There’s a couple of events going on in the Pacific Northwest this weekend that I am candidly envious of (mostly because I can’t make it to either).

The first is Brewpublic’s First Anniversary:

In celebration of our first Brewniversary, Brewpublic is pleased to announce two events featuring one-of-a-kind craft beers, art and giveaways. These two special events were planned with you the reader in mind. Please come join the Brewpublic team and fellow Beervana Brewpublicans in a toast to fine craft beer, yeast, malt, and the pursuit of hoppiness.

Tonight they had their anniversary party, and tomorrow they kick off an amazing grassroots (I assume it’s grassroots—it’s a blog, right?) beer fest:

On this special night during Portland’s Fresh Hop weekend, Brewpublic has curated a line-up of never tasted before beers from the Pacific Northwest. Barrel-aged brews, Belgian-style specialties, and other one of a kind and one-off brews. Most of these beers will not be available again. Bailey’s provides a great environment for tasting these beers and they will be offered in 10 oz and 20 oz imperial pints, as well as sample trays.

Go check out the beer list on that link. Yes, it’s pretty amazing. I’m jealous!

But seriously, Brewpublic has been off to an amazing first year and it’s a terrific blog. Keep up the good work, guys!

The other event I’d love to attend someday is Elysian Brewing‘s Great Pumpkin Festival:

In addition to the Night Owl, the festival will showcase The Great Pumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Dark o’ the Moon Pumpkin Stout, Hansel and Gretel Ginger Pumpkin Pilsner, Jack o’ Bite Barrel-aged Strong Scottish Pumpkin Ale, Mr. Yuck Sour Pumpkin Ale, Bete N’Owl Dark Belgian-style Pumpkin Ale, and a few others, all from Elysian’s brewers. In addition, 16 guest pumpkin beers will be poured from several Seattle-area brewers as well as special efforts from some of America’s best and most innovative brewers.

The high point of each GPBF is the 4 o’ clock tapping of the Great Pumpkin, a huge gourd filled with pumpkin ale which has been sealed up with wax and allowed to undergo a second fermentation before having a tap hammered home for serving. Patrons line up dozens-deep to enjoy and comment on the year’s effort.

[Description from Beer Northwest.]

The fest runs the 10th and 11th at Elysian’s Capitol Hill brewpub. Sounds pretty great; most breweries don’t even brew one pumpkin beer per year—so Elysian is like, king of the pumpkin beers.

(They really need a website for the event though.)