Here’s the news in Oregon beer for this Monday, May 6 to kick off a new week. As usual I’ll be updating this post throughout the day with the latest news as I find it, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

Block 15 Brewing (Corvallis) has new packaged beers out for spring you’ll want to seek out. The Audacity of Opacity IPA released over the weekend and will be distributed out to the brewery’s accounts, while Turbulent Consequence, Pêche is also out but only available in-house. Block 15’s spontaneously fermented collaboration beer with De Garde Brewing, Spring Amusement, is still available in bottles (at Block 15 and De Garde only), and finally the brewery’s one-off can Intergalactic Hop Shop, a “Cosmically Hoppy Ale” is releasing on May 7 at both Block 15 locations.

Kaiser Brewing (Forest Grove) dropped a new beer over the weekend: “New beer alert. Yes another, that makes 4. This tasty little thirst quencher is a Belgian IPA backed with Imperial Yeast Suburban Brett (Brettanonyces yeast) for some aromas of dried fruit. Getting ready to go into the brite tank, soon to be followed by kegging. Cheers!”

The annual FredFest returns this weekend to Hair of the Dog Brewing, celebrating the life of beer writer Fred Eckhardt, and this year for the first time the event will span a full weekend. “FredFest is May 10th thru the 12th this year. We are trying something a little different this year and will not have tickets, Beer and food will be sold separately. We will have four guest Brewers, Boneyard, Upright, Block 15 and Rubens Brews. Special tap lists Friday and Saturday with a mix on Sunday.” So you’ll get all weekend to be able to toast Fred!

Popular Danish brewery Mikkeller has been making inroads into the Oregon beer scene, what with the announcement of opening a pop-up pub in the former Burnside Brewing space as well as blending a collaboration with De Garde Brewing in Tillamook—and now, there’s news of two other collabs:

• Cascade Brewing announced the upcoming release of Bean-to-Barrel Triple, coming out this Friday, May 10. “Bean-to-Barrel Triple features a blend of barrel and foudre aged sour triple ales with toasted Oregon and French oak and a late infusion of cocoa nibs sourced from Bean Geeks Craft Chocolate in Copenhagen. Celebrating Bean Geeks’ “bean-to-bar” chocolate-making methods, Bean-to-Barrel Triple offers aromas of dark chocolate, vanilla and toasted oak sugars combined with the light pear and citrus fruit notes of the sour triple. Blended from triples aged on oak since 2017, Bean-to-Barrel Triple comes in at 9.4% ABV.” In addition to being on draft and available in 500ml bottles, it will also debut at the Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen in Denmark on the 10th.
• Gigantic Brewing collaborated with Mikkeller and are both clearly staying classy with their Brut IPA also debuting this Friday both in Portland and Copenhagen. From Brewpublic: “Brewed with Mikkel Borg Bjergsø from Mikkeller Beer, Fucking Classy Brut IPA has been packaged in a very limited run of bottle conditioned 750mL cork and cage bottles. Brewed with champagne yeast, this bubbly brut has intense mango, apricot and melon hop aroma and flavor as it finishes dry and refreshing. Fucking Classy Brut IPA is brewed with Hallertau Blanc, Hüll Melon and Nelson Sauvin hops leading to pronounced white wine and tropical aromas and flavors. In addition to these hops, the brewers used a mash bill of Pils, Flaked Rice, and Dextrose to bring this beer to a 7.5% ABV.” (I have a suspicion they named it that just to mess with beer media.)

Bend Brewing announced the release of its Razztafari Sour Ale in cans to come out this month. Details: “Razztafari begins as a traditional Berliner-weisse that is kettle soured with BBC’s unique house lactobacillus culture. Lemon zest is added in the whirlpool before massive amounts of raspberry puree are added to the fermenter. The resulting beer pours bright red with the aroma of raspberry pie filling and notes of lemon. Sweet, tart and refreshing at the same time, Razztafari is the perfect complement to a lazy summer day. Available now in Oregon through Bigfoot Beverages and Running Man Distribution and in Colorado from Colorado Craft Distributors.” Also watch for BBC’s 2nd annual Sour Fest coming up on May 18.

Fort George Brewery (Astoria) has news on news cans of its own to kick off a Monday: “Some exciting news to start the week. Look forward to a new 16-ounce can from Fort George. Cathedral Tree is brewed into oak puncheons, then lagers for a few months in the Lovell basement. It pours bright gold with a white head and light fruit & grape on the nose. And just like the actual Cathedral Tree, this barrel fermented Pilsner is exclusive to the coast. Grab a pint or a four-pack to-go starting Friday, May 17th at the brewery, around the NW coast of Oregon & SW coast of Washington soon after.”