Here is the news in beer from around Oregon for Thursday, February 18. 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 updated as well.

Belmont Station (Portland): Today is the culmination of their Sweet|Tart event with a Fort George Stout Month Celebration taking place from 5 to 7pm: “To help us put our Sweet | Tart celebration to a close, Fort George, known for its famous Stout Month on the Oregon Coast, is bringing Stout Month to Belmont Station for a night! We will have a pin of one of their delicious stouts (with some special surprises inside) on the bar top. Plus we will be pouring three of their Festival of the Dark Arts kegs in the taproom: Kentucky Girl Bourbon Barrel Aged Coffee Girl Stout, Long Dark Winter Milk Stout and Tuesday’s Lunch PB&J (yup, peanut butter and jelly) Imperial Stout. Not ones to be left out, our onsite food cart, Monk’s Deli, is planning on creating a new sandwich for the event as well: beef brisket braised in Cavatica Stout!”

Standing Stone Brewing (Ashland): Their 2016 Brewer’s Dinner is taking place tonight, and there are still tickets available (for $75). “Our annual Brewers Dinner is always a hit! It’s a gathering of friends, family and community members celebrating a unified love of food and beer. It’s our way of highlighting the unique flavors of the season by combining local fare with our craft beers in a festive, multi-course meal.” They have the menu posted on their blog here.

McMenamins Kennedy School (Portland) has their “Extra Credit” beer tasting taking place tonight from 5 to 8pm, featuring a Helles Lager: “This Bavarian style Lager is a beautiful blend of subtle maltiness from the German Pilsner Malt and a slight noble hop finish from the Ultra Hops. Fermented with a Bavarian Lager strain of Yeast, this beer is truly representative of the style and will have you thirsting for more. Prost!”

Rock Bottom Brewery (Portland): Tonight they are tapping their Fire Chief Ale: “Join us at 5:30 as we tap our annual Fire Chief Ale. RB partners up with local fire departments and MDA to raise money. From 5:30-6:30, $3 pints with 100% of proceeds beneffiting MDA and .25 cents of every pint thereafter. We’ll have a 50/50 drawing, raffle and music by DJ Rontourage”

McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop (Portland) has a meet your maker beer tasting tonight with beers from the Hillsdale Brewery, Hop Maiden IPA and Back in Plaid CDA. The Hop Maiden is (was?) a fresh hop IPA. The tasting takes place from 5 to 8pm.

Hair of the Dog Brewing (Portland): A couple of updates from their Facebook group recently. First, HotD will be brewing a collaboration beer with Omnipollo, a brewery out of Stockholm, Sweden. Brewer Alan Sprints says the beer will be a “vanilla maple bourbon Barleywine” and he was prepping a lot of vanilla beans (yum!). And today, Blue Dot IPA is being bottled: “Winter bottling of Blue Dot is underway, first batch with our new Hop Filter. More floral/fruity taste and less haze,” Alan writes. Worth seeking out to see how different it might be from previous versions.

Boneyard Beer (Bend):  A chocolatey delight is back! “Backbone Chocolate Espresso Stout is back! There is about an ounce of Backporch Coffee Roasters cold pressed espresso in every pint. You now have an excuse to drink beer for breakfast!”