It’s the first Friday of the month, and I hope you’re ready for an eventful weekend! Here is the roundup of news and events in Oregon beer for this Friday through Sunday, December 7 through 9. As usual, I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day on Friday with the latest info as I find it, so check back from time to time for updates. And as always if you have news you’d like to share, please contact me and I can get that added too.

Friday, Dec. 7

Portland’s Cascade Brewing celebrates 20 years with an anniversary party at the Lodge (formerly the Raccoon Lodge) and the exclusive 750ml bottle release of Cascade’s Bourbonic Plague. “The Cascade Brewing 20-Year Celebration will take place on Friday, Dec. 7, from 5pm to 10pm at the Lodge at Cascade Brewing, located at 7424 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy. The evening will feature raffles, games, cupcakes, brewery tours, a birthday toast, and select menu items from the brewery’s 1998 menu. Guests can enjoy 90s music on the stereo, and chat with Larrance and Cascade’s brewing team. The event is for ages 21+ in the downstairs Den; minors are welcome upstairs in the restaurant.” Bourbonic Plague will land at the Barrel House on the 10th. Big congratulations to Cascade on the double decade!

The St. Johns Winter Beer Fest and Record Show begins in Portland on Friday, and runs through the weekend. “The 8th Annual St. Johns Winter Beer Fest and Record Show is a benefit for the St. Johns Center for Opportunity (SJCO). We’re very excited and thankful to have over 30 breweries donating including Block 15, Gigantic, Logsdon, Ecliptic, Base Camp, Swift, and Lompoc. We’ll have a wide variety including IPA’s, Winter Ales, Stouts, Barleywines, and more! For your eating pleasure we’ll have food trucks in the parking lot, including Urban German, St Johns Wings, Mad Greek Deli, and The Other Chef. The Fest will be held at The Colony event space at 7525 N Richmond Ave, Portland, OR 97203. $20 gets you a commemorative glass and ten tickets, pours are 4 oz. and most beers require a single ticket.” You can purchase tickets online here.

McMenamins is conducting a couple of Gift Shop Holiday Tastings at the Kennedy School and the Edgefield on Friday, both running from 4 to 7pm, tasting the bottle release of this year’s Lord of Misrule. “A taste of wine, a sample of whiskey make holiday shopping effortless. Stop by our gift shops for our tasting evenings – and stay to win raffle prizes. Receive a raffle ticket for every $20 spent in the shop between 4 and 7 pm. Three raffle winners will be drawn at 7 pm (must be present to win).”

Bend Brewing Company is holding the release party for its Sno’d In Winter Ale starting at 4:30pm on Friday: “Join us on Friday, Dec. 7th for the third annual SNO’D IN Winter Ale release party hosted in collaboration with SnoPlanks & OAS [Oregon Adaptive Sports]! We will have plenty of fire pits on hand to keep you warm, delicious brews & live music. A portion of all SNO’D IN sales will be donated to OAS – community, beers, live music & fire pits – it can’t be beat!”

pFriem Family Brewers (Hood River) is hosting a meet the brewer event from 4 to 7pm: “Join us next Friday, December 7th to meet our Brewer, Eric Bell! Enjoy complimentary beer tastings while Eric talks through four pFriem beers and answers your questions. Featured beer: Export Lager, Oatmeal Stout, Pruim, and CDA”

The Bier Stein (Eugene) will be the starting point for the inaugural Eugene Krampus Krawl, hosted by WildCraft Cider Works, starting at 6pm: “In the spirit of holiday folklore, join us for The Inaugural Eugene Krampus Krawl! Beginning with a gathering at our awesome local craft beverage bar The Bier Stein, at 6pm we will tap a very special one-off version of Wildcraft’s Krampus cider – the imperial cranberry juniper – and prepare to march the streets as demon spirits. Bring your horns, hooves, claws, bells, long tongues, birch sticks and everything fur! Infiltrating the First Friday Art Walk, we will proceed north on Willamette st. at 7pm as an unofficial parade, sharing the exhilarating terror upon meeting the shadows of the night. Landing at WildCraft Cider Works for a festive gathering of beasts. The crawl will continue to Old Nick’s Pub , where at midnight they will award $100 cash prize to the best costume!”

