Happy hump day! What beer will you be drinking when you get off work? To make you thirsty, here’s the Oregon beer news for Wednesday, February 18. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often for updates. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated as well.

The Oregon Brewers Festival posted on Facebook yesterday a list of the breweries that will be participating in this year’s Brewfest—“Thanks to the record number of breweries that applied to this year’s festival – 137 – and congrats the following breweries selected in the lottery to participate.” There’s 90 in the list they posted which in addition to many of the usual suspects includes some new(ish) ones like Astoria’s Buoy Beer and Redmond’s Wild Ride, and some beyond-Oregon geek favorites like Ballast Point, Dogfish Head, and The Lost Abbey. It’s going to be a good one this year!

McMenamins Oak Hills Brewpub (Portland) has a limited-edition beer tasting today starting at 4pm, featuring Iron Man Strong Ale: “The Iron Man is a big, brutal ale. Named for the toughest guy in the city in Portland, this beer was given the moniker of Blazers shooting guard Wesley Mathews. Wes has earned the Iron Man nickname many times over by continuing his all-out style of play despite an unending list of bumps, bruises and injuries. Dark in color, and full of hops, this beer is everything every other beer could be. Malty, hoppy, chocolaty, oaky, you name it, the Iron Man has it. Full of flavor, the Iron Man Strong Ale is sure to satisfy any big beer loving pallet. This is a high gravity beer and should be handled with caution! Cheers.” This is a big beer at 9.16% abv, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.

The Bier Stein (Eugene) is offering up a beer pairing dinner tonight from 6 to 8:30pm, featuring 5 courses paired with a variety of beers for $50 per person. I’d be particularly interested in the dessert: Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream Sandwich, “house made sable cookie, peanut butter ice cream, and marionberry compote” that is paired with Sierra Nevada’s Narwhal Imperial Stout. Yum! The rest of the menu is nothing to sneeze at either, and vegetarian options are available.

Belmont Station (Portland) is hosting a tasting today from 5 to 7pm with New York’s Sixpoint Brewing: “Our good friends at Sixpoint Brewing are flying in for a visit and want to hold a tasting of their delicious can beers as soon as their feet touch PDX carpet. They will be sampling: Hi-Res Triple IPA, The Crisp Pilsener, Bengali IPA and more! We also will pour one of their tasty beers on draft in the biercafe.”

The Green Dragon (Portland) has a Green Dragon Brew Crew release today starting at 5pm featuring a Rye Pale Ale: “Brewed with rye to add a gorgeous amber hue and a delicate spiciness, then double dry hopped to add a flowery, orange citrus note. ABV 6.2%” The tasting starts at 5, and you can meet the Brew Crew starting at 6.

Hopworks Urban Brewery (Portland) has three new beers released, a returning seasonal and two new ones. The returning beer is their popular Rise Up Red, and along with the new Nonstop Hef Hop will be appearing in cans. The one that I find the most interesting is hitting the pubs today and that’s their Potato Gun Idaho Potato Ale (IPA, hah!), the collaboration beer they brewed with Payette Brewing. Brewpublic has details on this and the others. “Potato Gun IPA was brewed with over fifty pounds of organic, Idaho purple potatoes along with Amarillo, Crystal, and Zeus hops.” I’m hoping some of that “IPA” makes its way to Bend.

Sunriver Brewing (Sunriver) is working on their Summer Ale and have been iterating through a number of test batches. Test batch #1 is on tap as of today to try out: “In 2015 we are introducing a new Summer Ale. This is our first test batch experimenting with the same German ale yeast that we use in our Hefeweizen. We also are playing around with the addition of the newly released Equinox™ hop and lemon peel.” If you get a chance to try it, let them know what you think.

PFriem Family Brewers (Hood River) has a new beer out today as well—a Triple IPA! “Stop by pFriem’s tasting room tonight at 5:30PM for our Triple IPA beer release! We’re pairing this INTENSE hop filled beer with some flavorful hush puppies over a rich compound of caper dijon butter. Topped off with a zesty preserved lemon gremolata, this pairing does not disappoint.”