Happy May Day! I don’t know if I can link the holiday to beer other than to suggest drinking a Maibock. In the meantime, here are the news and events in Oregon beer for Monday, May 1 and this first week of the month. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news as I find it, so check back often. If you have news to share, please let me know and I can get that updated as well.

This Saturday, May 6 is National Homebrew Day and as such it is the Big Brew Day to celebrate! “The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) created AHA Big Brew as an annual event to celebrate National Homebrew Day around the world. AHA Big Brew is held each year on the first Saturday in May. Anyone, even homebrew shops, can host and register a Big Brew event, so invite your friends and family, gather around the brew kettle and join in the global celebration of the greatest hobby there is—homebrewing!” It’s a great opportunity to bring your friends to a homebrew session and introduce them to brewing beer. You can find a list of Oregon events on their search page.

Salem’s annual Cinco de Micro Brewfest returns this weekend, kicking off on Thursday, May 4 and running through Saturday the 6th at the Salem Convention Center. “This three-day event features your favorite local and northwest brews including over 65 breweries, local eateries and distilleries, musical entertainment and the unique opportunity to taste hard to find, spring release brews. Enjoy both indoor and outdoor spaces. All proceeds benefit local youth programs at the Boys & Girls Club of Salem, Marion and Polk Counties.” The $20 entry gets you the mug and four taster tokens, on which you can spend to sample from a good variety of breweries.

Deschutes Brewery (Bend): May is National Burger Month, and once again Deschutes is celebrating at their pubs with variety of specialty burgers each day or week. The Portland Pub is featuring a weekly special, so plan accordingly. At the Bend Pub, they are ambitiously featuring a new, different burger each day, so pay attention to their burger lineup because if you miss a day, you miss that burger!

Widmer Brothers Brewing (Portland) is celebrating the re-release of Drifter Pale Ale with a great special at their pub to start the week: “Drifter is back! May 1-3rd, we’re offering $3 throwback pint pricing at the Widmer Pub, from when we first launched this Pale Ale in 2008.”