It’s Monday the start of a brand-new week and that means a new week’s worth of Oregon beer news! I aggregate and compile beer news from around the state from a variety of online sources, and I try to update the post periodically throughout the day—so check back often to get the latest news. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated as well.

Brewers Union Local 180 (Oakridge): Today the brewpub turns four, and they are celebrating with “$3 Imperial Pints of ‘4th Superannuation Ale’ all day long”! Big congrats to Brewers Union for making it four years, I can’t imagine being “Oregon’s only Real Ale Pub and Brewery” so far off the beaten track can be easy, but they’re doing a great job of it—it’s definitely one of my favorite brewpubs and I’ve only been there twice. Can’t wait to get back, and here’s hoping for (at least) four more years!

The Bend Brewfest kicks off this weekend, starting Thursday and running through Saturday. See my post from earlier today about it; it’s bigger than ever with 51 breweries participating, special X-taps and a “Brewtality” tent to meet brewers, food and more. $10 gets you a mug and 4 tasting tokens, with additional tokens for $1 sold in packages of five. It’s going to be a great weekend in Bend so be sure to come on down!

McMenamins Old Church & Pub (Wilsonville) has a special release going on today: “The ‘Harvest Ruby Sour’ is aged with fresh Oregon raspberries for over 6 months alongside a lactic acid producing bacteria. The first thing you will notice about this beer is its dark pink hue and large raspberry nose. Next you will notice the low carbonation and a distinct fruity sour presence on the palate that ends with a fruity sweet bite in the back of the throat. This is a one-time quarter-barrel special release so get it while its here. ABV 6% IBU 4.”  Sounds like a perfect hot weather beer.

Laurelwood Brewing (Portland) is gearing up to host Laurelfest on Saturday, August 25—their 11th annual iteration of the event which is featuring beer, wine, and spirits tastings, a special beer release, BBQ, live music, a kids bouncy house, putt putt golf, and more! They posted some details on Facebook: “All ages and adult Putt Putt Tournament with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Grand Prize for the adult tournament is a custom Laurelwood kegarator! Three awesome funk bands, tons of BBQ and of course hand crafted beer! 12pm-9pm.”

And in what seems earlier than ever, the pumpkin beers are starting to hit—and August isn’t even half over yet! Laurelwood has their Stingy Jack Pumpkin Ale set to release on August 22nd (Wednesday). And last Friday Ninkasi‘s Jamie Floyd posted on Facebook: “Designing a Pumpkin IPA recipe with Kevin and Dick to brew at Elysian next week! Nigel is coming and it dedicated to you buddy!”  Elysian Brewing is the current king of the pumpkin beers, so this has me excited (even as early as it is) and I hope we see the results of this collaboration make it down here!

And I just caught this on Brewpublic: “In late October, Brewpublic is teaming up with the Green Dragon once again to bring Portland another KillerPumpkinFest. This will be a part of our annual KillerBeerWeek that will come to a grand finale at Bailey’s Taproom on October 27.” I don’t know that I’d be able to make this (I didn’t get to last year’s either) but I’m already excited for it!