Happy Valentine’s Day! Here’s the news in Oregon beer for the weekend of the 14th. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

Zwickelmania is tomorrow (as you well know)! Breweries across the state will open their doors from 11am to 4pm for special tours, beer tastings, and more. Portland, Eugene, Bend, and Salem are all offering shuttle services as well for the day. And if you want some added fun, generate a Zwickelmania Bingo card to take with you!

Fort George Brewery (Astoria): Tomorrow is their Festival of Dark Arts, the premier event of their annual February 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 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.” Tickets are available at the entrance for $10 for the glass and $1 per sample.

Oakshire Brewing (Eugene): Tomorrow is Oakshire’s Hellshire Day and Barrel-Aged Brew Fest, taking place all day from 11 until 9pm at Oakshire’s new(ish) Public House, and this is one you’re not going to want to miss if you’re in the Valley! “Friends! 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 slate of guest breweries too!

Meanwhile, Plank Town Brewing over in Springfield has their own fest taking place tomorrow (Saturday): Newton’s Pin, a Gravity Cask Ale Festival. “A brewers choice of cask ales served from pins on gravity from bar top, as well as some pulled through beer engines. Truly a very rare treat for “Real Ale” seekers! Cask brews from your favorite local breweries including Agrarian Ales, Brewer’s Union Local 180, Claim 52, Falling Sky, High Street, Oakshire, Sam Bond’s, and Steelhead! Plank Town Brewing Company is hosting our first cask ale festival during the 6th annual Zwickelmania, a statewide event that offers visitors a chance to tour Oregon breweries, meet the brewers and sample some outstanding beer. It’ll be a great weekend for beer lovers! A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Glen Falconer Foundation.” It takes place from noon til closing.

GoodLife Brewing (Bend): Their theme for 2014 is “expansion” and it’s going to be a big year. From the press release they issued this week: “Seeing the increasing demand for production, GoodLife Brewing has started 2014 by beginning a multi-phase expansion at the brewery in Bend. The first phase of the 2.5-year-old brewery’s expansion is the addition of 3 fermenting tanks, making the brewery’s annual capacity 27,000 BBL’s, and the second phase is the installation of an 18 head canning line.” The new tanks are two 240-barrel fermenting tanks and a 130-barrel lager tank. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the seasonals and specialty beers GoodLife will be able to brew now that they have the extra capacity.