Here’s the beer news from around Oregon for Tuesday the 27th of March; thus far (with an admittedly late start) it’s a bit of a slow news day. But I’ll be updating this periodically throughout the day so check back for the latest. And if you have some news to share, please contact me and I will get it updated.

The Bier Stein (Eugene) has posted about their “Starkbierzeit” festival coming up next week, on April 4th and 5th (Wednesday and Thursday, respectively): the flyer from the photo reads, “Featuring strong (9% to 18%) and vintage ales around the US that we have been cellaring for the last few years. Each draft is individually priced or available as a flight.” On their site they have a few more details: “Say goodbye to Winter and usher in Spring with some strong ales! We are pulling out some big guns for the 1st ever Bier Stein Starkbierzeit! We will have 10 Strong/Vintage draft offerings from the following breweries: The Bruery, Sierra Nevada, DogfishHead, Deschutes, Stone, Block 15, Flat Tail, Firestone-Walker and Full Sail. All kegs will be tapped @ 11am on April 4th. Build your own flight or have a glass of your favorite!” Oh to be in Eugene next week…

Cascade Brewing (Portland): Tonight at their Barrel House the Tap It Tuesday event is featuring CranGinger: “Tonight’s Tap It Tuesday at 6 pm is LIVE CranGinger. This NW style sour ale is a one-off barrel. Light, sweet notes of citrus, pink candy and hints of ginger present in the nose. Tart, dry hints of cranberries and ginger on the palate give way to a pronounced dryness in the finish, with notes of cranberries and ginger. 6.5% ABV, $6.5/glass.”

And this Thursday, the 29th, Cascade Brewing is holding their bottle release party for the 2011 edition of The Vine: “The release of The Vine in bottles will be Thursday, March 29 at 4:30 PM at the Barrel House. The blenders will be on hand to answer questions, and we’ll also have a vintage vertical on the Blenders Taps and food specials. The Vine is a blend of blond ales that were aged in oak barrels for up to 12 months before aging on fresh pressed grapes for an additional three months. Bottles sell for $17 and are available at the Barrel House, the Raccoon Lodge and online (to states that allow it).”

This year’s Fruit Beer Festival in Portland is taking place in June, but the Homebrew Competitionbeing hosted by the Oregon Brew Crew will be taking entries before then: “The Oregon Brew Crew is pleased to again be running the PFBF homebrew competition this year. This is an non-BJCP style open competition; any homebrewer, club or not, from any state, may enter. For ingredients, the rules are that you must use real fruit, whole or pureed. Natural juice (concentrated or diluted) is acceptable, however no extracts or artificial flavorings will be allowed. Entries will be accepted at Burnside Brewing and F.H. Steinbart’s from Saturday, May 19th to Saturday, May 26th by the end of business with judging to commence the following Saturday, June 2nd. Each entry costs $7, but you get three beer tickets and a 16oz gold flaked glass in return!” There are a lot more details at the link, so homebrewers, start your engines!

Ezra over at the New School has news today about a new gluten-free line of beers from the Craft Beer Alliance and Widmer Brewmaster Joe Casey called Omission Beer. What makes this stand out is that it is brewed with barley and not one of the gluten-free grains—apparently there’s a process that can reduce the amount of gluten in the barley malt to less than 20ppm (parts per million) which is the threshold at which food or drink can be called “gluten free.” I’m not sure what the implications of this will be, but it’ll be interesting to see if this works.