Happy Monday and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I hope it’s finding you well, and if you get the day off from work, enjoy it. Here’s the news in Oregon beer for January 21; as usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day, so check back often for the latest news. If you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated as well.

It’s a cider kind of week: today Beerworks in Medford is hosting a free cider tasting featuring Washington’s Finn River Cider, from 6 to 9pm tonight. Finn River offers a variety of products, but I would definitely expect to see their Dry Hopped Cider pouring (especially at a beer bar!).

And then Wednesday at Portland’s Belmont Station, they are hosting a cider tasting with Corvallis’ 2 Towns Ciderhouse from 6 to 8pm: “Two Towns Ciderhouse is making what they consider to be “Damn Fine Cider” in Corvallis. We heartily agree. Come taste their full line, including InCider, Bad Apple semi-dry strong cider, 50 Mile Radius, Nice & Naughty spiced winter cider, and Pearadise Pear.”

Swing Tree Brewing (Ashland): They’ve officially got their TTB application submitted and have been brewing up a storm! “It’s official – we have submitted our TTB brewery license application! All that’s left to do is wait… and brew lots of beer! Now that we are playing the waiting game we will be brewing pilot batches like crazy. If you haven’t had a chance to share a brew with us yet, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We can’t sell any of these pilot batches, but lucky for you we love to share! ; ) First up on the brew schedule: the Porch Swing and the Obligatory IPA.”

I don’t know that I’ve seen this reported elsewhere yet, but former Full Sail Brewmaster John Harris is teaming up with Golden Valley Brewing in McMinnville to brew up a collaboration beer—in fact, they already brewed a batch for GVB’s Beaverton location’s one-year anniversary that will be released on January 31—and the latest one is taking place today! I’d first heard of the collaboration from GVB Beaverton’s assistant manager, though I don’t have the details yet. This will be the second collaboration brew Harris has had a hand in (the first was with Bend’s Boneyard Beer), and in fact Harris wrote the “original startup recipes” in 1993 for then-new Golden Valley. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how this beer turns out!

Seven Brides Brewing (Silverton) is sporting a newly-redesigned website, a nice-looking improvement over the previous one. Things look more organized and easy to find, though there’s still a few kinks to work out (the Brews page has links to beers that don’t work, for instance). Overall though it’s a good update.

And Seven Brides will be in Bend this weekend at The Growler Guys growler fill station on Friday and Saturday for a tap takeover: “Six great brews from the brewery will be on hand for tastings and growler fill-ups: Frankenlou’s IPA, Black Cat Porter, Emily’s Ember Amber, Lauren’s Pale Ale, Oatmeal Ellie Stout, Lil’s Pils Pilsner.”

Standing Stone Brewing (Ashland) has a new beer release hitting the taps today at 5pm, benefitting Rogue Riverkeeper as part of Standing Stone’s “Pints for a Purpose” project (for which a portion of the sales of every pint of the selected specialty beer will go towards that recipient). The beer itself is Riverkeeper Ale: “This light-brown brew offers toasted aromas of graham cracker and a light to medium body. Warm, biscuity flavors are followed by a slightly dry and nutty finish with mild bitterness. 4.0% abv. 25 IBU”