Here’s the news in Oregon beer from around the web for Thursday, the 17th of September. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day, so check back often. If you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

Terminal Gravity Brewing (Enterprise): Their fresh hop beer is out, Slick Rock Fresh Hop IPA! It’s a Simcoe-hopped Northwest IPA, and will be available at the Terminal Gravity taproom and a few selected places in Portland. From the press release: “We partnered with Carpenter Ranches in Granger Washington; they’ve been growing hops since the late 1800’s, and have some of the finest varieties in the Pacific Northwest. With large and juicy hop cones, it was a no brainer to drive the 300 miles to snatch up a few hundred pounds of freshly picked Simcoe hops to brew our annual Slick Rock Fresh Hop IPA.” Hopefully some will find it’s way to Bend…

McMenamins Kennedy School (Portland) has a limited-edition beer tasting today, featuring Barrel Aged 5K Scotch Ale: “We wanted to brew something special for batch number 5000 here at the Concordia Brewery and we settled on a Wee Heavy. This beer is a big, boozy, malt bomb of a beer. A hint of peated malt gives it some smokiness and a touch of hop helps to balance out all that malt sweetness. Further aging in a Hogshead Whiskey barrel mellows the flavors and adds flavors of whiskey, oak and vanilla to the mix. Batch 5000 only comes around once so don’t miss it!” It starts at 5pm at their Boiler Room bar.

The Bier Stein (Eugene) is hosting Sierra Nevada Brewing for a tasting of their Oktoberfest beer from 6 to 8pm tonight: “Join us for a tasting of this collaboration brew between California’s Sierra Nevada Brewing and Brauhaus Riegele from Bavaria. Our rep Bobby will be here with free samples, plus others on draught! The first 24 people to buy a pint of Oktoberfest will be sent home with a limited edition mug!”

Belmont Station (Portland): They have Portland’s Culmination Brewing in the house tonight from 5 to 7pm: “Culmination is celebrating its signing a distribution contract with General Distributing, and they are having the party here. This very new brewery is already getting a lot of attention — and we will have two of their brews on tap to enjoy: Put Me In The Game, Kolsch and their first-ever fresh hop IPA. Come by and meet the brew crew and find out more about Culmination and their Northeast Portland brewery/taproom!”

The Green Dragon (Portland): Their meet the brewer event tonight is featuring Portland’s newer Montavilla Brew Works: “This week’s Meet The Brewer is a homecoming for us at the Green Dragon. Michael Kora was a fixture around here when he was part of the Green Dragon Brew Crew. Now, this long-time homebrewer turned professional has just opened his own brewery in the Montavilla neighborhood of Portland. In just two months, Montavilla Brew Works has made a big impression on Portland’s beer scene with what Michael likes to call, “good natured” brews. Join us Thursday night as we toast Michael’s new found success, and to many more years of excellent lagers, ales, IPA and barleywines.”

Fresh Hop Watch:

• Wild Ride Brewing (Redmond): Tonight is the release of the first of their three fresh hop beers, Bine Climber: “Wild Ride will release “Bine Climber”, hopped with over 50lbs of fresh Centennial hops from Smith Rock Hop Farm and Flying Pig Hops.” 5 to 9pm.
• 13 Virtues Brewing (Portland) has a fresh hop and a return of a favorite: “On the left you’ve got our fresh-hop beer, Buy-Centennial. It’s a strong pale ale with a LOT of fresh, whole-cone Centennial hops. And then you’ve got the return of a big fave on the right, Tiledriver Mosaic IPA. It’s big in flavor, but only 6% ABV.”
• Vagabond Brewing (Salem) has their fresh hop beers brewing away: “Today we’re brewing some fresh hop beers with hops that were picked within the 24 hours. Brewing with such fresh hops will give the beers unique floral and earthy tones that you can only find one time of year! In the next few weeks keep an eye out for Fresh Hop Attack Owl IPA and Fresh Hop Into The Wile IPA.”
• Nectar Creek Honeywine (Corvallis): I don’t think it’s actually fresh hopped, but Nectar Creek’s Honeycone Hop Mead is, “Just in time for fresh-hop season, Honeycone is tasting amazing and should be finding its way to your favorite bottle shop or tap house this week!” So I’ll list it here.