Today is Veterans Day, and I suspect for many it is a somber one. Thank you to the veterans who have served this country and fought for everyone’s rights and freedoms. And in the meantime, here is the Oregon beer news for the weekend of November 12. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. If you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that posted as well.

This Saturday, the Breweries in the Gorge are holding The Big Swig, their grand tour and tasting event with all 12 breweries on both sides of the Columbia River participating. “Washington and Oregon Breweries in the Gorge come together for a one-day event inviting craft beer fans to get a sneak peek behind the scenes. Join us for a fun day of touring, tasting and learning how our Breweries in the Gorge work.” It takes place from 11 to 4pm though the Logsdon Barrel House and Solera Brewery will be open from noon to 5pm.

Bailey’s Taproom (Portland) is holding their seventh annual BelgianFest on Saturday, celebrating Belgian-style beers all from Oregon breweries. Admission is free and the taplist is great; and: “Debuting at BelgianFest VII, Bailey’s Taproom will feature a rotating house beer, or Hausbier. Brewed by a different brewery each quarter, expect easy-drinking, sessionable styles that fit the seasons and our tastes. The series will be exclusive to both Bailey’s Taproom and the current participating brewery. This program will be lead by our in-house Advanced Cicerone® & Assistant Manager, Ryan Spencer of the Imperial Session beer-pairing dinner series. We invited our longtime friends, The Commons, to collaborate on the debut beer of the series. In our brainstorming meeting, we lamented over our love of well-crafted Witbiers. Once we got talking, the beer became something different but the root of the Wit style still lies as our main inspiration. Hausbier: White Lager will be tapped Saturday, November 12th (noon-midnight) for our annual BelgianFest celebration!” Lots of good stuff happening at Bailey’s so be sure to stop by and show some love.

The first Bend Ale Festival takes place this Saturday, November 12, featuring 20 breweries (nearly all local to Central Oregon) pouring 40 beers in Bend’s Northwest Crossing neighborhood from 11am to 9pm. Cost is $20 for the package (the mug plus 10 tasting tokens) and extra tokens are $5 for 4. I’ll have a longer follow-up post about this new fest later today.

McMenamins has a couple of weekend anniversaries to hit up:

• The Old St. Francis School in Bend has their birthday celebration on Saturday, it’s their 12th! The fun last all day, and from 3 to 7pm there will be property tours every half hour, live music from 4 to 10pm, and there will be food specials, birthday cake, and The Illustrator Doppelbock birthday beer.
• Portland’s 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop is celebrating their first birthday, and they’ll have cake, waived crowler fees, 20% off Bottle Shop logo merch, a special taster tray of small batch beers, and even the release of Bottle Shop Birthday Beer No. 1: “This delicious beer is a blend of a Golden Ale and a Saison, aged on peaches and mixed cultures in Hogshead Whiskey Barrels from the Edgefield Distillery. It’s a funky, tart, pale amber-colored ale that’s light in body and exhibits aromas of stone fruit, oak and spice.”
• Happy birthday both locations!

And today (Friday the 11th) is the company-wide release of McMenamins holiday ale, Kris Kringle! “The 2016 version of Kris Kringle is a hearty and robust ale with a big and bold malt complexity, as well as an intense and flavorful hop profile. This “winter warmer” highlights the toasty, rich and chocolaty malt flavors that make up its sturdy foundation. Generous amounts of two different hop varieties were added in five different additions, which deliver a magnificent and massive hop assault. Behind those delightful festive flavors are subdued hints of ginger and cinnamon. We hope you enjoy this year’s version of our holiday favorite, Kris Kringle. Happy holidays & New Year!” It’s on tap now through Christmas.

Saraveza (Portland): Saturday sees the return of Saraveza’s Fire & Brimstone event! “A beer event centered around all things smokey and spicy, this year’s Fire and Brimstone will be unlike any other! All day on Saturday, November 12th, our 10 taps will be taken over by a mix of smokey and spicy beers and ciders that will be sure to keep your taste buds tingling! We will not be doing a “festival” format for it this time around, so no wristbands, no special glassware, no admission, and no beer fest hassle. Don’t fret though, the classic Bamburg Onions will still be served up all day (or until we run out)!” If you’re not afraid of the flavor—or the heat—make sure to avail yourself of this event!

Ecliptic Brewing (Portland) has the release of their Barrel-Aged Rastaban Oud Bruin this Saturday, with the beer being tapped on draft and release in bottles. “The star Rastaban is one of the dragon’s eyes in the constellation Draco. A Belgian-style brown ale, we brewed Rastaban Oud Bruin with raspberries and cherries and then age it in red wine barrels. Dark malty flavors meld with yeast spiciness. The tartness of the fruit is balanced with the oak, resulting in a character similar to a red wine.
***A very limited amount of Batch No.1 (2015) Barrel-Aged Rastaban Oud Bruin will also be available for purchase in the pub on this day.”

Eugene’s The Bier Stein has a fundraising Tapping Into Community event on Saturday the 12th, all day, benefiting GOATS: “Drink beer to support outdoor fun! GOATS stands for Greater Oakridge Area Trail Stewards. From their website: “We protect, create, and enhance quality trail experiences for mountain bikers in cooperation with other trail users in the Oakridge area. In addition, we actively promote responsible trail use, support volunteer trail work, assist land managers with trail management issues, and improve relations among all trail user groups.” We’ll be pouring kegs from Oakshire and Plank Town– come in and have a pint, then hit the trail… or the other way around!”

The Abbey Bar in Portland is holding a “Dark Days Tasting Event” on Saturday all day: “A one day only tasting event of a huge variety of dark beers. We’ll be tapping and opening bottles of all sorts of sorts of dark delectables for tasting flights from noon-9pm.”

Bend Brewing Company‘s Dozen Days of Drafts continues through the weekend, featuring Locals Day (happy hour) prices on a different beer each day through the 14th. For the weekend, today they are featuring Scottish Heart Scotch Ale; on Saturday, Scarlet Imperial Red Ale; and on Sunday their High Desert Hefeweizen.

Portland’s Great Notion Brewing has a collaboration crowler release taking place on Saturday the 12th: “Crowler Release of “Keep Brooklyn Weird” Double IPA collaboration brew between Other Half Brewing out of Brooklyn, NYC and Great Notion. Brewed with zero bittering hops but tons of Mosaic, Simcoe, Motueka and Galaxy, this DIPA is sure to please your palate. 2 crowlers per person on Saturday, 1 each day after until it sells out.” It will be on from noon to 11pm (regular business hours).

Three Mugs Brewing (Hillsboro) has their own Saturday beer release: Tongue Smack IPA. “Come enjoy our latest IPA creation. Juicy, Northwest-style IPA with a light, malty base. The big hop aroma is the prelude to the tasty attack. The first is a light tap that hits your tongue with 70 IBUs of bitter alpha acids. Then, the backhand comes around to hit your tongue with resinous citrus, pine and fruit hop flavors. Our secret combination of Northwest and New Zealand hops will smack your taste buds silly!”