Happy Friday! This is a busy weekend with a number of anniversaries and fests, so let’s get right into the newsy items. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please let me know and I can get that updated as well.

Bend Brewing Company (Bend) is celebrating their 20th anniversary today, with a street party (closing the block in front of the brewpub), live music, 20 beers for 20 years, and more! The party runs from 5 to 10pm with 10 taps inside, 10 taps outside, and is going to be huge—with many specialty beers including a Brett-fermented Pinot barrel aged Outback XX which goes on sale in a limited run of 100 bottles today as well. Make sure you are in Bend tonight for this, BBC truly deserves all the kudos and congratulations they’ve earned over the years!

Lompoc Brewing (Portland) has their annual Black Out Beer Fest today—their third annual event featuring all dark beers (and a great lineup of them too). It runs from 4 to 10pm at the Sidebar: “Tasting packages are required to drink the Black Out beers and cost $15, which includes a souvenir 15.5 oz glass tasting mug and 8 beer tickets. Additional tickets are available for $1 apiece. It costs four tickets for a full mug or $1 for a taste. Original mug and ticket sales take place in the fest tent. There will also be live music by Comanche Joey in the fest tent. Food service will be available in the 5th Quadrant. Bring ID, the event is for ages 21+.” Check the event page for the beer lineup.

Tomorrow (Saturday) McMenamins Hillsdale Brewery & Public House is holding the company’s 22nd annual Hillsdale Brewfest all day long: the winner of this longest-running of the McMenamins fests earns company-wide bragging rights and their beer will represent them at the Oregon Brewers Festival in July. How it works is they have 22(!) beers available, separated into two taster trays each ordered from lightest to darkest, for patrons to sample and vote on their top picks. The full beer list is on the event page here. That is a LOT of beer, so go easy and take your time! But it’s going to be a fun day and great fest with many great-looking beers—one I wish I could attend. Make sure to swing by and vote on your favorites!

Rogue Ales and The Green Dragon are holding their annual Firkin Fest at the Dragon in Portland tomorrow, Saturday the 21st, from 11am to 6pm and featuring “firkin beers from 40 of Oregon’s top breweries – Firkin beers are unpasteurized, unfiltered, naturally carbonated in the cask and served at cellar temperature. Artisan cheeses, chocolates, meats, and snacks will be served alongside the beer.” This is a great little fest devoted to firkin, or cask, ales that are naturally carbonated in the keg rather than force carbonated. Tickets cost $10 which you can buy here, and for VIF (the Very Impressive Firkin session from 2 to 4pm) there’s a limited run of 50 tickets available for $25. Definitely one to check out!

McMenamins Bagdad Pub (Portland) has their “Reel Beer Series” special tasting today starting at 5pm, featuring the Edgefield brewery’s Funk in the Trunk: “This is a funky, fruity, slightly tart beer. We used over 330 pounds of peach puree, 5 pounds of orange peel, and a big late addition of Mosaic hops to make this next-level fruit beer shine. After 6 months of aging in a black rabbit red barrel with brettanomyces, tart, funky, and fruity esters have grown to complement the original fresh peach and tropical fruit flavors.” Which just sounds like a really nice beer.

Broken Top Bottle Shop (Bend) is hosting Salem’s Santiam Brewing for a beer tasting and tap takeover today, from 5 to 8pm. There will be three beers on tap, in addition to Santiam offering three samples of “Echotopia” with Amarillo Hops Addition IPA, “Big Black” Rum Barrel Aged Cherry Stout, and one to be announced.

Fort George Brewery (Astoria) is bringing Stout Month and a taste of their Dark Arts Festival to Portland tomorrow (the 21st) at Bailey’s Taproom, in their “Upper Lip” space upstairs—it’s their Traveling Carnival of Stout! It runs from 5 to 8pm and Brewpublic has the details along with the taplist.

And over at Imperial Bottle Shop east of the river in Portland tomorrow, they are holding their Heart of Darkness Imperial Stout Day: “The first installment of a new Stout Month annual event featuring the darkest of the dark…. amazing Imperial Stouts! For the first year, we have decided to stay true to our roots in terms of supporting local breweries, and feature only imperial stouts from Oregon… Advanced tickets are $15 and include entry, a commemorative 9 oz snifter glass, and 5 drink tickets. Tickets at the door will be $20. Additional drink tickets are $2/each and good for a 4 oz pour.” They have a big lineup of Imperial Stouts, very nicely done!

Portland’s new Fat Head’s Brewery has a new Double IPA out and they’ve sent some to N.W.I.P.A. for a release and meet the brewer tomorrow from 6 to 9pm: “Fat Head’s PDX has just unleashed their newest IPA, Head Shrinker DIPA, an incredible dank beer with Chinook and Citra hops. They were nice enough to hook us up with one of only a handful of kegs released outside the brewery. Come meet head brewer, Michael Hunsaker, and raise a glass of this tasty brew!”

Stickmen Brewing (Lake Oswego) has got a killer deal on beer going on right now: “After a great movie like The Penguins of Madagascar or Still Alice at the Lake Theater & Cafe, bring your same day movie ticket and get a .25 beer. That’s right, with your movie ticket (either before or after the show) you can get any of our regular beers for just 25 pennies, or 5 nickels or a quarter with the purchase of any burger, sandwich or entree. You must be 21 years or older and there is a limit to one per person per meal per day.” Wow!

The Green Dragon has a last-minute special edition meet the brewer tonight (though the overall event page is confusing because it’s still tied to the date of the 19th): Sixpoint Brewery out of New York. “Come on down and meet the top dogs of Sixpoint Brewing from Brooklyn, NY. Founder Shane Welch, and brewers Fabian Beller and Shaun Carney will be saying hi and tapping some special brews.” It starts at 5pm.