Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a good weekend and is ready to kick off the week! Here’s the news in Oregon beer for January 7; as usual, I will periodically update this post with the latest news, so check back often for updates. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated as well.

Catching up on news from the New School, there’s a great post about movement among Oregon brewers: a brewer joining Gigantic, brewers leaving Pelican, and brewers hopping around the Gorge breweries. It’s a bit on the geeky side but it’s always interesting to know who’s brewing what (and where) and Ezra has a good line on that info.

Also via the New School is news on Upright Brewing‘s release of this year’s Fantasia, taking place at their tap room on the 18th of this month. “The 2nd batch of Fantasia has been fermenting away in barrels for a year, and sadly there will be even less of this beer to go around than last year due to a smaller yield. On a recent tasting from the barrels, this version is a bit more forward with the saison yeast than last year’s, but should continue to sour nicely for a couple years.” Bottles will be on sale for $20 each.

And finally Burnside Brewing in Portland is also planning a new crazy beer release: Captain Beefheart, a beer made with (yes) beef heart. “Just when you thought Burnside’s Uni Urchin Ale had gone too far, out comes this new ale made with grilled and charred beef hearts. A malty copper ale with the addition of Turkish bay leaf, long pepper, salt, and 60 lbs of beef hearts, the beer is said to be pleasantly aromatic and minerally.” (Also via New School.) Honestly I’m just not too sure about beers made with meat, but it might be interesting to try.

Breakside Brewing (Portland) is doing a tap takeover this week at Portland’s new BEER taphouse (on SE 14th and Stark), on Friday the 4th starting at 5pm. “Help us welcome John Stewart and his new beer bar, BEER to the Portland scene! We’ll be pouring Breakside beers, including our IPA, Pilsner, Cascadian Dark Ale and a special keg TBD. Plus, we’ll be cracking open some bottles from our library, including a few rare 750s of our Postmodern Lambic. Ben, Jacob, Sam and Andrew will all be on hand to celebrate the opening of this new haven for great brews!”

Deschutes Brewery (Bend) is hosting one of their premier events, their Barrel Aged Beer Tasting, taking place this Friday the 4th at the Bend Pub. It runs from 6 to 9pm and costs $45, which gets you six courses of small plate dishes paired with six different barrel-aged beers: The Stoic, Black Butte XXII, Super Jubel 2010, The Abyss 2011, Cassis Abbey Ale, and Peche Abbey Ale. (It should go without saying that $45 is a great deal for all of these!) Tickets are available online and there are 81 left as of this afternoon.

Apocalypse Brewing (Medford): Today they brewed up the first batch of beer on a new brew system: a batch of their flagship beer, The Sixth Seal. Based on the photo posted, it’s a three-tier small-scale system, something between 15 and 25 gallons I think—true nano style.