Welcome to the start of a new week! I hope your weekend was good and you’re ready to get back into the swing of it! Here’s the new for Monday, May 23; 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.

Central Oregon Beer Week continues today, with a laundry list of specials and events (most of which are below the fold). Today’s highlight event features a special bottle release and reception with The Ale Apothecary and poet Emily Carr, at the downtown Tin Pat Theater from 3 to 5:30pm: “[They] collaborated on a project which resulted in a book and a beer, both named Whosoever Has Let a Minotaur Enter Them, Or a Sonnet. The beer is a dark sour aged in wine and bourbon barrels with blackberries. The book of poems is inspired by a transitional period in the author’s life. The brewer, poet, book, and beer will all be on hand at the Tin Pan Theater for a casual reception with beer available by the glass. Signed copies of the book and bottles of beer will be available to-go.”

Bend’s Crux Fermentation Project has their weekly BEER’ducation series event today from 4 to 9pm, talking about “Bill’s Bitter” as English-style ESB brewed in collaboration with Dr. Bill Pengelly’s local brewing class: “This beer is a collaboration with COCC’s brewing class. It is their rendition of traditional Extra Special Bitter using all English ingredients. This one is a moderately dry beer with a sweet malt backbone.” Pengelly is a former brewmaster of Deschutes Brewery.

Vertigo Brewing (Hillsboro) has a new release out today: “Today we release our newest barrel aged beer. This porter was brewed with dark and milk chocolates and cacao nibs. We aged this beer in a Big Bottom Distilling Rum barrel. Very smooth. Growlers and grenades ok to fill.” Starts at 4pm!

Here is the today’s lineup for COBW:

• Broken Top Bottle Shop: Tonight’s beer special features $1 off all draft beers all day and night long.
• The Growlers Guys West is offering $1 off your growler fill all week long if you can answer beer trivia correctly.
• Bend Brewing: All Week long they are offering up a special “Hops vs. Sours” tap takoever with their award-winning specialty beers.
• Cascade Lakes Brewing: From the 20th through the 26th at both their Lodge in Bend and the 7th Street Brewhouse in Redmond, it’s happy hour all day long.
• Silver Moon Brewing: All Week long, they have a special lineup of rare and barrel aged specialty brews on tap, as well as offering a special mug club signup. Plus today they are offering $3 pint specials and $1.50 tacos.
• Worthy Brewing: Every day of COBW they are offering food and beer pairing specials, and growler and glass swag specials when paired up with beer purchase.
• Sunriver Brewing: Don’t forget they brewed the official Beer Week beer, “COBW IWA” (India Wheat Ale), which is on tap at Broken Top Bottle Shop, Platypus Pub, Crow’s Feet Commons, White Water Taphouse, Pour House Grill, Jersey Boys Pizza, Gorilla Growlers, Growler Guys West, Growler Guys East, Mountain Jug, and the Sunriver pubs of course!

Ex Novo Brewing (Portland): They have a new summer seasonal coming out imminently that sounds pretty interesting: “Bottling our Summer seasonal today and super excited about it! Cactus Wins the Lottery is a Prickly Pear Berliner Weisse – sour, fruity & crazy delicious at a killer price point. Get yours at the pub or discerning shops this week.”