Happy Friday the 13th! I hope you get to enjoy some fresh Crystal-hopped beers this weekend, but do not go anywhere named Crystal Lake! In the meantime, here’s the news in Oregon beer for the weekend. 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 updated as well.

There are some outstanding Corvallis Beer Week events going on this weekend, here is just a small sampling:

• Where the Wild Ales Are, today starting at 3pm: “Nick Arzner and the Les Caves crew are putting together Corvallis’ first Wild & Sour Fest on Friday the 13th!!! With 12 Wild & Sour beers from some of the best wild cellars around the region this event is not to be missed.”
• Beer Brunch & Cellar Stash Bottle Release: “Once a year, Nick Arzner and the Block 15 brewers sit down and decide what ridiculously awesome brews they would like to pull out of their cellar and share with their fans.  Block does this by offering up a Beer Brunch of free range eggs, local bacon, Nebula Stout sausage, French Toast, pastries, fresh fruit and coffee.”
• Open House with 2 Towns Ciderhouse: “They’ll be hosting an open house with tours of their production floor. Keep an eye out for some limited and rare ciders to hit the taps during the day!”

Overall just a ridiculously large number of great events to choose from—don’t miss out this weekend!

Today is the release day for McMenamins‘ Thundercone Fresh Hop Ale, which I drank and wrote about last night: it’s their fourth year of brewing this beer which is preceded by their “Running of the Brewers” to gather the fresh Cascade hops needed to brew it. It will be pouring at all McMenamins locations that have brewed it, and it’s very limited (as fresh hop beers are), so make sure you find your way to it—it’s a tasty beer!

Fort George Brewery (Astoria) is all set to release their newest collaboration beer (in cans no less), Next Adventure Black IPA, brewed in collaboration with Next Adventure, Portland’s outdoor store. Portland’s Belmont Station will be hosting the release party tomorrow, the 14th, from 2 to 5pm: “Both Fort George and Next Adventure folks will be on hand in the new back patio to launch the new Fort George Next Adventure Black IPA. We also will have on draft a keg of their very popular 3-Way IPA collaboration and their seasonal, Rumkin, a rum-barrel aged pumpkin beer. The crew also will be giving away some great prizes from both Fort George and Next Adventure — along with some fun games and contests!”

It turns out tomorrow is Sour Beer Day, and while I haven’t seen what other breweries are doing, Deschutes Brewery posted: “You better believe we will be celebrating at the Bend Pub. We will have our delicious and very limited Green Monster on tap as well as Pucker Pleaser.” Even though “Pucker Pleaser” sounds a bit like an adult toy, I don’t think you can go wrong tomorrow if you like sour beers!