It’s National Drink Wine Day today, which I hope everyone is enjoying (even if it’s not beer—unless it’s barleywine, right?). In the meantime, here’s the news in Oregon beer for this February 18, which will continue to be updated through the rest of the day. Cheers and cin-cin!

Threshold Brewing & Blending’s 2nd anniversary this Saturday

This Saturday, February 20, Portland’s Threshold Brewing & Blending is 0bserving its second anniversary (delayed due to weather). The brewery is celebrating in a pandemic-friendly way and will also be offering zwickel pours throughout the day (coinciding with Zwickelmania taking place for the rest of Oregon that day).

This Saturday, come join us in celebrating Threshold’s 2 year (and 1 week) anniversary! We put all of our original plans on the abundance of available ice and it’s time for a do-over.
We’ll be open extended hours, noon to 8 p.m., with special beer releases, Zwickel pours, food by Sebastiano’s (pre-order please) and both indoor and outdoor seating.
‘Cascadia Rising’ Black IPA brewed with Centennial, Columbus and Idaho 7 hops, 7.3%
‘Strobile Lights’ west coast IIPA brewed with Amarillo, Citra and Simcoe hops, 8%
‘Neptune’ Baltic Porter, 6%
‘Holiday Bubble’ mixed-culture Grisette conditioned on cranberries, 5.3%

Happy second birthday to Threshold! It’s been a weird second year for the young company but it’s still going strong.

Xylem Cider Works is closed, now 19 Acres Cider Company

Sherwood’s Xylem Cider Works is no more, and a new cidery is in its place: 19 Acres Cider Company. From Facebook:

Xylem Cider has officially closed their doors, but in its place is a new cidery, 19 Acres Hard Cider. We come from Oregon Heritage Farms, an apple orchard in Scholls. With 40 years of growing apples in the area we have decided to dedicate 19 acres of our property to making the most delicious premium craft cider. We use only whole ingredients, no added sugar, no sulfites, and no nonsense. You can follow our journey… we are currently building a cidery and tasting room out in scholls. At the moment we are producing where Xylem use to be. We are excited to meet all of you and share our delicious ciders with you!

Ecliptic partners with Dry Fly Distilling on two new barrel-aged beers

Portland’s Ecliptic Brewing and Spokane’s Dry Fly Distilling are teaming up to release two new barrel-aged beers featuring Dry Fly’s wheat and triticale whiskeys. Details from the press release:

Ecliptic Brewing has teamed up with Spokane-based Dry Fly Distilling on an exciting new barrel-aging project, with two new draft-only beer releases coming March 31st:

About Dry Fly Wheat Whiskey Barrel-Aged Scotch Ale
In collaboration with our friends at Dry Fly Distillery, our Scotch ale was aged for 12 months in Dry Fly Wheat Whiskey barrels. The result truly tells the story of the barrel with aromas of oak and honey. These play nicely with a slight nuttiness and flavors of chocolate cherry cordials.
ABV: 10.5% / IBU: 25

About Dry Fly Triticale Whiskey Barrel Aged Scotch Ale
In collaboration with our friends at Dry Fly Distillery, our Scotch ale was aged for 12 months in Dry Fly Triticale Whiskey barrels. The result is a rich ale with aromas of dried figs and cherries. Flavors of vanilla and oak complement a slightly chocolatey and very smooth finish.
ABV: 10.5% / IBU: 25

Dry Fly Distilling is an award-winning, small batch craft distillery that is a true farm to bottle operation. When Dry Fly’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Terry Nichols, reached out to Ecliptic about their “Cask and Release” project (i.e., Dry Fly sends freshly dumped whiskey barrels to a brewery for a barrel-aged beer, then the brewery sends the barrels back for Dry Fly to refill with whiskey), Ecliptic was excited to jump on board and experiment.

Dry Fly’s Wheat Whiskey (Cask Strength) is the company’s highest rated whiskey ever, and it typically drinks much softer than its 120 proof. Ecliptic’s beer spent one year aging in these barrels, resulting in a slightly nutty and chocolate cherry cordial flavor.

New beers list

The latest roundup of new (or returning) beers from all over:

• Gorges Beer Company (Portland): Two new beers next week. “Next week, we have two new returning favorites! The Golden Eagle Golden Ale is out Tuesday and the Angel’s Rest IPA is back Thursday! We’re stoked to have two summertime promenade favorites back in pints and cans!”
• Deschutes Brewery (Bend): The Dissident 2015 at the Bend Pub: “Now on tap for a limited time! DISSIDENT 2015: A Flanders-style Brown Ale with tart cherries, aged in oak & wild fermented, lending tart notes and hints of funk. Get your share of this damn tasty beer before it’s gone.”
• Old Town Brewing (Portland): A collab with Ecliptic: “We teamed up with galactic brew buds, Ecliptic Brewing – exploring the endless bounds of flavor and time, to deliver a brew of epic proportions. “Old Town in Space!” – a unique black pilsner brewed with orange. It’s crisp, toasty, and packed with citrusy notes from the orange zest and Mandarina Bavaria hops used. You can discover the outer limits of deliciousness on a shelf near you now!”
• De Garde Brewing (Tillamook): Two beers out today: “The Peach — Two year aged spontaneously fermented barrels are transferred into secondary oak tank where they ferment and age again with ripe, fresh peaches. Tart, tasty, funky and peachy. Delicious. Blue BuVeaux — Barrels of our ‘smaller’ spontaneous beer, aged a minimum of one year, are fermented a second time on massive amounts of whole blueberries. Balanced acid and earthy complexity with the true expression of natural, wild fermented blueberries.”
• Wolves & People (Newberg): The latest in the Sketchbook Series: “Coming in at #2 in our Sketchbook Series is a long-time barrel aged farmhouse favorite, OUDE VAT [6.8% abv]. This bière de coupage (a blend of fresh farmhouse puncheon beer & casks of aged ale) is dry-hopped with Hallertau Blanc, Cashmere, & Belma. Notes of white grape, bouquet of sour citrus and accents of sherry, funk & oak spice.”
• Pelican Brewing (Pacific City): New cans are out! Featuring Paddleback Oceanic Pale Ale, Pelican Pilsner, and Head Out American-Style Hefeweizen.
• Fort George Brewery (Astoria): Stout Month release! “THIS weekend we will have ALL NINE Stout Month bottle releases available from the Lovell Taproom and Fort George To-Go! Including Arbor Knot – A Dry Fly Whiskey Barrel Aged Imperial Stout with hazelnuts. This stout was boiled for four hours, aged for 11 months in Dry Fly Whiskey barrels from Spokane, WA and then conditioned on toasted hazelnuts. The result is decadent yet deceptively smooth with a toasted hazelnut aroma and notes of dark chocolate, vanilla, and charred oak!”