This Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day, and of course today being 4/20 there’s a different earthy connotation altogether. (Ninkasi’s Maiden the Shade comes to mind as a good beer for today—only it’s not out yet!) With those thoughts in mind, here’s the news for Oregon beer for the weekend. As usual I’ll be updating periodically throughout the day, so check back often for updates. If you have news to share, please contact me and I’ll get it posted.

It’s Portland’s Cheers to Belgian Beers weekend, with the preview dinner tonight and the fest itself takes place at tomorrow, both at Metalcraft Fabrication in Portland. The dinner tonight is from 5:30 to 8:30pm and costs $40, and the main fest tomorrow is from noon to 9pm and costs $15 to $20 initially (for stemmed glass plus 5 or 10 tasting tickets, respectively), with additional tickets $1 each. Besides getting the chance to taste a wide variety of beer made with the same strain of yeast (a cool beer geek event in and of itself) there will be scheduled “meet the brewer” times and I think food, music, and more. This is definitely one of those events I wish I was in Portland for! Someday I’ll make it though.

Pelican Pub & Brewery (Pacific City): How did I know know that Pelican teamed up with Ninkasi Brewing to brew a collaboration beer? Well I do now, and so do you: “Darron Welch recently joined forces with Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi Brewing Company to collaborate on a brew in memorial of Danny Williams, who recently passed away. Danny’s Black Gold is one of a series of Danny Williams memorial brews that are being brewed across the country, with the Pelican – Ninkasi collaboration representing the Pacific Northwest. Danny’s Black Gold is a fusion of the signature stouts produced by each brewery, Tsunami Stout from the Pelican and Oatis Stout from Ninkasi. After marrying the two formulations, the beer was boosted to Imperial strength and then fermented with Rochefort Trappist yeast, yielding a unique, inspired beer, an Imperial Oatmeal Belgian-Style Stout!” It should be showing up in May.

Beer Valley Brewing (Ontario) has a couple of things going on this weekend. Tomorrow, Saturday the 21st, is their “brew out” at their brewery: “We have members of the Snake River and Boise Homebrewer’s clubs coming out to brew some beer but anyone who would like to come and brew is welcome. We will provide 180 degree, ph adjusted brewing water, power, hose taps, regular tap water, and our own house strain of ale yeast for those who would like to use it. Starts at 9:00 am.” A really cool event for homebrewers!

And today, 4/20, they’re part of the St Johns 420 Brewer Invitational at Plew’s Brews in Portland, an event pretty much exactly what it sounds like, with beers like Devil Brown, Panama Red, Hop Hash, Delta 9, Leafer Madness, Orange Kush, Super Dank, Vaporizer, Hippie Town Brown, and LSD on tap.

Widmer Brothers (Portland) has their Cloyster with Oysters event tomorrow from 1 to 3pm, concurrent with the Cheers to Portland Beers fest, the tasting of their entry to PCTBB, Cloyster Stout. “Cloyster Stout is the work of our night shift brewing crew and is a hybrid of a Belgian Dark Strong Ale and a Dry Irish Stout. We used whole oysters and oyster liquor during brewing to give this beer a subtle briny mineral character and a dry, refreshing finish.” Taste the beer at Widmer’s Gasthaus along with a fresh oyster!