Happy Monday! This week looks to be a “release week” of which the best-known (and arguably biggest) release is the Abyss tomorrow. Let’s see what else is going on around the state; I’ll be updating this post throughout the day and if you have any news to share you can let me know anytime.

Deschutes Brewery (Bend): Tomorrow, the 15th, is the official release date for The Abyss, with parties at both the Bend and Portland Pubs. At both locations bottles of The Abyss will go on sale starting at 11am (limit 6 bottles per person) along with related merchandise; and from 5 to 10pm there will be vertical flights of The Abyss (starting with the 2008 vintage) and a special Abyss-themed menu at both Pubs.

Brewed Awakenings is a new book by Joshua Bernstein on the resurgence of craft beer in America, and seems to be garnering good reviews—and author Bernstein is swinging through Oregon this week on his book signing tour. Tonight The Green Dragon is hosting the first signing/release party, with a special “nano beer release” accompanying the book signing as well. It takes place tonight from 6 to 8pm.

10 Barrel Brewing (Bend) is getting ready to release their first limited-edition bottled, barrel-aged beer, “Precursor.” Precursor is a 10% abv Imperial Red Ale that was aged in bourbon barrels for 9 months, and 10 Barrel was hand-bottling and labeling the beer all day and night yesterday (and probably well into this morning). The beer itself will be released next week sometime, but I was able to get a taste and a couple of bottles last night—it’s a really nice, mellow (for its strength) beer, well worth investing in a couple of bottles. 2600 bottles are being released, and a good number are on their way to Portland.

Pelican Pub & Brewery (Pacific City): This Saturday the 19th is the official release for the Mother of All Storms—the super-limited release of their bourbon barrel-aged Barleywine. The Brewery has posted how to get the beer, but also they are having a members-only Mug Club party on Friday where there will be a preview of Mother (as well as the release for the regular Stormwatcher’s Winterfest Ale). Although the Brewery just posted on Facebook a picture of Stormwatcher’s and this: “The brewery team forecasts Thursday to be a bit Stormy”… which naturally leads me to speculate that you’ll be able to get Stormwatcher’s on Thursday which should make a lot of people happy.

Fort George Brewery (Astoria): They are imminently releasing their excellent Cavatica Stout in cans, to join their canned beer lineup of Vortex IPA and 1811 Lager. They posted a photo of the Cavatica cans on Facebook with the caption of, “Cavatica cans are in! They will be filled and released in the pub on Wednesday- PDX release party on Thursday at Beermongers.” Hopefully those will make their way to Bend soon!