Deschutes Brewery (Bend): Fridays at the Bend Tasting Room are Firkin Fridays, where the brewery taps a special cask for the day. You’ll have to stop in to see what it is! “Stop by to explore our latest cask-beer concoction and maybe–just maybe–be the one to tap it! For one special day each week,drink a pint of cask beer in the Tasting Room–and take it home in a growler or crowler!”

Saturday, Dec. 8

Occidental Brewing (Portland): The brewery’s annual Humbug Lager Fest begins on Saturday, and runs through Sunday: “It’s time to celebrate cold weather and lager beers, Occidental Brewing style. Our yearly Humbug Lager Fest will be stocked with lagers from Occidental and other great breweries from Portland and beyond. There will be a wide range of beers, light to dark, easy drinking to strong and bold, ALL LAGERS. This festival is taster style so you can try as many different beers as you want, but we will also offer full pours if you find a beer you really love.” Read through the posts on the event page for details on what will be pouring.

The 6th annual Central Oregon Winter Beer Festival takes place at GoodLife Brewing in Bend from 2 to 9pm Saturday: “Central Oregon Winter Beer Festival is a showcase for seasonal and specialty beers brewed in celebration of the holiday season. Admission to COWBF will be $15.00 and attendees will receive a commemorative COWBF mug, as well as 5 drink tokens. Each additional token will cost $1.00. The festival will be in a heated tent provided by Incredible Events with live music and a DJ playing throughout the day and night.” I posted the beer list for the event as well.

Plank Town Brewing (Springfield) is hosting its From the Woods Barrel-Aged Brew Fest Saturday starting at 2pm: “Enjoy barrel-aged craftbeer from 12+ breweries during our annual From the Woods Brew Fest. The $10 admission includes a Belgian style tasting glass and 5 tasting tickets plus a discount on one food item of your choice. This will be a great opportunity to taste an amazing variety of barrel-aged beer all under one roof! VIP packages are available and include 15 tickets, a Woods Fest shirt, glassware, and a specialty bottle for $35. Extra tasting tickets are $1 each.”

Ecliptic Brewing (Portland) is releasing its Orange Giant Barleywine on Saturday: “Join us for the release of Orange Giant Barleywine on Saturday December 8th. Both draft and bottles will be available in the pub. We will also be offering a special taster tray of selections from years past!”

Three Creeks Brewing in Sisters is hosting its annual Rudolph’s Imperial Red vertical tasting on Saturday from 3 to 6pm: “Join us on Saturday, December 8th at 3pm for our Annual Rudolph’s Imperial Red Vertical Tasting! We are so excited to taste the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 Rudy, and even more excited about introducing our Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Rudolph’s Imperial Red Ale! Tickets are $30, all inclusive, and come with small plates/appetizers. Call 541.549.1963 to book your seat and let Rudolph light your way!”

McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop (Portland) is hosting a Galaxy Sparkling Wine tasting from 2 to 4pm: “Join us to sample a selection of sparkling wines from Galaxy Company’s portfolio. We’ll be offering 10% off on all to-go bottles of sparkling wine during the event.”

Bend’s Crux Fermentation Project is hosting a fundraiser from 1 to 6pm on Saturday: Help Ukiah Fight Leukemia. “Ukiah is our head brewer’s son’s best friend. His name means Deep Valley. We brewed this IPA in his honor and will be donating the proceeds to help his family as this brave little guy fights leukemia. Please join us for this fundraising event that will include a silent auction with Blackstrap Bluegrass playing from 2-4pm and Eli Seth Leiberman of Strive Roots from 4:30-6pm.”

