Today is the first day of spring as well as National Bock Beer Day! See if you can find a bock to enjoy today along with the news and events in Oregon beer for this Monday, March 20. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news as I find it, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted too.

Mondays at McMenamins are Growler Mondays, featuring all days $8 growler fill specials at all locations. (High gravity fills are $10.) If you’re looking for a bock to fill for the special, a quick search shows Devils Lock Helles Bock on tap a Hillsdale and High Street, and Hibernator Doppelbock on tap also at Hillsdale and the Chapel Pub.

Bend’s Worthy Brewing will be at Roscoe’s in Portland today for the next installment/stop on their Experimental Hop Series tour: “Help us choose the next hop varieties. We’d love your feedback on beers brewed with experimental hops from the Indie Hops/OSU Experimental Hops Breeding Program. You’ll be able to try pale ales brewed with experimental hops 1007-35, C1002-37, G9-1-374 & C115L-1​.” They will be pouring from 5 to 9pm.

Beergarden in Eugene is currently hosting their Oregon IIPA March Madness Challenge through the end of the month: “In conjunction with the NCAA March Madness Basketball Tournament, Beergarden and Tap & Growler will host the 3rd Annual IPA Bracket Challenge Blind Taste Off, this year featuring “Best Imperial IPA in Oregon”. Each location will host 8 established Imperial IPAs from around Oregon, hand selected by teams comprised of their staff members. Each flight will come with the opportunity to vote on which brews move on to the next stage. Each team picked four Imperial IPAs in a round robin style selection process to represent their corner of the bracket. The selection criteria for the Imperial IPAs were readily available year round availability or periodical year round availability, between 8-10% ABV, and highly rated/award winning or staff favorites. All picks had to be available within a few weeks of the event to ensure freshness.” If  you’re into the whole March Madness thing, this should be a fun tasting challenge for the IPA lovers out there.

Full Sail Brewing (Hood River) announced today the latest beer in their Session series: Sesión Cerveza. From the release: “At 4.5% ABV, new Sesión Mexican Style Lager is a light, crisp, refreshing, loco-buena cerveza, brewed for a hot day, a hot date, and anything in between. Available year-round in 11oz. stubby bottles, in 6-packs, 12-packs, on draft and in the summer Mashup variety pack. Hecha en Hood River. Enjoyed everywhere. ¡Saludos! 4.5% ABV, 15 IBUs.” That Session line is becoming the prominent offerings Full Sail is bringing out these days.