It’s finally Friday, and I just know you’ve got big beer plans this weekend, right? Here’s the news for this final weekend of February—March is just around the corner! 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.

It’s Zwickelmania Part 2 this Saturday! Last week covered the Portland Metro area, and this Saturday the 25th is all the rest of Oregon—Central, the Gorge, Southern, Willamette Valley, and the Coast. The times are from 11am to 4pm though some may go longer; check the official lists but also hit up social media for the latest updates. Have fun, tour lots of breweries, and have a designated driver or travel plan (shuttles in the Valley). And: Bingo!

Cascade Brewing‘s sixth annual Sour Fruit Fest continues through the weekend and concludes on Sunday; they have their lineup of fruit beers on tap at the Barrel House and the Raccoon Lodge daily, with Honey Ginger Lime on nitro, and each day they have a special tapping. For Friday, it’s Cherry Vlad; Saturday is Kentucky Peach; and Sunday is Tangerine Dream.

General News:

Pelican Brewing (Pacific City) announced the release of Blackbird Schwarzbier as part of their Lone Pelican Small Batch Series, their third installment in the series. From the release: “The newest Pelican release defies gravity with the Pelican brewers’ take on the classic German black lager known as Schwarzbier (black beer). Blackbird Lager combines Pilsner, Munich and Carafa malts and takes flight with floral, spicy Hersbrucker hop aromas soaring over cocoa-like, rounded, malt-driven flavors. An intriguing character reminiscent of hazelnuts leads to a finish that is clean and smooth.” It will appear in 22-ounce bottles and limited draft.

Friday 2/24:

Zoiglhaus Brewing (Portland): Their second Zoigl-Wort event takes place from 4 to 7pm Friday, making fresh wort available to homebrewers. This is pretty cool: “On Friday, February 24th, Zoiglhaus will brew a batch of versatile wort, based on our Zoigl-Weiss recipe. It is all-German with Wheat, Pilsner and Munich II malts and German Herkules hops. The wort had a ferulic acid rest, so the phenolic-producing yeast strains will go crazy with this wort. The cooled and aerated wort from this brew will be available for purchase between 4 pm and 7 pm. RSVPs are required, so please call us at 971-339-2374 or drop by the brewery to sign up for this event.” Everyone getting wort is welcome to join their “Zoigl-Wort to Bierfest” on April 8. Fantastic concept; something I’d love to see come to Bend…

McMenamins Old St. Francis School (Bend) has their quarterly O’Kane’s Garage Series beer tasting on Friday from 5 to 8pm, featuring Double Helix Double IPA: “A few years back, McMenamins Concordia Brewery decided to “go all out and try to craft the perfect pint for all the hop-heads out there.” The resulting beer was the winner of the 2014 Hillsdale Brewfest, or “Battle for the Belt.” Matt Carter and Dave Kosanke seemed to have created a recipe that really did please the masses! Loaded with over twenty pounds of hops, this beer is packed with citrus and pine flavors but goes down really smooth. It’s a big beer that makes a pint a part of your DNA! Old St. Francis School Brewery is proud to re-create this recipe for O’Kanes Garage Series.”

McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop in Portland has a Meet Your Maker event with brewer Hanns Anderson with their High Street Brewery, tonight (Friday) from 6 to 8pm: “We’re getting a visit from Hanns Anderson, the brewer at McMenamins’ only real subterranean brewery, the High St. Brewery in Eugene. He’s bringing Bumbo’s Baltic Porter, a past favorite at the Great American Beer Festival, and a collaboration with Coldfire Brewing, made to celebrate 50 years of KLCC, Eugene’s local public radio station.” Anderson will bring his Bumbos Baltic Porter to pour.

Bazi Bierbrasserie (Portland) is hosting the second annual Cuvee Van De Keizer Day with Wetten Importers from 5 to 9pm tonight: “Wetten Importers is hosting the 2nd annual Cuvee van de Keizer Day, to celebrate this very special brew. Having won numerous international awards, including World’s Best Belgian-Style Strong Beer at the 2015 World Beer Awards, if any beer is worthy of having its own day, it is the Grand Cru of the Emperor. The beer and whisky tasting will consist of the Cuvee Van De Keizer, the Gouden Carolus Classic paired with the Gouden Carolus Single Malt whiskey – a refined whisky distilled from the mash of the Gouden Carolus tripel beer. Cost: $12 for 4 oz pours of each beer and 1 oz pour of the whisky.” (Facebook event page here.)

Roscoe’s (Portland) is celebrating Stout Month by kicking off their weekend-long seventh annual Stout Summit on Friday: “Roscoe’s will be presenting a phenomenal collection of vintage and unique stouts the 7th Annual Stout Summit. The event kick-off will take place on Friday February 24th at 2:00pm. Great stouts will be pouring all weekend long. Some of the stouts will include: Deschutes Abyss (Fresh and Vintage, Perennial Abraxus, Upright Oyster Stout, Vietmanese Coffee Speedway Stout from Alesmith, Alesong Brewing and Blending Rhino Suit, Ex Novo Brewing Strawberry Garcia Stout, Crux Fermentation Project Tough Love, New Holland Brewing Coconut Rum Barrel Stout, and many more! Taster trays will be available.”

Bend’s annual Humane Society of Central Oregon fundraising Pup Crawl concludes this Friday from 4 to 8pm with the final stop at the Sunriver Brewing pub in Bend: “This year’s Humane Society of Central Oregon Pup Crawl includes a custom pint glass and beverage of choice. 100% of the money raised each night benefits the animals. Purchase during any Pup Crawl Event night.
• Logo Pint Glass & One Beverage $10
• Logo Glass & 1 Beverage at 3 different Pup Crawl Nights $25
• Logo Hat or T-shirt $10”

Great Notion Brewing (Portland): Their Friday Crowler Release is featuring Grassroots IPA: “New juicy IPA, Grassroots Crowler Release Day! 2 crowlers per person of this new IPA primarily brewed with experimental 331 hop!” Available all day long.

