Welcome to February, and happy 37th anniversary of homebrew legislation! On this day in 1979, HR 1337 that President Jimmy Carter signed into law took effect, and “homebrewing was officially recognized as federally legal.” Make sure to drink a homebrew today! In the meantime, here’s the news in Oregon beer as well; as usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news as I find it, so check back often. If you have news to share, please let me know and I can get that updated as well.

This coming weekend, from Thursday the 4th through Saturday the 6th, the second annual Salem Winter Brewfest is taking place at the Capitol Mall across from the Oregon State Capitol. “The Salem Winter Brewfest is an event for ages 21 & over that was started in 2015 by the Bite & Brew of Salem. We have created a winter event that brings together what makes the Willamette Valley and Salem a great place to live.” Over the three-day festival they have over 110 beers and ciders pouring, which will cost $20 for one day ($15 in advance) or $30 for all three days ($25 in advance); you can pre-purchase tickets around Salem at Gilgamesh Brewing, Santiam Brewing, Salem Ale Works, Vagabond Brewing, b2 Taphouse, Westside Taphouse, and Venti’s.

The annual CiderCON industry cider conference is taking place in Portland this week (starting tomorrow, the 2nd, through the 6th), so naturally there are a number of cider events taking place—and tonight, Saraveza is hosting Reverend Nat’s for an unofficial CiderCON kickoff party: “In honor of the big apple event, Monday night is our “unofficial” Cider Con kick-off party with our good buddies over at Rev. Nat’s! Nat himself will be here, along with the rest of the Rev. Nat’s crew, and they’re bringing some special goodies with them! Join us this night as over half of our rotating tap list will be dedicated to fermented apples and all that that implies!” The party is taking place from 6 to 9pm.

Bend’s GoodLife Brewing is on the “release tour” this week to promote the release of their new Brewshed® Session Ale, where 1% of all the sales will be donated to the Brewshed® Alliance. They will be releasing the beer at Roscoe’s in Portland on the 3rd, at Beergarden in Eugene on the 4th, and at Velvet in Bend on the 5th. There will be swag and raffles and I’m sure tastes of the new Session Ale, so get on out to check out what they have to offer this week!

Crux Fermentation Project (Bend): Tonight’s BEER’ducation Series taking place starting at 4pm is featuring their Winter Warmer, Snow Cave, with a food pairing: “Snow Cave, our full-bodied winter warmer, balances malty sweetness with hints of clove and banana esters to produce well-rounded flavor and aromatic notes. Then we step it up a notch by aging it in our “snow cave” out back to achieve even greater complexity and clarification. We’ll be pairing Snow Cave with two different food items on opposite sides of the flavor spectrum: for sweet— our special house-made Crème “Brew”lee, and, for savory— our “White Gold” Oud Bruin ale braised endive with dates and Gruyere wrapped in prosciutto.” That definitely sounds like an interesting pairing to explore.

Fort George Brewery (Astoria): It’s now officially Stout Month at Fort George! (Something I’ve noticed other breweries are also celebrating.) “Every Monday starting February 1st, new Fort George specialty stouts will be released at the pub. Grab a pint, fill a growler, or sample a blind stout taster tray. At least eight unique stouts will be on tap in every location at the brewery.” Today’s list of new stouts going on tap looks pretty phenomenal, and the upcoming Mondays look equally impressive—get over to Astoria if you can to enjoy the cornucopia of stouts this month!

Block 15 Brewery (Corvallis): They are celebrating a “Month” of their own: Bourbon Month! “Bourbon Month is here! Join us for a month of food & drink dedicated to bourbon. We’ll be serving up bourbon-barrel aged beer, bourbon-inspired food specials, and a curated selection of rare, world-class bourbons.” Bourbon and beer go hand-in-hand, so keep an eye out for their bourbon and beer themed events. They are also offering a “Bourbon Passport” good at both Block 15 and Les Caves to “Drink and document all of the beer & bourbon on this year’s Passport and win an exclusive t-shirt, plus invitation to a special bourbon tasting!”