Santiam Brewing (Salem) is releasing its Pirate Stout, Govna’s Reserve 2018 on Saturday: “This is a very limited release of 100% barrel aged imperial strength Pirate Stout. Only 94 cases made. 60 cases were released to our national sales partner. 5 cases were released to our local resellers, 5 cases go to our cellar, and one case will be split to vertical flight packages (see upcoming post), leaving just 23 cases for the tasting room. $16 per bottle, $192 per case, limit 1 case per person. You may call or stop by the tasting room to reserve your bottle/case to pick up on Saturday. No pre pays, and any not picked up Saturday will be sold.”

Vagabond Brewing (Salem) is hosting Winter Ales 2018 all day Saturday: “Come join us for our annual Winter Ale event. We will have a taster flight of 6 winter beers and a limited edition Winter Ales collectors glass. We will be releasing our winter warmer Santa’s Reinbeer and will have several guest breweries joining us along with live holiday music by Fit Guitar Girl.”

Portland’s Uptown Market is celebrating its 7th anniversary on Saturday, starting at 6pm: “Uptown’s turning 7. Join us December 8th for live music, food specials, beer releases and a great time. Gigantic Brewing Company, Old Town Brewing, and Sunriver Brewing Co. are all bringing their great beers to celebrate another year of Uptown.”

Bailey’s Taproom (Portland) is hosting a Moonraker Brewing Showcase in conjunction with Shelton Brothers all day Saturday: “Take a break from your holiday shopping this weekend and stop by Bailey’s Taproom to sample some of the best Hazy IPAs being produced on the west coast! This Saturday we’ll be hosting Moonraker Brewing Company and showcasing some of their NE style IPAs, a few of which have never been released in Oregon. We’ll be featuring the following draught options along side some canned options to go. We look forward to seeing you!”

Sunday, Dec. 9

The Upper Lip at Bailey’s Taproom is hosting a Beer Symposium on the topic of “Wild” on Sunday: “For our fourth edition of the quarterly Beer Symposium, the topic will focus on mixed fermentation and wild ales. The Upper Lip will host Trevor Rogers (de Garde Brewing), Nick Arzner (Block 15 Brewing), Alex Ganum (Upright Brewing), and Paul Arney (The Ale Apothecary) to talk about their processes and techniques for brewing some of the most romanticized and sought after beers in the world. The price of entry is $10 and also includes one pour from one of the six featured beers available during the symposium. Tickets are available online or can be purchased in-store at either Bailey’s Taproom or The Upper Lip. Doors at 1:45pm. Event from 2-4pm.” Tickets can be purchased online here.

The Abbey Bar (Portland) is hosting Bend’s The Ale Apothecary for a tasting flight event from 6 to 8pm: “Do NOT miss this rare chance to sample a flight of The Ale Apothecary beers in this special one-night-only appearance by brewing genius Paul Arney (don’t tell him we called him that…he’s very modest).”

General News

Geist Beerworks (Redmond) has its barrel-aged holiday imperial stout on tap now: “The day we have been waiting for has finally arrived! Geist Beerworks is proud to announce that (Better than) Hookers & Blow is now on tap! Sporting an abv of 12.9, this beer has balanced hints of bourbon and oak. $7.00 for a 12 ounce pour and sorry, no growler fills. Geist will be releasing our 750 milliliter next week.”

Crux Fermentation Project has a coolship! And on Wednesday the 5th, the brewery christened it with a batch of grisette: “Christmas came early for our brewers this year. Santa gave them a gypsy coolship to play with and today they’re filling it with a grisette. Now to see what Mother Nature gifts us in the form of spontaneous fermentation.” I’ll have more on this soon.

Manifest Beer Company (Eugene) has a hazy IPA back on tap: “Imminent Haze is back on draft tonight during the first Friday art walk!!! Just racked juicer than the blackest of berries! Open at 4:30 #hazyipa it’s cold outside in the breezeway bring a jacket we’ll have heaters going and snuggling is permitted.”