Happy Leap Day! February 29th only rolls around every 4 years so of course there are a number of Leap Day-related things of note going on along with the usual news and items of interest. As usual, I’ll be updating this news post periodically throughout the day; if you have some news you’d like to share, please contact me and I’ll get it updated.

Leap Year for Beer: Morton’s Steakhouse in Portland is hosting this Leap Day beer sampling and food pairing event, featuring a number of breweries with brewers on hand to pair their beers with Morton’s signature hors d’oeuvres. Breweries involved include Oakshire, Double Mountain, Boneyard, and Laurelwood. The event starts at 6:30pm and costs $50 per person; you can make reservations online here.

Ninkasi Brewing (Eugene) posted a picture of what looks to be a label for their popular (heretofore non-bottled) Quantum Pale Ale—with a design evoking the TV show “Quantum Leap” which means (I’m hoping and totally guessing) that they are finally bottling it for Leap Day release. (Maybe?)

McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse (Hillsboro): Tonight the Roadhouse presents a special limited-edition beer tasting event—the Double IPA Invitational! From 6 to 9pm they’ll be offering 4 double IPAs at happy hour pricing for the tasting event: “Along with our own brew, we’ll feature three guest Double IPAs from other McMenamins brewers – we’ll compare the four choices, talk with the guest brewers and hand out a People’s Choice Award for the best brew of the night!” The four beers on tap will be:

• Sun Hammer Double IPA · From Brady Romtvedt and Chris Oslin (Cornelius Pass Brewery) – 7.74% abv
• Mad Hatter Double IPA · From Mark Goodwin (Old Church Brewery, Wilsonville, Ore.) – 9.1% abv
• Iron Fist Double IPA · From Tony Balzola (Oak Hills Brewery, Portland, Ore.) – 7.61% abv
• Detention Blues Double IPA · From Matt Carter (Concordia Brewery, Portland, Ore.) – 8.13% abv

Bend Brewing (Bend): This Saturday, March 3rd, Bend Brewing Company is celebrating their 17th anniversary! “Beginning at 4pm we will have 1/2 priced appetizers, as well as $2.75 pints. At 7pm there will be live music from Tone Red. Raffle prizes will be awarded throughout the evening. On this special night we will have some of our most award winning beers on tap including; Outback X Strong Ale, HopHead Imperial IPA, Wicked Medicine Belgian Strong Ale, Scottish Heart Scotch Ale and 1 keg of Lovely Cherry Baltic Porter.” 17 years is a long time in this business and lest anyone forget, they are the second oldest brewery in Bend (after Deschutes which was founded in 1988). Big congrats BBC!

GoodLife Brewing (Bend) has a Leap Day release: India Brown Ale. “GoodLife Brewing Company decided that today was the best time to release its newest creation, 29’er India Brown Ale. This seasonal beer is like the contast of colors in springtime, a brown with the green of hops and it is remarkable!” I sampled this during Zwickelmania a couple of weeks ago, it is indeed quite a nice beer.

The Green Dragon (Portland): Tonight they have a Brew Crew release starting at 5pm: a 9% “kitchen sink” Imperial IPA, dubbed Agent 99: “Occasionally the entire package of an ingredient is not used for a given nano brew and over time we accumulate ingredients from batches past. Waste not – this is brew number 99, our “everything but the kitchen sink IIPA”. All those remnants went in – hops from the US, Australia, Germany and England, various sugars, coriander, and the same yeasts as brew 100, Nano Nano IIPA – It is, in essence, its little brother, featuring identical yeast esters. What sets this sibling apart is the citrus aroma of the hops and coriander complimenting the hop spice.”

Block 15 Brewing (Corvallis): It’s their fourth anniversary today! “It’s our four year Anniversary today! Anniversary Ale 2012 on top; Belgian Strong Gold Barrel blend. 22% matured in Oregon Oak barrels, 22% 8 month Pinot Barrel Matured Wild Gold. And Nebula brownie bites for all who come in today. Thank you to everyone who has supported our Community brewpub!” (via Facebook)