Here’s the news in beer from around Oregon for Thursday, January 12th. The week is winding down, and it’s about time to start thinking about the weekend! I’ll be doing just that as I’m updating news on this post throughout the day. If you have some beer news you’d like to share, please contact me and I can get it posted.

Full Sail Brewing (Hood River): Today is the day of their “Breakfast for Dinner” January Brewmaster Dinner, featuring four courses inspired by a breakfast menu and paired with Full Sail beer. Seating for the dinner starts at 5pm and lasts until they run out; cost is $30 per person which is a pretty reasonable price for essentially a prix fixe beer dinner (especially one as yummy-sounding as this one).

It’s never too early to start looking ahead to the coming months for events, and Zwickelmania is just around the corner: Saturday, February 18th, from 11 to 4, “President’s Day weekend, dozens of Oregon breweries and brewpubs will open their doors to visitors for the state’s 4th annual Zwickelmania. Zwickelmania, hosted by the Oregon Brewers Guild (OBG), is a free statewide event that offers visitors a chance to tour Oregon breweries, meet the brewers and sample their favorite beers.” Breweries will be offering tours, tastings, and sometimes more goodies for Zwickelmania, and in Portland, Eugene, and Bend there are even organized bus tours to take dedicated Zwickelers (just made that word up!) around to the many, many breweries. Mark your calendars!

Cascade Brewing (Portland): Today is their special “Four Goses of the Apuckerlips” tasting that I blogged about the other day; these are four Gose-style beers that were brewed for each season, and each one is spiced with (besides salt) different spices. “We’ll be serving four variations of our goses in teardrop glasses for $4.50 ($5 for vintage [Autumn]), or grab a vertical flight of all four for $8. Brewers & blenders will be on hand for questions and discussion.” The tasting starts at 4pm.

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

• The Green Dragon (Portland): They have a Meet the Brewer tonight from 5 to 8pm featuring Hopworks Urban Brewery. Meet Christian Ettinger, and try the four beers that will be on tap: Helles, Secession CDA, Cask DOA, and Noggin Floggin Barleywine.
• 10 Barrel Brewing (Bend): They will be at Uptown Market tonight doing a sampling from 4 to 7pm. They will be pouring S1nist0r, Apocalypse IPA and Precursor barrel-aged strong ale.
• Oakshire Brewing (Eugene) has a tasting in Portland today at Zupan’s Market (on Belmont) from 4 to 7pm.
• GoodLife Brewing (Bend): They have a Meet the Brewer taking place at the Hawthorne Hophouse in Portland tonight, from 6 to 9pm. GoodLife beers will be on special for $3 a pint during this time.
• McMenamins Edgefield (Troutdale): Tonight’s Limited Edition Beer Tasting is for La Dame Poire, a beer for which “Asian pears have been soaked for over a month in Edgefield Distillery’s Pear Brandy, then infused in our popular raspberry Ruby Ale.” The tasting takes place at the Edgefield Distiller Bar starting at 5pm and lasts until the beer is gone.
• Pelican Pub & Brewery (Pacific City): “Today is the day! Riptide Red Ale and Nestucca ESB have officially released. Stop by for a pint today, order from our online store or watch for them in stores near you starting next Monday.” (via Facebook)
• Brewers Union Local 180 (Oakridge): “‘Frost on the Bumpkin’, our eight grain Winter Stout, has been tapped and is awaiting liberation from the cask. We also have a rare guest cask of ‘Red Ryeder’ from Block 15, which will be followed by an even rarer cask of ‘Vortex IPA’ from Fort George in Astoria.” (via Facebook)