TGIF and happy December! We’re now officially counting down to Christmas, so keep an eye out on the events and news for special beers and shopping opportunities. Here is the Oregon beer news for this December 1st as well as the first weekend of the month. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest news, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please let me know and I can get that updated too.

Friday, 12/1

Portland Cider Company is holding their annual Wassail Holiday Party starting at 6pm at their Clackamas location: “Our annual Holiday cider release party featuring the release of Oregon Wild, our fundraiser cider for Oregon Wild & the Oregon Brewshed Alliance. This year we will also release a very special and limited run of taproom favorite Bourbonator and a Hot Mulled Cider. This is a night NOT TO MISS! Morrison dancers, a toasting of the trees, live music and more festive fun. Our favorite event of the year!”

McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop (Portland) is hosting the bottle release party for one of the best beers to come out of McMenamins (Edgefield): Lord of Misrule 2017. “Lord of Misrule is one of the most magical brews to come from Edgefield. The recipe has changed every year since its inception in 2014, and for the first time, this beer is being bottled! It’s available exclusively at the 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop and McMenamins Edgefield. Join us and taste this year’s blend, chat with a Brewer from Edgefield, and take home a bottle of this magically festive rare selection – while it lasts!The 2017 vintage is a creamy Imperial Breakfast Stout aged in Hogshead Whiskey barrels and blended with barrel-aged organic maple syrup. It’s malty with a touch of sweetness and notes of oats, coffee and oak.” It takes place from 6 to 8pm.

The Holiday Ale Festival in Portland continues Friday and into the weekend, pouring tasting holiday beers brewed up special for the fest. You know the drill. And the New School has posted their best and worst beers list for HAF so check that out if you’re just heading over there this weekend.

Belmont Station is hosting Founders Brewing for Breakfast for Dinner with their Canadian Breakfast Stout Release Celebration from 5 to 8pm: “Join us as we help our good friends at Founders Brewing celebrate the re-release of CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout). A brief history of Canadian Breakfast Stout: First bottled in 2011, CBS became one of the most highly sought-after beers in the world. An imperial stout made with chocolate and coffee that’s aged in bourbon barrels that previously held maple syrup, it also made another brief appearance in 2014, but has since remained elusive. We will have bottles of Canadian Breakfast Stout for sale in the Bottle Shop with a two-bottle limit per person. We will also have a wide array Founders draft offerings for this special night.”

Deschutes Brewery (Bend): Friday is the release for the variants of The Abyss—tequila and rum barrel versions, and the Portland Pub is hosting an all-day celebration for them: “Ahoy! Arrrr you ready for some rum and tequila barrel-aged Abyss? You’ve waited and it’s here! Our 2017 Variants will make their debut on Friday, Dec. 1. We’ll be celebrating like pirates, so come dressed in your Captain Hook, Blackbeard, and Barbarossa garb! Don’t miss out on this very special release or you’re better off thrown into Davy Jones’ Locker! Savvy…?” (And it’s not even Talk Like a Pirate Day…) Tasting trays, food specials, and of course bottles are for sale, so make sure to get in their early to get the variants if you’re on the hunt. I’ve heard the tequila one is amazing…

And Deschutes’ Bend Tasting Room is also offering the Abyss Variants from noon to 7pm on Friday. “We will be selling pints, half pints, sample trays, and snifters of a variety of our beers – we look forward to seeing you there!”

Hopworks Urban Brewery (Portland): Friday is the release for the first three of HUB’s 13(!) holiday beers: Kentucky Christmas, Noggin Floggin, and Troll Hunter. “Kick off our Holiday Beer Special Release Series on Friday December 01 with Kentucky Christmas, Noggin Floggin and Troll Hunter. Head to any of our pubs to grab these beers. Read on for beer details and to see additional beer release dates. Kentucky Christmas – Abominable Winter Ale aged in a variety of bourbon barrels and blended to perfection. Sold in extremely limited 22oz bottles and on draft. Bottles are $15 and will be available at all three pubs. Noggin Floggin – Our winter barleywine featuring big, resinous hops and caramal malt aromas. Expect complex toffee and spicy flavors followed by a warming finish. Limited bottles are $7 and will be available at all three pubs. Troll Hunter – Dedicated to our favorite keyboard warrior. We’re giving you what you want by adding some holiday spices to our seasonal Abominable Winter Ale. Brewed with Star Anise, Ginger and cinnamon.”

Bailey’s Tapoom Dark Days 2 at The Upper Lip continues Friday with “Dark as FFF” featuring the following imperial stouts: Fremont Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star, Fremont Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star: Coffee Edition, Firestone Walker Velvet Merkin, Firestone Walker Parabola, Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, and Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout.

Bend’s Worthy Brewing is releasing the second of the X-Hop experimental beers on Friday: “The 2nd experimental hop beer will be tapped on December 1st! Stop in, give it a try, and tell us what you think. This is a rare opportunity to try beers brewed with experimental hops from Indie Hops/Oregon State University. Each beer will be available at the pub for two weeks until the next one is tapped. Taste to Win! Ask your server for a punch card and a tasting note sheet. Fill your punch card and exchange for great prizes. One punch per each of the x-hop beer varieties you try.”

