Happy Monday—I hope everyone managed to dig themselves out of the snow this weekend and stayed safe! Here’s the news in Oregon beer; as usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. If you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated as well.

One of the big events this week is the annual statewide Zwickelmania taking place this Saturday the 15th, sponsored/organized by the Oregon Brewers Guild and running from 11am until 4pm: “2014 President’s Day weekend, Oregon breweries and brewpubs will open their doors to visitors for the state’s 6th annual Zwickelmania. Zwickelmania, is a free statewide event that offers visitors a chance to tour Oregon breweries, meet the brewers and sample your favorite beers. Share your experience on Twitter and Instagram using the #zwickel14 hashtag.” And of course I’ll be updating my Zwickelmania Bingo page this week, so don’t forget to play along!

Saturday is also Fort George Brewery‘s Festival of Dark Arts, their crown jewel of February’s Stout Month where “all areas of the Fort George block will be overflowing with dark art, darker entertainment, and the darkest selection of craft beer ever assembled” from 2 to 10pm. Stout is of course the name of the game with an insane tap list, but you’ll also “feast your senses on an array of dark art including the Dark Art Gallery, a blacksmith forge, tattoo artistry, glass blowing, belly dancing, cigar tent, fire dancing, stout inspired cuisine, tarot card reading, and old fashioned photography.” Presale tickets are sold out but you can still spend the $10 for the glass and $1 per sample at the entrance.

Belmont Station (Portland): This Wednesday, the 12th, Belmont is hosting Hood River’s Double Mountain Brewery for the release party of their newly-bottled and critically-acclaimed Krieks: “It’s time again for Double Mountain to unleash its delicious Devil’s Kriek and Tahoma Kriek (formerly Rainier Kriek) bottles into the world! Bottles of these limited release, bottle-conditioned sours will go on sale at 5 PM on Wednesday, Feb. 12 and Dave Alan from the brewery will be here 5-8 PM. The first 24 customers who buy bottles will get a free kriek tulip glass! Amounts are limited, so come early!”

Widmer Brothers Brewing (Portland) is launching a new beer, Upheaval IPA, which will be joining their year-round lineup. From the press release: “Northwest Style IPA brewed with six hop varieties and more hops per barrel than any other Widmer Brothers beer. Upheaval will replace the brewery’s Rotator IPA Series as a year-round, nationally available India Pale Ale.” It’s brewed with 40% wheat, and the hops varieties are their proprietary Alchemy hop blend for bittering, with Chinook, Simcoe, Brewer’s Gold, Willamette, and Nelson Sauvin for aroma. 7% abv and 85 IBUs. Look for it this month on draft and in bottles (12 and 22 ounce).

Oakshire Brewing (Eugene): This Saturday the 15th they are adding another big event into the mix for that day, their Hellshire IV release and Barrel-Aged Beer Fest! It runs all day from 11am to 9pm. “Join us at our first-ever Hellshire Day and Barrel-Aged Beer Fest, where we will release Hellshire IV, our fourth barrel-aged beer under the Hellshire label, and celebrate the hell out of craft barrel-aging. We’ll have offerings from our barrel-aging cellar, as well as 50+ barrel-aged beers from breweries around the country(!), music from local bands and local food carts. $15 entry fee includes Teku commemorative Hellshire IV tasting glass and five tokens (with additional tokens available for purchase).” They have a great list of attending breweries too. Not to be missed if you’re in Eugene (you could attend after Zwickelmania!).

Breakside Brewery (Portland) has a new release rolling out this week and they have a number of events lined up for it.  The beer is “Elder Statesman”, a “Barrel­ Aged Imperial Red Ale blend of two barrel­ aged beers, 80% rye barrel­ aged barleywine (aged four months in rye whiskey barrels) and 20% bourbon barrel­-aged imperial blonde (aged 10 months in Bourbon barrels), which was then re­-dry hopped after barrel aging with 2013 crop Centennials to round out the flavor. 10% ABV”  Look for it to be released on the 14th and 15th in Portland as well as at the Oakshire Fest.

Ecliptic Brewing (Portland) has a new beer bottle release of their own coming out: Coalsack Cascadian Dark Ale, named for the Coalsack Nebula. Bottles are rolling off the line today so keep an eye out for them.