenamins at the Oregon Brewers Festival. “Patrons order from two trays of beer samples, arranged from lightest to darkest. It is our guests’ official duty to decide who deserves the coveted title. The beers cover the spectrum of brew styles – from Fruited Sour to Coffee Porter, Jasmine Pale Ale to Double IPA and beyond. Each taster casts one ballot that lists their top three choices. (And beware the brewers’ shameless vote-mongering. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.) We unveil the winners at an event that follows, at the 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop, where the first place winner receives the trophy, and their name(s) will be stamped into the leather belt that outlines the winners of yore. Come play a part in the tradition of tasting from trays, lodging your vote, and helping us to determine the winner of our most craved prize: the Hillsdale Brewfest Belt.”

Cascade Lakes Brewing (Redmond) has a new system to play with: “Introducing our shiny new R&D System! We’ll be using this one-barrel thing of beauty to perfect recipes and try new styles never seen before at Cascade Lakes. Be on the lookout for our “X Tap” at our pubs in the future! Have ideas on what we should brew? Let us know!”

Old Town Brewing (Portland) has a new beer out: “We just canned up a limited run of our new brew, “Figaro” Imperial Stout aged on ripe figs. This beast of a beer sits at 9.0% ABV and carries a symphony of complexity and richness. Strong notes of brittled chocolate, rich toffee, and dark fruit leaves you belly-warm and mouth-happy. You can snag ‘em at the brewery starting today and on limited shelves around the area starting tomorrow!”

It looks like Bend’s Silver Moon Brewing is now getting into the low-ABV, low-calorie (light?) beer game (following suit from Deschutes?), with its announcement today: “We all know someone who exclusively drinks those mega-brand fizzy yellow beers. Hell, we drink them too! Particularly when mowing the lawn, wrenching on a car or participating in some DIY home improvement. We are excited to announce that we will be launching a whole new simplified line consisting of an easy drinking ale and crushable IPA! SMB Ale is a Golden Ale that’s as smooth as it is tasty coming in at a cool 4.7% ABV. SMB IPA is slightly hoppy and super crushable coming in at 5.3% ABV. Keep an eye out for more info on where to purchase very soon!”

Occidental Brewing (Portland) is set to release its Edel-Hell Helles Lager in 12-ounce cans this week, the first of its beers to be in that can size (all the others are in 16-ounce cans). Brewpublic has the details: “Occidental Brewing as been canning its Kölsch, Hefweizen, Altbier and Pilsner for the past few years in 16-ounce cans. However, this week the North Portland brewer will release Edel-Hell Helles Lager, its first beer in 12-ounce cans. Edel-Hell is inspired from the German beer style that made brewers in Bavaria world famous. The Helles beer style is a malt forward beer, light straw in color with a subtle hop finish. In naming this beer, Occidental went with Edel in the name to honor the German meaning of the word, noble for the beer’s use of German noble Tettnanger hops. Then to honor the beer’s Bavarian heritage, the can artwork features the swirling blue and white stripes that is associated to this region of Germany. The release party for Edel-Hell Helles Lager will take place at Occidental Brewing on Wednesday, February 20th from 6:00-9:00pm”

The latest brewery coming to Redmond this year, Initiative Brewing, is actually brewing beer today—in Corvallis, with Mazama Brewing. “The first brewday is here! Big shout out to Mazama Brewing for doing this collaboration with us! Started the day nice and early to make sure we could be finished with enough time to sample some of the other beers done by Mazama and their headbrewer Ryan McVay, especially their recently award winning Dubbel!” Sounds like this collaboration will be among the first official beers on tap when Initiative opens later this year.