I hope everyone had a safe and beery holiday yesterday! Here’s the Oregon beer news for the 5th of July (Thursday); as usual I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news as I find it, so check back often. And if you have news you’d like to share, please contact me and I can get that updated.

McMenamins Mission Theater (Portland) is hosting an “official” kickoff to Oregon Craft Beer Month (OCBM) today with a free showing of the documentary movie “My First Oregon Brewers Festival” at 7:30pm with a special Q&A panel at 7 featuring “OBF director & founder Art Larrance (Portland Brewing back then, now with Cascade Brewing); co-founders Kurt & Rob Widmer of Widmer Brothers Brewing Co; Karl Ockert, former brewmaster at BridgePort Brewing–one of the other co-founding breweries–and current Technical Director for the Master Brewers Association of the Americas; and Fred Eckhardt, beer writer who reported on the festival in its earliest days. The panel discussion will be moderated by Lisa “The Beer Goddess” Morrison, host of Beer O’Clock radio and longtime beer writer.” Doors open at 6pm and it’s 21-and-over and first-come, first-served, so be sure to get there early to see the film and panel.

The Green Dragon (Portland): Tonight they have a meet the brewer featuring Portland’s Sasquatch Brewing starting at 5pm (beers are tapped at 5, the meet the brewer portions begins at 6). The Sasquatch beers that will be on hand are Pale Ale, IPA, American Brown Ale, and a Pre-Prohibition Cream Ale (made with 17% corn)—I’d definitely be interested in trying the Cream Ale.

The Bier Stein (Eugene) is featuring a “dual tap takeover” today for OCBM, with beers from Hop Valley in Springfield and Flat Tail in Corvallis taking over the taps all day long. “Here’s a sneak peek at a few of the beers to expect: Hop Valley – Bananarama(Bavarian-style Hefe), Nutty by Nature(Bourbon Maple Nut Brown on NITRO), Flat Tail – Man. Ber. Sour Wit(Sour Wit w/Mandarin oranges and strawberries), Tamil Black(100% pinot noir barrel fermented session sour)! These are just a few of the 12 limited offerings. Beers will be on tap all day, from open to close, sample flights will be available, meet and greet with the brewers starting @ 6pm!”

Fort George Brewery (Astoria): The first beer in their new “Sweet Virginia Series” (“a series which will give everyone on our brewery team, a chance to brew beers start to finish”) will be released tomorrow, Friday the 6th, named Midnight Ryeder which is brewed as a black rye pale ale. As described by the brewer, Michal Frankowicz, “The beer is technically a black ale, but I think of it as a not-so pale ale.  It should have the bitterness and hop character of an IPA, but I am going to try to keep it around 4.6%.  The reason I am making it is because every time I have had a black IPA, it seemed closer to a hoppy stout.  I am trying to show the fact that a black beer does not have to taste anything like the way it looks.  The hops that I am using in this beer are, Zythos, Amarillo, and Centennial.  All of these hops provide a very citrussy note, which should make it nice, and crisp for a good summer pint.”

Beerworks in Medford is hosting Bend’s GoodLife Brewing tonight for a free tasting and meet the brewer event from 6 to 8pm. GoodLife head brewer Curt Plants will be on-hand pouring beers, including a “special keg” of something alluded to on Facebook. Comatose Imperial IPA? Belgian Rye Session? Who knows?

Pints Brewing (Portland): Today they’re featuring “First Thursday” at their Taproom with art, music, and craft beer (of course) much like other “First Friday” type of art and entertainment events. From 4 to 11 there will be live music and during happy hour from 4 to 6 there will be $3 pints on all Pints beers.