Happy (hoppy) New Year! I’m taking another crack at starting up the daily Oregon Beer News posts, since I’m not (currently) writing a book. However other projects may yet intercede, so we’ll see how it goes! Here’s the news for Monday, January 5. As usual, I’ll be periodically 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.

Full Sail Brewing (Hood River) starts off the year right, expanding their Session series beers by introducing Session Export Golden Lager (this joins the current lineup of Sessions Lager, Black, Fest, and IPA): “Brewed in the Dortmunder Export lager style, Export pours a deep golden color and imported hop varieties impart noble hop aromas with subtle herbal and hop spice notes. Hop bitterness and malt sweetness are balanced with a firm, smooth, mineral/malt character and clean finish. So rich, so elegant, so well-traveled – Imported all the way from Hood River, Oregon, Session Export is available in 12-packs and on draft from winter to spring. ABV 5.8% IBU 28.” Good stuff, particularly after winning a bunch of awards at the World Beer Championships recently.

Across the McMenamins brewery empire, Mondays are growler fill specials days, where you can fill up a growler of whatever beer that particular location has selected (for instance, the Old Church has Reverse Order ISA and the Old St. Francis School has Tip Top Double IPA) for only 8 or 10 bucks. Fill ‘er up!

Terminal Gravity Brewing (Enterprise): Back during the first weekend of December it looks like they teamed up with Bend’s GoodLife Brewing to brew a collaboration beer (hashtag: “#goodgravity”). I don’t have details, but it looks like this week is “Collaboration Week” according to Terminal Gravity, with a picture of their IPA alongside a can of GoodLife’s Descender IPA—so I would speculate they brewed up a collab IPA (GoodGravity IPA?). Stay tuned.

North Rim Brewing (Bend): One of Bend’s newest breweries (not even an official year old) has a new beer available and has been gradually expanding their presence in Central Oregon. The new beer is Jaded Imperial IPA, a 9% ABV and 60 IBU beer that’s pouring (or soon will be) at a number of spots, including growler stations.

Ground Breaker Brewing (Portland): New pub-only brews being made today! They are Cancellation Ale, batch #4, and Pale-o Ale. “Cancellation Ale is always made with goji berries, milk thistle, dandelion root, burdock root, and lemons. Batch 4, the one we made today, has large amounts of fresh turmeric…. Pale-o Ale is made with chestnuts, sweet potatoes, carrots, maple syrup, hops, yeast, and water. That’s it. No grains. No legumes. My hope is that the resulting beer is dry with a low abv but I am going into uncharted territory with this one.” Look for them to be on tap in a few weeks.

Standing Stone Brewing (Ashland): This Thursday, January 8 is Standing Stone’s Winter Beer Dinner, and they posted today that there are still a handful of seats left if you want to go. It’s a terrific-looking six-course meal paired with a wide variety of their beers for $60 per person, and starts at 6:30pm. Call (541) 482-2448 or (541) 261-0021 to reserve a seat.

Agrarian Ales (Eugene): From their newsletter today: “We have a very limited release of our first ever bottling run. With two very special beers waiting in their 750ml Cork & Cage bottles, this is such a treat. Check back soon to find out how to get your hands on Agrarian Ales first ever bottle release!” Definitely worth looking out for. Oh, and their tasting room is closed until March as they renovate.

Base Camp Brewing (Portland): Save the date! Saturday, January 24 is Base Camp’s Collabofest, “bringing together 10 innovative breweries in the craft brewing capital of the world. On Jan. 24, 2015, beer lovers will be able to sample 10 different beers that showcase Portland’s spirit of collaboration, all at one spot.” Some great breweries involved in addition to Base Camp: Coalition, Ecliptic, Stormbreaker, Breakside, Fat Heads, Hopworks, Baerlic, Gigantic, and Ex Novo. Tickets are here and at $20 might be a little steep, but you get a tasting glass and 10 5-ounce pours which is pretty generous. Be there!