Portland’s new(ish) Beer Belly bar is hosting a tap takeover Friday with Logsdon Farmhouse Ales and Three Magnets Brewing starting at 4pm: “Join Hood River’s Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, LLC. and Three Magnets Brewing Co. from Olympia, WA for a night of delicious beer – 6 beers from each plus their collaboration – Sleeveless Cascadian Dark Saison.”

Montavilla Brew Works (Portland) has a beer release today (Friday) featuring a Dark Cherry Porter: “This Friday marks the 48th anniversary of the historic San Quentin Prison performance by Johnny Cash. Come celebrate with us as we release our “Hey Porter!” Dark Cherry Pinot Barrel Aged Porter. We will be listening to the historic concert at 5:30pm.” The beer is tapped at 3pm.

Saturday 2/25:

The 24th annual McMenamins Hillsdale Brewfest is taking place on Saturday, all day long starting at 11am! “22 of the finest beers from McMenamins’ Breweries will be sent in to battle, their brewers vying for bragging rights as well as the notorious championship belt. Patrons order trays of beer samples, arranged from lightest to darkest. It is our guests’ official duty to decide who deserves the coveted title. The beers cover the spectrum of brew styles – from Hefeweizen to Hazelnut Porter, Golden Ale to Helles Bock and beyond. Each taster casts one ballot that lists their top three choices. (And beware the brewers’ shameless vote-mongering. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.)” For $11 you get a taster tray of 11 of the beers to sample and vote for. There are a lot of great-looking beers on the list (PDF), this is going to be a fun day if you can make it over!

StormBreaker Brewing in Portland is holding their third annual Brewstillery Festival on Saturday from noon to 8pm: “Breweries and Distilleries teaming up to create the perfect pairings. Each pairing will consist of a 4oz beer pour and a 1/4 oz spirit taste. Only like beer? Then just drink beer. You can pick and choose, although we strongly recommend going for the pairing. Advanced tickets on sale now! $20 for event branded beer tasting glass and 10 tasting tix. VIP is $40 for event branded whiskey glass, event beer tasting glass, 15 tix, and one hour early entry. $25/$45 at the door. Choose wisely.”

It’s a fest-y Saturday! Portland’s Lompoc Brewing also has their annual Black Out Beer Fest taking at their Sidebar starting at noon: “The Black Out Beer Fest will feature 25 rotating dark beers – including porters, stouts, coffee beers and black IPAs – from Lompoc and more than 20 guest breweries from around the Northwest. Admission into the event is free; tasting packages are required to taste the beers and cost $20, which includes a souvenir 15.5 oz glass mug and eight beer tickets. Additional beer tickets are available for $1 apiece. It costs four tickets for a full mug of beer or one ticket for a taste. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Community Transitional School. The event will kick off the morning of Feb. 25 with a pre-fest Brunch in Fifth Quadrant from 9am to 1pm, featuring an exclusive brunch menu paired with specialty dark beers.”

Alesong Brewing & Blending (Eugene): In addition to Zwickelmania, Alesong is also hosting their Winter Bottle Release at the same time: “We’ve got some really exciting new beers to share that represent a mix of bigger styles to finish out the cold wintry days and a couple of lighter offerings that make a nod towards springtime weather that is hopefully just around the corner. This release will take place from 11am-4pm and will be inside the brewery to escape the cold. And due to some size constraints (we’re pretty small!) this one will therefore be a bit more limited in scope compared to the last couple we’ve done. As always, beers will be released online first to our mailing list a couple weeks prior to the release and this will be the official pick-up party. For non-mailing list members who come through as part of Zwickelmania, we’ll have free samples from the tank and the tastes of our newest release with cheese pairing will be available for purchase ($10; no commemorative glassware). Bottles will also be available to purchase onsite depending on availability after the mailing list release.”

McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop on Saturday is hosting a cider tasting with Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider from 2 to 4pm: “Reverend Nat’s will be in the shop pouring samples of their ciders from 2 p.m. ‘til 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 25. So stop by and try a few delicious offerings: New Moon Mandarin, Hallelujah Hopricot, Revival Hard Cider, Deliverance Ginger Tonic, and Sacrilege Sour Cherry.”

Springfield’s Plank Town Brewing is celebrating their fourth birthday this weekend starting on Saturday! “Celebrate our fourth birthday with us for our annual Cask Fest! Featuring truly rare brews created in-house and from guest breweries over two days the last weekend of FeBREWary! Entry is $10 which includes a 2017 Cask Fest mug, 4 drink tickets, and a discount on food.” Cask beer is the order of the weekend,  and they’ll have a number of guest breweries on tap as well.

Saturday is a Triple IPA celebration day (in the vein of Pliny the Younger) for at least a couple of Portland places:

• N.W.I.P.A. is holding their Triple IPA Fest starting at 2pm: “It’s that time of year for only the burliest, baddest triple ipas on the planet!!! Expect beers from Georgetown, Fat Head’s, Melvin and many more. Bring your tastebuds friendos!!!”
• Tin Bucket is hosting a “Maybe Next Year” triple IPA tappings event starting at noon: “We didn’t get a keg of that special Cali IIIPA this year(again), so we are going to tap all the kegs of IIIPA’s we have. Boneyard Notorious IIIPA, pFriem IIIPA, and Georgetown Tank Girl Boom Boom IIPA”