Widmer Brothers Brewing: Their Mississippi Avenue pub crawl for the newly-bottled Russell Street IPA takes place from 3 to 7pm Friday: “Join us for an evening of celebrating and imbibing our newest beer, Russell Street IPA. We’ll be hopping from bar to bar on Mississippi Avenue around 4pm, after a pint at the pub starting at 3pm. A portion of the proceeds from the crawl will benefit Solve Oregon, and will be used for street clean ups in the spring for Mississippi Street. In addition, $5 from each 1/2 bbl keg of Russell Street IPA sold between now and April 30, 2018 will be donated to Solve Oregon. Come out and drink good beer for a good cause!”

Agrarian Ales (Eugene) has a bottle release and cheese pairing kicking off on Friday and running through the weekend: “Come join us for another release of bottles from our new Kettle Sour bottle line! “Dryad” is dry-hopped with estate grown crystal hops and fresh spring spruce tips harvested right outside the brewery windows; this sour blonde emanates layers of lemon zest and pine essence. This beer is like having lemonade on a rainy day somewhere deep in the woods of the Northwest while watching the tree nymphs zip around and frolic amongst the treetops. We are pairing this delicious bottle with Rogue Creamery’s “Smokey Blue” cheese!”

Breakside Brewery (Portland) is celebration Cellarbration this Friday: “We’re excited to announce our major release event of the year, Cellarbration! From Black Friday to the close of 2017, we’re opening up our vault of vintages for our favorite person… you. Debuting today…. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1st: THE B SIDES. We’re excited to kick things off with our popular release from 2016- The B Sides. All of these beers are barrel aged, blended wild and sour ales with components reaching as far back as 4 years ago. We’ll be pouring trays of these beers at our Slabtown location while supplies last.”

Saturday, 12/2

Shameless plug for my book! Redmond’s Wild Ride Brewing is hosting their second annual Sip & Shop holiday beer and shopping fair from 11 to 4pm on Saturday, and I will be there with copies of Bend Beer: A History of Brewing in Central Oregon to sign and sell! Come on out for a beer and a book, and visit some of the 13 other vendors that will be on hand.

McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop is hosting a free Sparkling Wine Tasting with Southern Wine and Spirits on Saturday from 2 to 4pm: “Come sample a selection of sparkling wines from Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits portfolio. During the event, all to-go bottles of sparkling wine will be 10% off.”

Belmont Station is hosting a release of Bourbon County Stout on Saturday: “Goose Island’s coveted Bourbon County Stout typically goes on sale on Black Friday. But this year, we are bucking tradition and putting it on sale a week-ish later — on Saturday, Dec. 2. Why? We feel like Black Friday is already a crazy enough day, and we want to provide our loyal customers a more easy-going environment with family and friends that day for their post-holiday drinking and shopping experience. We will have Bourbon County Brand Stout and Bourbon County Barleywine on sale right when we open at 10 AM on Saturday, Dec. 2. (Limit ONE of either stout or barleywine per person).”

Little Beast Brewing (Portland) has the seasonal release of a Kriek-inspired oak aged ale, Tree Spirit. “Introducing Tree Spirit, our Kriek-inspired oak-aged ale! Whole Montmorency tart cherries combined with our foeder-aged mixed culture ale result in a beer that’s layered with complexity and predominant notes of vanilla, almond, and vibrant cherry. Join us for the first taste this weekend at our brewery. Glass pours and bottles available for purchase.” Noon to 5pm on Saturday.

Baerlic Brewing (Portland): They are holding a Cellar Sale on Saturday for their Woodworker series of beers: “We’re pulling a bunch of WoodWorker Barrel-Aged beers from the cellar to go on sale at 11am this Saturday at Baerlic’s WoodWorker Holiday Market! Each time we package a WoodWorker beer, we set a little bit aside to lay down for a bit. We sampled through the entire vintage lineup and boy howdy are they tasting radical!! Some limited to a single case, so get there early!”

Ruse Brewing and Great Notion Brewing brewed a collaboration beer that will be going on tap at Portland’s Lombard House Saturday starting at 2pm: “We are super excited to pour our collab beer Shadow Sequence this Saturday at Lombard House. Both brands will also have a couple other offerings on draft. We hope to see you there! Here is info regarding our collaboration: Shadow Sequence-7.2% ABV. A collaboration between GNB and Ruse Brewing, Shadow Sequence is a Black IPA dry hopped with Motueka and Citra that has been aged on a generous amount of toasted coconut.”

10 Barrel Brewing (Bend): Their annual Pray For Snow party is taking place at their (new) east Bend brewery and pub Saturday from 4 to 9pm: “We’ll have tons of giveaways, we’ll be celebrating the release of our 2017 Pray for Snow Winter Ale, and the custom 10 Barrel snowboarding rail jam truck will be there. Sign up for the Rail Jam here -> https://10barrel.com/PRAY-FOR-SNOW/ Free entry, beer and food available for purchase. Proceeds to benefit POW (Protect Our Winters)”

And on Saturday Bailey’s Dark Days 2 wraps up with “Epically Dark” stouts: Epic Big Bad Baptist, Epic Big Bad Baptista 2016, Epic Big Bad Baptista 2017, Epic Double Barrel Big Bad Baptist 2016, and Epic Triple Barrel Big Bad Baptist.