Happy Groundhog Day! Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today which means six more weeks of winter, traditionally. Do any Oregon brewers make a “Groundhog Day Beer”? At any rate, here’s the news in Oregon beer for Thursday, February 2. I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day, so if you have some news you’d like to share please contact me and I’ll get it updated.

Alameda Brewing (Portland) today is celebrating their My Bloody Valentine Release Party, their Valentine’s Day-themed Blood Orange Farmhouse Saison: “Dried orange peel and hand squeezed blood orange juice adds to the citrus and peppery essences from the yeast.” As part of the celebration, pints are available for $2 all day long, and limited-edition wax-dipped bottles will be for sale all day as well. The release party itself runs from 5 to 9pm tonight and will feature live music from the Alice Kollinzas Trio.

And speaking of Valentine’s Day events, Brewpublic and Saraveza are teaming up again for the third year in a row to present My Beery Valentine on Sunday, February 12th starting at 6pm (no tickets required to enter): “This is an event designed especially for lovers of craft beer, sweethearts, and sweettooths, and features some of the region’s best breweries concocting specialty one-off brews with a Valentine’s Day theme.Dessertif and delicioso decadent ales will be married with the tantalizing treats of Sugar Pimp, Saraveza’s own Lori Adams Clinton’s divine cupcakes. Beers brewed with fruit, chocolate, liqueurs, barrel-aged, and other fanciful ingredients will be featured from Alameda, Block 15, Breakside, Cascade, Coalition, Fort George, Laurelwood, Mt Tabor, The Commons, Upright, Vertigo, and more. If you love craft beer the way we do, you are not going to want to miss out on this event!” The beer list has also been published to the event page, and all I can say is “Wow!” Yes it’s that impressive!

The KLCC Brewfest kicks off next week, February 10th and 11th (Friday and Saturday, respectively) at the Lane Events Center Exhibit Hall in Eugene. This popular Fest benefits radio station KLCC 89.7 (which offers up NPR and local programming) and in addition to a great taplist of pours, they feature a prominent homebrewing competition (entries due tomorrow!) and a special Collaboration brew that the breweries of Eugene come together to produce—this year it’s all about barrel aging: “the current and past Eugene brewers are taking a beer of their own choice and laying it down in used Heaven Hill Bourbon Barrels for roughly the same amount of time. Come by the Collaboration Booth and find out what local beers have been slumbering in oak for the past few months!” The Fest runs 5 to 11pm Friday and 1 to 11pm Saturday, and tickets cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door, and includes the souvenir glass. (Note 21 and over only—no kids are allowed.)

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

• Ninkasi (Eugene) has a tasting at Beaverton’s Uptown Market tonight from 5 to 7pm; Ninkasi’s Sterling Pilsner will also be on tap.
• Elysian Brewing (Seattle) will be at Redmond’s Cross Creek Cafe from 6 to 8pm pouring a selection of tasty Elysian beers including the new Nibiru Yerba Mate Tripel (the first of their “12 Beers of the Apocalypse” series).
• Laurelwood Brewing (Portland) will be the featured brewery on tap at Bella Union in Jacksonville tonight, for “Oysters and Ales”: “Oysters available any way you like them; cooked, over cooked, barely cooked or raw!” (via Oregon Brewers Guild)
• Logsdon Farmhouse Ales (Hood River) is having a tasting at Barrel in St. John’s in Portland tomorrow (Friday) starting at 6:30pm: “The brewer will be serving free samples of Seizoen, Bretta, and the NEW Kili Wit.”