Happy hump day Wednesday! Make it through the day, pour yourself a beer, and you’re over halfway through the week. Here’s the news in Oregon beer for the 25th of February; as usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often for updates. If you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated as well.

Cascade Brewing (Portland): Their Tart Fruit Fest returns for 2015, starting today, and runs through Monday, March 2nd—6 days of sour fruit beer! “We will be featuring past live barrels that contain fruit, vintage blends, and some unique one-off projects… Many fruit fest beers are only 2-3 gallons and will go fast, but we will keep an ever changing list of great beers throughout the fest; we will post to Twitter & Facebook when taps change out.” Their teaser list alone is great, including the likes of Noyaux, Date Vlad, Blueberry Bourbonic, Candied Cantelope, and much more. This one is not to be missed.

McMenamins Old St. Francis School (Bend) has their monthly O’Kane’s Cask Series Release today, featuring a firkin keg of Star Trip IPA which goes on tap at 5pm at the O’Kane’s bar at the back of the property: “Take a trip to the stars with this IPA! Starting off with a tropical fruit like aroma you then trek to a mellow malt body. Journey your way again with some citrus and herbal hop flavor. The Galaxy hops are showcased across the board on this vessel. The last voyage is the lingering bitter that reminds your taste buds of floral pines. For our special firkin keg release we have added even more hops to the conditioning vessel! A hop trip that will definitely take you to the stars and back! Enjoy a delicious pint of this easy drinking IPA from our firkin keg!”

McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse (Hillsboro) has their Roadhouse Beer Invitational going on today starting at 6pm, this month featuring Double IPAs—four DIPAs on tap, three of which are from other McMenamins breweries. You’ll get special pricing on the beers all night and I’m assuming you can get a taster tray of all four. The beers are: Prize Rooster Double IPA from the CPR, 8%; Battlestar Hoptactica DIPA (great name!) from the Highland brewery, 8.13%; Meridian Monster from the Roseburg brewery, 8.5%; and Centennial SMaSH DIPA from John Barleycorn’s, 9.8%.

Santiam Brewing (Salem): They are doing what is basically a tap takeover at Salem’s Venti’s Taphouse today from 6 to 8pm: “We’ll be pouring 8 beers, giving away swag all evening. Fill a Santiam growler and get a free pint glass.”

The Green Dragon (Portland): The Green Dragon Brew Crew release tonight features Dragonator, a European-styled lager. “It was inspired by and brewed in collaboration with Russ Dragon, a Green Dragon Founder and regular. Drink the Dragon at 5pm. Meet the Dragon at 6pm.”

McMenamins Crystal Ballroom (Portland) has a special beer tasting tonight for their big and tasty 13th Avenue Barleywine (it’s 12.77%!): “To commemorate the brewing of our 5,000th batch here at the Crystal Brewery, we made a massive Barleywine. Big and boozy, this ale highlights the classic breadiness of British Maris Otter malt with underlying notes of toffee and caramel. We plan to run a very, very limited release of this ale while it’s young, squirreling the rest away for a year or more to lager. Hope to see you again in another 5,000 brews!” It runs from 5 to 9pm.

Yachats Brewing (Yachats): Even though founded in 2013, Yachats wasn’t yet set up to brew their own beers—until now. Yesterday they posted: “OH YEAH! Today is the first day we have one of our very own beers on tap! Come by and try out our Coastal Dark Ale!” Nice to see that come to fruition! We should be seeing hopefully many more beers on tap soon.