Thank the beer gods it’s Friday! I hope your first week of the year has gone well, now it’s time for the weekend beer news! As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. If you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

Mazama Brewing (Corvallis): They are holding their third annual Dark Days Winter Ale Fest tomorrow! “Dark Days is a celebration of the darkest days of winter when the only cure for the cold weather is to gather with friends around locally crafted beverages. We will have our own seasonal and limited release beers on tap including Nightside Eclipse, Mazamanator, Dubbelganger, and some new beers! In addition, we will have beers from 10+ other local breweries, cideries, & meaderies on tap to enjoy.” They have a terrific beer list posted and it only costs $15, which gets you the pint glass and drink tickets. It runs from 2 to 10pm at their brewery.

Salem Ale Works (Salem) has the release of a new beer today: Half-Assed Hop Back IPA. “Come out for the release of a new IPA; the first beer to be made with our new hop back. Light bodied, resinous and piney, this IPA went through the hop back full of Simcoe hops and is loaded with great hop flavor. Hop backs are filled with whole leaf hops and the hot wort is passed through on its way to the chiller. This allows the most volatile aroma and flavor compounds in the hops to be extracted without boiling off and results in juicy, hoppy goodness.” The release takes place at their brewery from 4 to 9pm.

Saraveza in Portland is hosting the release of Ex Novo Brewing‘s new cans tomorrow, Saturday the 9th, from 6 to 9pm: “This Saturday from 6-9pm, come hang out with the Ex Novo crew and help celebrate the release of their new cans! They’ve canned up two of our favorites, Eliot IPA and The Most Interesting Mexican Lager in the World.” (From the Facebook event page.) One to check out for sure!

Montavilla Brew Works (Portland): They have an interesting-sounding limited beer series they’ve been doing and have a new beer available: “In case you hadn’t heard, we started a little experimental brew series called the “Very Limited Series”. These are beers that are extremely limited in quantity (6 gallons or less) and are only available in 12oz. pours at our taproom. In fact, this 2nd installment of the series takes advantage of some newer hop varieties that we got our hands on recently: Comet and Azacca. These hops are full of grapefruit, mangoes, papaya, lemon, pine and spice aromas…and we used them to dry hop our beloved “DeGeorger EnForcer Imperial Stout”. ON TAP FRIDAY JANUARY 8TH. Come get it while it lasts!”