The weekend is here at last, and a long one at that! I hope your Memorial Day weekend is pleasant and you get to spend some time with family for the holiday. I’ll be taking Monday off from the beer news posts so I will include relevant items here. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please let me know and I can get that updated as well.

Friday, 5/26

Central Oregon Beer Week concludes this weekend, wrapping up on Sunday the 28th. Here’s Friday’s lineup:

• Immersion Brewing kicks off their first anniversary party which runs two days, and starts at 4pm Friday. Live music, special label and bottle releases, barrel-aged beer, a pig roast—Immersion is going big for their birthday.
• Broken Top Bottle Shop is hosting Boneyard Beer, Cascade Alchemy (distillery), and Hood River’s pFriem Family Brewers for their Beer Geek Week starting at 5pm. Live music with The Cutmen starts at 7pm.

Bazi Bierbrasserie (Portland) is celebrating its sixth anniversary today! The party runs from 5 to 11pm and will feature a terrific taplist of Bazi collaboration beers and more: “There will be cake, games, and awesome prizes during the evening! This year Bazi is celebrating “collaboration” and will highlight 4 beers under this series during the event. In addition, Bazi staff have curated a draft list worthy of a celebration. The 4 beer collaboration tasting tray will be available for $10 – 5 oz pours of each beer. Official cake and toast will take place around 7:30 pm. This is a family-friendly event and minors are welcomed until 9 PM.” BIG congratulations to Bazi and Hilda for six years!

Ancestry Brewing (Tualatin) is celebrating their first anniversary with a party and bottle release, starting Friday and running through Saturday: “Ancestry turns one! What better way to celebrate than invite the beer community to a Memorial Day Weekend Bash! Specialty Anniversary IPA release with music by DJ Mike Callahan on Friday. Then we boot and rally Saturday with a live band and BBQ in our new banquet hall (located next door to the Tualatin Location). Come drink, celebrate and enjoy a celebration to one year!” Congrats!

The Mill Casino in North Bend (on the southern coast) is hosting their sixth annual BBQ, Blues & Brews on the Bay festival this weekend, starting on Friday and running through Sunday. “Coming up on the 6th year, BBQ, Blues & Brews on the Bay has grown to be one of The Mill’s most well attended signature events. Get ready for 3 days of lip-smackin’ BBQ, incredible brews and smokin’ hot tunes.” The beer page lists the participating breweries, and: “Enjoy samples from 30 breweries who will be set up to offer samples of their choice brew in the brew tent. For a $15 donation guests can purchase a sample card and have one sample of each beer. Sample cards are only good on day of purchase. You can also vote for the People’s Choice Best Brew. A panel of judges have been chosen to select the best Pale, IPA, Porter/Stout, Cider and Seasonal beers.” A sample of all 30 beers? Hmmm…

McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop (Portland) is hosting Three Creeks Brewing for the release of their Barrel Aged Stampede Strong Ale on Friday from 6 to 8pm: “We will be pouring a two-year vertical of Three Creeks Brewing’s Barrel Aged Stampede Strong Ale, as well as tapping a keg of their Crowd Pleaser IPA.” Good beers from Three Creeks all around, definitely worth checking out.

Baerlic Brewing (Portland) has a new bottle release hitting on Friday at 4pm, for their Lightweight Double IPA: “Lightweight Double IPA- 8% ABV. A big & bold double IPA so saturated with pine, stonefruit and tropical hop character that we devilishly grin when we think about how many hops were harmed in the making of this beer!”

Saturday, 5/27

Central Oregon Beer Week events, including the big one:

• 2017 SMaSH Fest, at McMenamins Old St. Francis School: The signature COBW event runs all day starting at 11am, featuring all Single Malt and Single Hop beers. Cost is $25 which gets you the commemorative glass and 12 tasting tickets (additional can be purchased for $1 each). And the people’e choice favorite (of the local breweries) will get to brew next year’s official COBW beer.
• The Ale Apothecary is releasing a special super-limited beer, ¡Vamonós!, and publicly debuting the new taproom on Saturday! ¡Vamonós! is a 100% sour wort, spontaneously fermented beer with no hops; it’s expected to sell out on Saturday so get there if you can. The release and tasting run from 2 to 7pm.
• Broken Top Bottle Shop welcomes Silver Moon Brewing for a tasting at 5pm, with the band Popcorn taking the stage at 7pm.
• Immersion Brewing‘s one-year anniversary continues all day as well.

Heater Allen Brewing (McMinnville) is celebrating their tenth anniversary on Saturday! “We’re celebrating 10 years of our lager beers!!! We’ll have at least 10 beers on tap, including a special anniversary Zwickelbier and we may open up a couple of things from the cellar. Special 0.5L steins will be availble at the event, we only ordered a limited amount of these and they will be first come first serve and one per-person. And our Das Bier will be released in bottle! Bearded Buddies Food Truck will be on site with locally sourced burgers and appitizers available for purchase. Hope to see you there!” They will be open from noon to 5pm. HUGE congrats on ten years!

McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop is hosting a Saturday afternoon mead tasting, with Portland’s Fringe Meadery, from 2 to 4pm: “While many producers treat mead more like a fresh cider or ale, Fringe Mead is set firmly in wine territory. Care is taken to procure the finest varietal and regional honeys, each with their own flavor profile. Then through a finesse fermentation and extended aging process, much like a fine white wine, these nuances are captured and preserved in the final product.”

Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider (Portland) has a Spanish-influenced cider release on Saturday: Sidra Sidra Sidra. “Sidra is the Spanish word for cider. And I love sidra! It’s tart, sour, funky, deeply complex, and unlike any other ciders. Some call it “graduate-level” cider, and I don’t disagree! I love it so much that I decided to make a cider inspired by my favorite Spanish ones, and I call it SIDRA BRAVO. On May 27th, I’ll be releasing this cider to the world, and in celebration, I’ve collected five US-made Spanish-inspired ciders and five Spanish-made (specifically Asturias) sidras for you to enjoy. American ciders are from me (Portland), Blackduck Cidery (Finger Lakes NY), Tilted Shed Ciderworks (Sebastopal CA), Finnriver (Olympic Peninsula WA), MillStone Cellars (Maryland). Compare these with five straight-from-Asturias Spanish ciders offered by Jim from Ciders of Spain for a tasty, educational event.” It starts at 4pm, and will cost $25 for a glass and seven tasting tokens.

The City of Goses fest takes place Saturday and Sunday at Labrewatory in Portland! Yes, a gose festival, possibly the first of its kind as far as I know. I wrote about it here, suffice to say it runs from 1 to 9pm each day, and costs $15 in advance (online here) or $20 at the door. And promises 30(!) goses pouring. If you’re a fan of the style, don’t miss out!

Sunday, 5/28

Central Oregon Beer Week concludes with the final Beer Geek Week night at Broken Top Bottle Shop, featuring Immersion Brewing pouring samples at 5pm and live music with Kinzel and Hyde starting at 7pm.

And Cascade Lakes Brewing is the starting point (at their Lodge in Bend) for a COBW Bend Ale Trail Hike that kicks off at 11:30am: “Hike the Bend Ale Trail with Local Beer Afficionados! Join Leslie and Mary on a multi-brewery walk along the ale trail. Starting at Cascade Lakes at 11:30am, the hike will cover at least 8 breweries while discussing beer and brewing in Central Oregon with some trivia thrown in. RSVP at 541-410-8509 or just meet us along the way!”