Good Monday to everyone, I hope the weekend treated you right. It certainly did for Oregon brewers at the GABF: 25 medals were brought home this weekend! Some really good showings this year, so hurry and find those beers on tap as soon as you can. In the meantime, here’s some Monday Oregon beer news for you; today is a busy day so I don’t know how often I might get to update this, but check back periodically just in case. And as always, contact me if you have news to share.

This Saturday the 19th the Umpqua Brew Fest is taking place in Roseburg, with its aim to raise awareness and money to benefit the Umpqua Watersheds: “Since the the fall of 2010, the festival has raised funds for Umpqua Watersheds, a non-profit conservation organization located in Roseburg, Oregon and dedicated to the protection and restoration of the Umpqua Watershed and beyond through education, training, and advocacy.” It takes place from 1 to 9pm at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, and they have a really nice taplist pouring—including a bunch of homebrewed beers from the Umpqua Valley Brewers Guild. This is definitely a southern Oregon must-visit for the weekend.

Also this Saturday, the new Thunder Island Brewing Company in Cascade Locks is having a Grand Opening party for their new tasting room: “Tour the brewery and meet the brewers! Enjoy some beer and food, with door prizes and live music throughout the evening. Everyone gets a free raffle ticket at the door! Bring the whole family to the celebration, kids are welcome in our outdoor covered seating area. Those 21 and over are welcome to stop by and check out the tasting room.” It runs from noon to 11pm and is sure to be worth checking out.

This year seems to be the year pumpkin beers are really taking off; more are being brewed than ever and this weekend there are two more “pumpkin fests” taking place! The first is with Bend’s 10 Barrel Brewing, with their “First annual inaugural “Get Squashed” Pumpkin Fest” taking place on their Pub patio from noon to 9pm this Saturday. They will have five(!) different pumpkin beers (more than I’m aware of other breweries brewing, except for Elysian), live music, and free entry.

Then over in Eugene on both Saturday and Sunday, The Bier Stein is holding their own Pumpkinpalooza beer tasting weekend: “We’re tapping a massive amount of pumpkin beers! The Elysian Pumpkin Roadshow will be here, complete with 12 beers and a giant pumpkin filled with beer! We’ll have a ‘guess the weight’ contest for the pumpkin firkin, and will tap some of the rarer pumpkin beers at the back bar at 5pm on Saturday! The event goes all weekend long.” In addition to the Elysian beers they will have a ton of other pumpkin beers from other breweries on tap.

Belmont Station (Portland) has a fun tasting event taking place today from 5 to 7pm: Lisa’s Random Tastings: Boo Brews. “It will be a frightfully good time in the beer store as Belmont Station owner and longtime beer writer and Beer O’Clock Radio host Lisa Morrison brings us another one of her random tastings! This time, the theme is Boo Brews, or beers that are wickedly appropriate for Halloween, with scary-sounding names or made by eerie-sounding breweries.”

Monday is “Growler Monday” at all McMenamins pubs, where you can get a growler fill of a selected beer (announced on Facebook usually) for only $7. At the Old St. Francis School in Bend, the special is for Golden Sparrow Fresh Hop Ale—an OSF-0nly beer made special with Central Oregon-grown hops. It’s a tasty beer and well worth filling up a growler! Check out your local McMenamins to see what their special is today too.