Happy Friday! Here’s my end-of-week roundup of the various news in beer from around the state for this Friday, January 15, including some COVID-19 county-level updates I’ve seen pop up in my feed. I’ll be updating this post throughout the rest of the day with news as I see it, so reload occasionally, and feel free to send any tips my way too.

COVID-19 county risk levels updated, breweries/pubs affected

The county risk categories for COVID-19 are updated effective today, which means breweries, pubs, and restaurants in those counties will be changing their service. Both Curry and Lake counties are moved to Moderate Risk, while Baker, Clatsop, Coos, and Morrow counties are moved to Extreme Risk. Moderate allows indoor dining up to 50% capacity, while Extreme disallows all indoor dining.

I’ve seen several brewery updates on Facebook about these changes, including:

• Barley Brown’s (Baker City): Being in Baker County, now back to no indoor dining; brewery update: “We’ll be back to take-out food, cans of beer, growler fills, wine, and cocktails starting tomorrow at 11:00am. Tuesday thru Saturday 11:00am to 7:00pm. Call 541-523-4266 of stop in to place an order.”
• Chetco Brewing (Brookings): Located in Curry County, Chetco can re-open for indoor dining; brewery update: “Our tables are socially-distanced and we thank you for wearing your mask when away from your table. We’re open ’til 8p tonight and Off the Wagon Food Truck is open ’til 7!”
• Climate City Brewing (Grants Pass) is in Josephine County, also under Extreme, but is shaping up the outdoor patio: “We will be fully covered and heated, with more epic enhancements to come! Come enjoy great beer and food in our new space. Open Tuesday-Sunday 3pm-8pm, beginning this Tuesday 1/19!”

New beer from Bent Shovel

Bent Shovel Brewing in Estacada (in Clackamas County, which is Extreme Risk) offers up a new beer than you can get to go (presumably) or enjoy in the beer garden:

Say hello to Double Standard IPA! Fresh from the tank to your glass this tasty west coast IPA is built on liberal amounts of Falconer’s Flight and El Dorado hops. Across the aisle on the malt side is a base of American 2-row barley and a conservative amount of crystal malt in order reveal the hops. Magnum bittering hops are employed to achieve an extreme centre balance. Aromas of tropical fruit, berry and citrus abound.

Boneyard Skunkape raffle

Bend’s Boneyard Beer released its Skunkape IRA in cans today (as reported yesterday), and today the brewery announced a raffle:

The Pub will be offering an INSANE SKUNKAPE RAFFLE: stop by the pub and purchase a 6-pack of Skunkape and receive a raffle ticket for a chance to WIN a Lib Tech Skunkape Snowboard, a framed signed photo from the wizard Pete Alport Video/Photo or a Boneyard bundle! The winner will be announced Thursday, 1/28 at 5PM via social media.

Fort George Brewery plans scaled-down Stout Month

While there won’t be a Festival of Dark Arts at Fort George Brewery in Astoria this year due to the pandemic, the brewery is still planning to celebrate Stout Month, albeit in a scaled-down, covid-friendly manner. Brewpublic has a good in-depth article detailing it.

In lieu of having to visit Fort George to order these stouts, the brewery will be offering many of its popular offerings in bottles to go or directly shipped to your home for those of us residing in Oregon and Washington.

For the very first-time during Fort George Stout Month, you’ll be able to reserve bottles of Matryoshka and its plethora of variants online, with direct shipping to your home. You can also make a trip to Fort George for easy pick up as there will be a separate and safe location in the Lovell Brewery for Stout Month pre-order pick-ups, and you might be able to enjoy a taste or two from the Lovell Taproom, open for the first time in nearly a year.

10 Barrel & Breakside collaboration beer

Bend’s 10 Barrel Brewing (specifically, 10 Barrel’s Tonya Cornett) teamed up with Portland’s Breakside Brewery to brew up Celebrity Crush, an imperial porter with blueberries and vanilla—and it’s out today.

Celebrity Crush begins its life as a 28 deg Plato Baltic Porter, which we blend with a small portion of fruited sour beer and a larger portion of chocolatey barrel-aged Stout. The blend then saw additional conditioning on vanilla and blueberry to create the ultimate winter dessert porter.⁠
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We have limited quantities on draft at our Bend pubs and in cans at our Portland pub. Go snag some while you can!