It’s the beginning of July, which means not only does Independence Day fall in the middle of the week here in the U.S., but it’s also the start of Oregon Craft Beer Month! OCBM is a month-long celebration of Oregon’s beer and brewers capped by the Oregon Brewers Festival at the end of the month, and I’ll be covering a lot of those events for these beer news posts. And as usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day, so check back often for the latest; if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get it posted.

McMenamins Breweries have specials going on all month for OCBM: “To kick off Oregon Craft Beer Month right all the different IPA’s at our Oregon McMenamin locations will be served at Happy hour price ($3.25) all day, every day for this whole week. Yes this includes the IIPA’s as well.” And, they’ve posted a breakdown of what specials (styles) will be served each week this month. Make sure to hit up your local McMenamins each week this month!

Whole Foods Market in Bend is hosting their 2nd annual Brewfest this Saturday, the 7th! I’ll have more details posted on this soon but they’ll have 16+ breweries pouring beer from 1 to 6pm and it’s only $5 to get in. A specialty market holding a brewfest—only in (Bend) Oregon!

Deschutes Brewery (Bend): Tomorrow, Tuesday the 3rd, is this month’s “Deschutes Brewery University” featuring “Brews & BBQs” for the topic of learning: “Our focus this month is on Deschutes beers paired with tasty BBQ food because these two go hand in hand during the summer months. Join Brian Dioguardi, pit master at Baldy’s BBQ, and Brian Faivre, Deschutes Brewmaster, for BEER & BBQ education. You will learn about the style, cooking technique, history, spices, sauces, and wood use in creating BBQ, and find out why BBQ pairs well with particular beers during the warm summer months.” Cost is $25 and there are 40 slots available (with 18 remaining as of this writing). It takes place at the Bend Pub Tap Room from 6 to 8pm.

Silver Moon Brewing (Bend): This week’s Growler Power Hour specials are for Hopnob IPA and the new seasonal Cruise’n Cream Ale—on Tuesday and Wednesday from 4 to 6pm, you can get $6 growler fills of these featured beers. A hard to pass-up deal for sure!

Southern Oregon Brewing (Medford) has a new Imperial IPA coming out tomorrow: “Big Rack Imperial IPA goes on tap tomorrow in the SOB taproom! Its big and mean and nasty!!! 8.6% ABV with 105 IBUs. You asked for it, you got it!” It’s a fitting name for the beefed-up version of their Nice Rack IPA.