Here’s the beer news from around Oregon for Thursday, the 5th of January. As usual I’ll be updating this post throughout the day, so if you have some news to share contact me and I’ll update.

GoodLife Brewing (Bend) has a series of Meet the Brewer events coming up in Bend and Portland, and tonight is the first two—in both cities. Here in Bend, it’s taking place at Timbers Bar & Grill from 5 to 9pm; and in the Portland area, it’s at Maher’s Pub in Lake Oswego. All four of GoodLife’s current lineup will be pouring (Mountain Rescue Pale Ale, Descender IPA, Pass Stout and Scottish Heart Scotch Ale). The next Portland events will be next week on the 11th, 12th, and 13th.

Next week, the 13th and 14th (Friday and Saturday, respectively) the Oregon Wine, Food & Brew Festival kicks off in Salem: two days of celebrating Oregon’s gastronomy and drink. The Fest runs from 4 to 10pm on Friday and noon to 10pm on Saturday; admission each day is $10 (though doesn’t include samples), and gets you access to reps from Oregon’s wineries and breweries, as well as culinary demos and classes, live entertainment, and more. It’s taking place at the Oregon State Fairgrounds, and a quick look at their current exhibitors list reveals the following breweries will be there:

• Astoria Brewing
• Fire Mountain Brewery
• Gilgamesh Brewing
• Seven Brides Brewing

Pelican Pub & Brewery (Pacific City): If you were wanting to attend their Winter Brewers Dinner on the 28th featuring Ben Love and Van Havig of Gigantic Brewing (in a collaboration with Pelican), there are only 8 tickets left for the event so you’d better jump on it. The cost is $75, and sounds like a great night (the collaboration beer between Gigantic and Pelican is “Schwartz Genug”, a Baltic Porter).

Oakshire Brewing (Eugene): Van Havig and Ben Love of Gigantic Brewing sure are getting around: today they’re brewing a collaboration beer with Matt Van Wyk of Oakshire, named “Collabo Wabo.” “Serious work happening at Oakshire today – A collaboration beer brewed by Oakshire Brewmaster Matt Van Wyk and veteran brewers Van Havig and Ben Love of soon to be open Gigantic Brewing Company. Look for Collabo Wabo to be out at the end of the month!” And based on both the limes and the tequila in the picture, one can only wonder what sort of beer these three are dreaming up…

Upcoming tastings, releases, and “Meet the Brewer” events:

• The Green Dragon (Portland): Tonight’s Meet the Brewer event is featuring Seven Brides Brewing out of Silverton, from 5 to 8pm. Seven Brides posted some details: “Beers tapped at 5pm and Josiah will be there to chat about the beers at about 6pm, so drop on in… Frankenlou’s IPA, Drunkle, and Brandy Barrel Aged Black Cat will all be pouring this evening!”
• The Bier Stein (Eugene): Tomorrow they are featuring the release party for the Ninkasi/Stone/Alchemist collaboration beer “More Brown than Black IPA”, including a Tap Takeover with Ninkasi and Stone brews. The Tap Takeover starts at 5pm, and the MBtB will be tapped around 7pm—and as a special feature, both Jamie Floyd from Ninkasi and Greg Koch from Stone Brewing will be on hand to celebrate! (Presumably Koch is kicking off his Oregon tour as he’s appearing at Belmont Station the next day.)
• The Commons Brewery (Portland): They have a Brewery Dinner on January 26th starting at 7pm, with a cost of $42 per person. “Chef Ben Meyer teams up with The Commons Brewery to prepare a four course dinner paired with The Commons beers. The dinner will be held in the brewery where we’ll have seating for 30 people.”
• McMenamins Fulton Pub (Portland): The release of Black ‘Ops CDA kicks off this Limited Edition Beer Tasting, starting at 5pm. “What we can tell you is that it is a very dark beer that has a garnet hue when held to light.  It first greets the drinker with an aroma that is citrusy, piney, and faintly toasty.  The flavor of this clandestine ale is mellow at first with both toasted and chocolate notes.  From there, its aggressive citrusy, piney, spicy & resinous hop character takes control.” It’s 6.71% abv.