Happy Tax Day! Hopefully you’ll have found yourself with a tax refund this year, but if not, I’m sorry—either way, sounds like an occasion for a beer. Meanwhile, the news rolls on; here’s the Oregon beer news for Monday the 15th of April. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

This Friday and Saturday, the 19th and 20th, is the annual Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers festival, the 7th annual iteration of this event that celebrates Oregon’s Belgian-inspired beers, and interestingly this year they’ve removed the central theme the event was built on: requiring all participating breweries to use the same strain of Belgian yeast. Now it’s open to all Belgian-styled beers which makes a certain sense but to me seems to lose part of what originally made this festival special (the New School goes into detail here). Regardless it will be a great event, taking place at Metalcraft Fabrication and costs $15 or $20 for the stemmed glass (required to taste) plus 5 or 10 tickets, respectively. Friday night’s hours hour 5:30 to 8:30pm, and on Saturday it runs from noon to 8pm.

Heater Allen Brewing (McMinnville): They posted about some expansion news on Friday which is good news for one of Oregon’s only lager breweries: “First, we will (hopefully) be opening our new tasting room by Memorial Day. If nothing else, we will be open that weekend, and pouring beer in some updated space. Some of the related improvements include a large new walk-in cooler for more tanks, bottle storage, and a place to hang some taps, and a spiffy new bar. Second, we’ve decided to get a bigger brew system. Our current system really isn’t designed for the kind of brewing (German – if you want to know the difference, ask us at an Open House) that we do, and at times it has been hard to keep up with demand. In late August or early September we’ll take delivery of a brand new 15 Barrel system that is custom-designed for our brewing needs.” Nice to see that growth, as they make really nice lagers.

Standing Stone Brewing (Ashland): They’ve welcomed back their seasonal CDA, Hop Night, once again. “his Cascadian Dark Ale, or Black IPA, or India Black Ale boasts the hop aroma of an IPA and rich, roasted flavor of dark malt – making it a savory, complex beer to imbibe on its own or pair with hearty, robust foods. This is an opaque black Cascadian Dark Ale with herbal citrus aroma, medium body and pine and black currant flavors. Enjoy a robust mouthfeel and fresh, hoppy finish. 7.7% abv, 65 IBU”  It’s made with a number of organic malts and certified Salmon-Safe hops from Goschie Farms as well.

GoodLife Brewing (Bend) is heading to Portland tomorrow night to have a can release party, tasting and tapping with Belmont Station from 5 to 8pm: “The last time we had Goodlife Brewing here for an event was when they debuted their beer to Portland. That was a great party! Now a year later they have up-ed their game again, producing some of our favorite beers in six packs of cans. We will sample cans of the Sweet As and Descender IPA. You will find the new release, Redside India Red Ale on draft in the Biercafé. Cheers to the changing of the season with more canned beer!”