Happy May Day! I don’t know what beer you’d associate with today, but there’s good beer happenings going on this weekend (which will be beautiful). As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. If you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

The big event of the weekend, of course, is FredFest taking place at Hair of the Dog Brewing on Sunday the 3rd, from 1 to 5pm. I believe tickets are still available on HotD’s website for advance purchase, and cost $65, which is well worth the chance to help Fred Eckhardt celebrate his 89th birthday—not to mention drink some of the amazing beers that will be pouring! Remember too: “When we first started FredFest, Fred asked that no gifts be given and that all the proceeds toward a charitable organization. This year’s charity is the Oregon Zoo Foundation. We are building a fund in remembrance of Michael Olsen, a Hair of the Dog employee who was shot and killed on the streets of Portland last year. One-hundred percent of FredFest ticket sales go to our charity and Hair of the Dog covers all expenses for the event, so attendees are encouraged to pay more than the suggested ticket price.”

Portland’s Belmont Station is hosting author Niki Ganong tomorrow (Saturday) with a book signing for her new book, The Field Guide to Drinking in America, from 1 to 3pm. “Niki will be in the biercafe on Saturday, conducting a tasting of IPAs from across the country! Come sample her selection of some of the country’s best IPAs — including Boulevard’s just released The Calling IPA. Take a look at her book, chat with her about her experieince writing it, and if you buy it, she will autograph it for you.”

The BeerMongers (Portland) is hosting the tapping of the winner of Stout Bout 2015, tonight starting at 6pm: “We will be tapping a keg of Chuck Macaluso’s American Stout, winner of Stout Bout 2015, at 6:00 PM on Friday, May 1st at The BeerMongers. This is your chance to try Chuck’s award-winning recipe, which was brewed on the Portland U-Brew & Pub system.” Stout Bout was organized by the Portland Brewers Collective (new to me) and sounds like a cool competition and prize. Check it out!

Oakshire Brewing (Eugene) is doing a tap takeover tonight at the Sellwood Public House in Portland: “Portland friends: no plans this Friday night? Oakshire and the Sellwood Public House {8132 SE 13th Ave} have you covered – you may even call it a May Day miracle. This Friday {5/1} Oakshire will be featuring seven {SEVEN!} different beers on draft for a First Friday Tap Takeover. The event starts a 7pm and will feature a collection of rare, one-off beers! Cheers!”

Broken Top Bottle Shop (Bend): Today, May 1, is their annual “April Showers Bring May Sours” sour beer tap takeover taking place all day long! Beers they are featuring are Logsdon Peche n Brett, The Bruery Oude de Tart and Tart of Darkness, Russian River Temptation, Almanac Beer Dogpatch Strawberry, and Bend Brewing Ching Ching.

Lompoc Brewing (Portland): They have a release party going on tonight: “Tonight’s our Spring Bock Release Party at Hedge House, 4pm to close. We’ll be pulling a couple of specialty kegs out of the vault!” Not much more in the way of detail, unfortunately.

Today and tomorrow at the Salem Convention Center is the fourth annual Cinco de Micro Brewfest! It’s a bit low-key but their description is, “The fourth annual Cinco de Micro Brewfest, featuring your favorite local and northwest brews, local eateries and distilleries, musical entertainment and the unique opportunity to taste hard to find, spring release brews.” For $15 entry you get access to a good list of breweries and your mug and 2 tasting tokens.

Newport’s Rogue Ales has declared the month of May as IPA May—celebrating their own lineup of various IPAs: “During the month of May, five of our world-class IPAs will be on tap at a few of our favorite bars, restaurants and bottle shops around the country: 7 Hop IPA, Brutal IPA, Dad’s Little Helper [Black IPA], XS Imperial IPA, and New Crustacean Barleywine-ish Imperial IPA Sorta.” You can get an Untappd badge for drinking two of them, and The Growler Guys is running a special promo in conjunction with IPA May (#IPAMay on Twitter) as well. Drink up!

Also, Rogue posted that today is brewmaster John Maier’s 26th anniversary with the brewery. Congrats!