Today is International Happy Gose Day! Be sure to drink and share your Gose experience accordingly today! In the meantime, here’s the Oregon beer news for Thursday, November 17. 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.

McMenamins Kennedy School (Portland) has their Extra Credit beer tasting today, featuring Smoked Terminator, from 5 to 7pm: “Everyone loves a party, so we made this beer to celebrate Terminator’s 31st birthday! We added Smoked Candi Sugar to a select few kegs to give them a hint of smoke on the nose and palate. Perfect on its own, this beer would also pair beautifully with some smoky pulled pork.” I’ve not heard of smoked candi sugar before, that sounds fairly interesting.

Belmont Station (Portland) is hosting Sierra Nevada Brewing tonight for the release of the Station’s very own Sierra Nevada Basecamp collaboration beer, ChicoCabra: “Yes, our very own Neil and Dave, both big Sierra Nevada fans, were lucky enough to attend one of the brewery’s famous Beer Camps. They brewed this lovely stout, and while we might be a bit partial, we think it’s pretty amazing. But don’t take our word for it, try it for yourself. Along with ChicoCabra, we also will be pouring a handful of very special Sierra Nevada offerings brought up from Chico just for this very special occasion.” It runs from 5 to 7pm and they will also be pouring some other special SN beers.

Steelhead Brewing (Eugene) is holding a release party tonight from 6 to 9pm for their newest seasonal beers, Heat Miser (their winter beer) and a barrel aged stout: “Join us [this] Thursday at Steelhead Brewery to celebrate the release of our newest seasonal beers with Live Music by The Brothers Reed! Featuring our Bourbon Barrel Aged Premium Bulldog Stout & Heat Miser, and raffles!”

Ninkasi Brewing (Eugene) has a Pints for a Cause fundraiser today, benefiting Lane Community College ESL Department. “Join us at the Tasting Room for Pints for a Cause! From noon to 10pm, 25% of all pint sales in the Tasting Room will go to Lane Community College ESL Dept. The English as a Second Language Department at Lane Community College offers ESL courses to permanent residents living in Lane County to help improve their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills so that they can become employed or get a better job, participate more in the community, help their children in school, and transition to a Lane degree or certificate program or to other colleges and universities.” It’s taking place all day at their Van Buren tasting room.

Also in Eugene today, The Bier Stein is featuring “The Civil War of Beer”: “Join us while we pit 5 Eugene breweries up against 5 Corvallis breweries for the Civil War Beer Battle! You will be able to enjoy flights of corresponding styles blindly and vote for your favorites! The competing breweries are:
Agrarian Ales v. Flat Tail
Plank Town v. Block 15
Hop Valley v. Oregon Trail
Oakshire v. Mazama
WildCraft Cider Works v. 2 Towns Ciderhouse
Choose the styles you’d like to taste (Sour, Old Ale, Brown Ale, IPA, and Cider) and we will arrange them on a flight for you. Mark your favorite of each pair and we will tally up the votes! Voting will be available for each pair until one of them is gone.”

Ex Novo Brewing (Portland) brewed a collaboration beer with Loyal Legion and that beer is being released today: “”Belly Rub” We teamed up with Ex Novo to create a exclusive winter kettle sour with Cranberries and Buddhas Hand and rye. This beer releases at Loyal Legion on the 17th, and coincides with a 6-tap takeover that lasts all weekend.”

Portland’s Baerlic Brewing has a beer release of their own tonight from 4 to 10pm: “Join us as we release Triple Dog Dare German Schwartzbier! Brewed in the traditional Ralphie, Flick’n Schwartz style, we cold-steeped a fudge load of roasted malts for a daringly drinkable dark lager bier with an essence of mint from German Polaris hops.”

The Platypus Pub (Bend) is hosting Deschutes Brewery for a beer tasting from 5 to 7pm: “Deschutes Brewery claimed another #gold medal last week in the dry stout category for its Obsidian Stout, according to results announced Friday at the European Beer Star event. That’s a win over more than 2,000 beers world wide! We have it on Nitro & the Brewery is bringing some other special beers down to the #PlatyPub today at 5. stop in after work and try some of the hometown heros beer!”