Here is the news in Oregon beer for Tuesday, the 28th of April. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day, so check back often for the latest news. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

Portland’s Old Town Brewing is saying goodbye to Assistant Brewer Cory McGuinness (whom I’ve met on several occasions, great guy), who is heading for a brewery in Lviv, Ukraine. From Brewpublic: “In the coming weeks McGuinness will depart Portland for Lviv, Ukraine to become the Head Brewer at Ukraine’s first craft brewery, Pravda Beer Theatre. McGuinness traveled to Ukraine the week of April 7th and spent a considerable amount of time at the brewery developing an action plan on how he can improve the brewery’s output. His goal is ‘Be there as long as I can be. At least a year would be great! Just being able to walk through the city made me realize all of the history there.'” Go read the rest of the writeup, it’s a good one, and be sure to wish Cory well on his next adventure!

Ninkasi Brewing (Eugene) has the release party for their dank and aromatic summer seasonal, Maiden the Shade (“Summer-Style IPA”), this Friday the 1st starting at noon. It takes place at their tasting room at 272 Van Buren Street, and there will be live music on the patio from 6 to 8pm. It’s always a favorite from the brewery and will be available in 22-ounce bottles and on draft.

Worthy Brewing (Bend) is holding a release party for their new, canned Prefunk Pale Ale tonight at Portland’s Goodfoot Pub and Lounge: “Join us at Goodfoot Pub & Lounge for the release of Prefunk Pale Ale, the newest in our family of cans! Music by Yak Attack, swag giveaways, Prefunk Pale, and one-off tap selections from our Heart and Soul Series. No cover!” It runs from 8pm until midnight (or whenever Goodfoot closes, I’d imagine).

PFriem Family Brewers (Hood River) continue their bottle release rollout, today hitting up Portland’s Bridgetown Beerhouse before traveling down the I-5 corridor to Corvallis and Eugene starting tomorrow. Tonight from 6 to 8pm they’ll be pouring their bottled beers, if you haven’t had a chance to try them yet, do so! I had several last Friday at Bend’s Broken Top Bottle Shop and they are as good as expected.

Cascade Brewing (Portland): Tonight’s Tap It Tuesday at their Barrel House at 6pm is featuring “Live” Strawberries & Cream: “a blend of Wheats and Blonds aged in oak wine barrels with strawberries and vanilla beans, then further intensified with a second vanilla infusion at the time of blending. Fresh strawberry fruit flavors are complemented by a rich, vanilla cream sweetness.”

Oakshire Brewing (Eugene) has a Tuesday beer release in their Single Batch Series, a cucumber Berliner Weisse-styled beer: “Tonight’s Tuesday Beer Release is a tribute..to the Sun. We owe it all to the sun, so kick back after a long day in the garden with a tall glass of Sun Made Cucumber Berlinner Weisse. Perfect for a summer sunny picnic, Sun Made is refreshing and light with a lingering melon freshness and a cool refreshing wiff of cucumber water. See you at 6pm!”

The New School has a great in-depth article about a new Portland-based yeast producer (maker? brewer? wrangler? culturer?), Imperial Organic Yeast, poised to start supplying yeast as alternatives to Wyeast and White Labs to professional brewers and homebrewers alike. “Keeping with his other business in canning beer, the Imperial Organic Yeast pitches for homebrewers will be in mini 5.5oz cans with a fully removable lid, easy for sanitizing the whole package and completely recyclable. Best of all, while a Wyeast smack pack pitch of yeast for homebrewers advertises a 100 million cell pitch, Imperial Organic Yeast guaranteess a pitch rate of .75 million cells per mil per degree plato, or the simple answer: 200 billion per can.” Will be interested to see if these hit my local homebrew shop and try them out.