Welcome to September! I hope everyone had a good Labor Day holiday (mine was occupied with picking hops), now it’s time to get back into the swing of the beer news for Oregon. 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 to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

Even though we are firmly entrenched in hop harvest season it’s also time to start thinking about Oktoberfest; Oktoberfest runs from the 21st through October 6th this year, and getting an early jump on it this weekend (Friday and Saturay) is Widmer Brothers in Portland with their 9th annual Oktoberfest celebration: “The festival features a variety of craft beers, German-style food, and live music throughout the day. A souvenir stein is required for consuming beer. Attendees can also bring steins from previous years to the event. All beer and food is purchased with tokens, which cost $1 each. Patrons pay six tokens for a souvenir stein, six tokens for a full stein of beer and food items are $1-$7.” It’s 21 and over only and should be a great time! (Facebook event page)

Oakshire Brewing (Eugene) is also firmly into the Oktoberfest spirit today with their latest Single Batch series beer coming out today: “Oktoberfest is back! Come out to the Public House tonight @6PM to meet the brewer and cheers to good beer.” Hopefully we’ll see some of that beer east of the mountains, I love a good Oktoberfest beer!

Belmont Station (Portland) tomorrow is hosting Bend’s Worthy Brewing for a can release and tasting from 6 to 8pm: “Bend’s Worthy Brewing is putting some of its liquid nectar in cans and we will be sampling the Worthy IPA, East Side Pale Ale and Easy Day Kolsch, plus the Gary’s No Quit Wit in bottles. Come see how worthy these delicious beers from Bend really *can* be. (Get it?)”

Cascade Brewing (Portland): Their Tap It Tuesday event at 6pm at the Barrel House tonight is featuring “Live” Maraschino Cherry: “This NW style sour strong blond ale was barrel aged for six months, then aged on apricot noyaux for another six weeks. Aromas of sweet candied cherries and toasted almond marzipan are noticed up front. Sweet maraschino cherries and candy on the palate lead to a rich, sweet, lingering cherry mouthfeel that ends with a prolonged maraschino cherry note. 8.6%, $8 glass, $3 taster”

The New School reports today the surprising news that Portland’s Amnesia Brewing‘s north Mississippia brewpub location has been sold and will become “StormBreaker Brewing” by January. “Fear not lovers of Amnesia’s Copacetic IPA and Trail Hazer Pale because their Washougal, Washington location production brewery that opened last year will live on producing even more of their brews. Meanwhile Amnesia brewer “Rob” Allen Lutz has purchased the original Amnesia Brewing home after working there for the last 4 years and was with Point Blank Distributing before that. The Amnesia sale goes through on January 1st and at that time the pub will close down for a spiffy but minor remodeling and rebranding. The brewpub will reopen as StormBreaker Brewing with a little bit smaller output than before they will begin by supplying the pub with new recipes and doing some self distribution of kegs around town.” So does this now mean with “Amnesia” itself only brewing in Washougal that it’s no longer considered an Oregon brewery? (I would guess yes.)

Oakshire Brewing is bucking the usual convention and releasing a second Single Batch series beer tonight: Scofflaw Pilsner, a Pre-Prohibition-style lager. Expect this to go on tap at 6pm alongside their Oktoberfest beer.

Golden Valley Brewery (McMinnville) will be celebrating Oktoberfest on Saturday, October 5th: “McMinnville Education Foundation and Golden Valley Brewery – McMinnville are joining forces for Oktoberfest, Sat. Oct. 5th. The celebration will be held at Golden Valley from 12 noon-10:00 pm.” I’ll post more details as I find out about them.

Fresh Hop Watch™:

• Golden Valley Brewery: Brewer Jesse Shue posted a photo of fresh-hop-infused mash, with a note that the fresh hop beer will be released Thursday.
• Hopworks Urban Brewery (Portland) is doing the community hops thing tomorrow (the 4th): “We still need a few hands to help with the hop harvest tomorrow, Sept. 4, starting at 9:00. Email volunteer@hopworksbeer.com to join us. We’ll cut down the bines and then start picking, a few hours later we’ll break for lunch and beer. In a few weeks the hops will be served as our estate IPA and we’ll invite you back for the release.”