Happy Monday! Oktoberfest officially starts this Saturday, the 21st, so I’m quite sure you’ll see a variety of related news items listed here the next few weeks. Here’s the news for today, the 16th; 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.

This weekend there is a Southern Oregon Brew Fest taking place at the Expo Harvest Festival in Central Point (not to be confused with this Southern Oregon Craft Brew Festival that takes place in Medford in June). Looks like they’ll have a nice setup: “The beer garden features over 70 taps flowing with a remarkable selection of award-winning microbrews from the Pacific Northwest, the State of Jefferson, and even some specially invited guests from the rest of the country’s favorite breweries.” Admission to the Harvest Festival is free, though for the beer it’s $15 for the glass and six taste tickets, which cost $1 each (or six for $5).

Oakshire Brewing (Eugene) has their own fest coming up this Saturday as well, once that looks great: their Single Batch Fall Bierfest taking place all day starting at 11 at Oakshire’s Public House. Their Facebook event blurbs simply states, “Oakshire’s first annual fall bierfest a celebration of Oregon brewers’ fresh hop and rare small batch beers” though both Brewpublic and the New School have longer writeups, and there will be at least 30 breweries present and some great beers (according to Oakshire). Cost is $10 for a glass and five drink tickets, $15 for the glass and 10 tickets, with tickets being $1 each of course. This Bierfest might be Saturday’s best bet, if you get down towards Eugene way!

Interested in beer books? Belmont Station in Portland is hosting a book signing tonight from 5 to 8pm with author Joshua M. Bernstein: “It’s a great time to be a beer drinker, but also the most confusing, thanks to the dizzying array of available draft beers. Expert Joshua Bernstein comes to the rescue with The Complete Beer Course, demystifying the sudsy stuff and breaking down the elements that make beer’s flavor spin into distinctively different and delicious directions. Meet Josh in person, chat with him over a brew and learn more about this book, which makes learning fun! Josh will be selling and signing his books, too!”

Here’s an interesting status update from Tom Gilles of the Platypus Pub in Bend: “Brewing our first Platypus beer. Thanks Trevor at Bridge 99 Brewing for letting us brew at your awesome brew house.” I had thought the Platypus would be brewing in-house, but then again they would be on a homebrew-sized system so this makes sense. Also of note: Bridge 99 Brewery system: does that look to be a 15-gallon (half barrel) system?