It’s the first of March, and across much of Oregon it seems like winter has finally arrived over the last few days—barleywine and strong beer weather. (Perfect imbibing weather for the Lucky Lab’s Barleywine Fest this weekend!) Here’s today’s news in beer from around Oregon, and I’ll be updating this post throughout the day. If you have some news to share, please contact me.

March means St. Patrick’s Day which of course means Irish Stout—and McMenamins has their seasonal Irish Stout released today. “The entire McBrewniverse is preparing for this year’s release of our Irish Stout… This is our Saint Patrick’s Day Seasonal and will pour exclusively on our ‘Nitro’ taps the entire month of March.” McMenamins interpretation is 4.9% abv and is brewed with Great Western Pale Malt, Grain Millers Flaked Barley, Hugh Baird Chocolate Malt, Hugh Baird Brown Malt and Hugh Baird Roast, Malt and Chinook and Yakima Goldings hops.

Lisa Morrison, the Beer Goddess, tweeted about the “Pouring at the Coast Craft Beer Fest” taking place in Seaside later this month (March 17th, on  St. Patty’s Day), and breaks the news that there is also a new Seaside Brewing Company starting up with beer pouring at this fest! They will have a “Red IPA” paired with the fourth course of the brewer’s dinner anchoring the event. According to Lisa this will be a brewpub and it should be opening this spring. I’ve often thought that Seaside would be a great place for a brewpub since it’s a popular tourist destination and relatively close to Portland; more as I find out about it (and more later on the Pouring at the Coast fest as well).

Oakshire Brewing (Eugene) has a new single batch series beer to be on the lookout for: Domaine du Lane, a French farmhouse-style that is 6.4% abv that will appear on limited tap around Eugene and Portland (I’m assuming). Also, tomorrow Oakshire is having a free tasting event at Beerworks in Medford from 3 to 6pm, and Beerworks will have Collabo-Wabo on tap for the event as well.

The Green Dragon (Portland) is welcoming Montana’s Big Sky Brewing for a meet the brewer event tonight starting at 5pm: brewer Kyle Sillars will be on hand and they’ll be pouring Moose Drool, Scape Goat Pale Ale, Heavy Horse Scotch Ale, All Souls Saison, and All Souls Tripel.

McMenamins Fulton Pub (Portland) has a limited-edition beer tasting tonight starting at 5pm, featuring a 5.29% abv Hefe Weizen: “This ale is made with a large percentage of top quality wheat malt and fermented with a special German ale yeast. It pours orangey-yellow and cloudy. The aroma is that of wheat, bananas, and fresh citrus. The flavor is mildly sweet with a hint of floral hoppiness. Enjoy with a lemon wedge or without.” Since it’s the limited tasting, once the beer is gone, it’s gone.

Fort George Brewery (Astoria): They have a meet the brewer and tasting going on today starting at 6pm at Maher’s Irish Pub in Lake Oswego, with Bourbon Barrel Cavatica Stout and Vortex IPA on tap.