Ready or not, it’s December 1 and we are now counting down the days until Christmas! Here is the Oregon beer news for this Thursday—read it with Christmas music on in the background. 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.

Portland: The Holiday Ale Fest continues today. It’s only the second day but the New School has their Best and Worst recommendations so plan accordingly.

The Bier Stein and The Tap and Growler in Eugene is hosting the latest Beers Made By Walking release, featuring five specialty beers and a cider inspired by and brewed with local wild ingredients found on nature walks. “For the second year running, the McKenzie River Trust hosted three summer walks on their protected lands for brewers to gather inspiration for a special beer. This year, The Bier Stein is joining forces with Eugene’s Tap & Growler to present the six fermented beverages brewed for this year’s Beers Made by Walking, dividing the beers between each location at 5pm on Thursday, December 1st. The participating businesses are Agrarian Ales, Claim 52, Falling Sky, Oakshire, and WildCraft Ciderworks. Plus, there will be free samples of a homebrewed beer! 100% of the proceeds from each BMBW beer tapped that day will be donated to the McKenzie River Trust, which helps people protect and care for the lands and rivers they cherish in western Oregon. Additional support for the event was provided by Ninkasi Brewing.”

BridgePort Brewing‘s 8th annual Ebenezer Pub Crawl takes place tonight in Portland’s Multnomah Village, from 5 to 9pm: “Pub stops include John’s Market (to kick off festivities by tapping 2011 Old Knucklehead), Journey’s, Renner’s, O’Conner’s, The Ship (to finish and give out gifts). Begins at 5-6pm at John’s Market. Prizes at The Ship will be given at 8:30pm. Benefiting Life Works NW. All passports must be filled/signed for prizes.” The “Ebenezer” of course refers to BridgePort’s classic winter staple, Ebenezer Ale, and ideally you’ll find a pint or two of this on the crawl tonight.

Baerlic Brewing (Portland): They have a new beer release today starting at 4pm: SHop Class Columbus IPA. “SHop Class Columbus is a IPA utilizing a single hop variety in the kettle, whirlpool and dryhop! Columbus hops are known for their jump out of the glass aromas of herbal spice, fruitiness and citrus backbone. We also utilize a bit of wheat in the beer to give it a nice chewy mouthfeel and a bit of spiceiness in the finish! Come see what Columbus hops are all about!!”

Portland’s Imperial Bottle Shop is having a Rogue Specialty Draft Night today from 5 to 8pm that you might want to check out: “We’ll be pouring one of the very first kegs we put into our cellar: Rogue’s 2013 Old Crustacean Barleywine, known as the cognac of beers. We’ll also have Good Chit Pilsner and Charlie 1981 Strong Ale on tap. Bill from Rogue Ales & Spirits will be in the house raffling off some Rogue merch and pouring free samples of some of Rogue’s canned/bottled beers.”

Beerworks (Medford) is hosting a tap takeover tonight with Bend’s 10 Barrel Brewing, starting at 6pm: “The awesome folks at 10 Barrel Brewing Company will be in the house at 6pm on the 1st! We are going to be tapping some top notch beers and they always bring fun swag to give away!”

Bailey’s Taproom (Portland): Their week-long celebration of barrel aged stouts, Dark Days, and today’s theme is “Enter the Void” at the Upper Lip: “Firestone Walker Velvet Merkin, Lagunitas Willet BA Imp. Stout, Belching Beaver BBA Horchata, Stickmen BBA Russian Imp. Stout, Full Sail BBA Imp. Stout and More!”

Don’t forget, Bend’s Boneyard Beer is doing a pop-up pub with Portland’s Lardo Sandwiches (both locations) all through this week and next. They have 13 beers available and tonight at Lardo West downtown they are having a raffle night.