Happy Friday! Here’s the Oregon beer news for Friday the 7th and the rest of the weekend; as usual I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day with the latest info and news as I find it, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated as well.

The Commons Brewery (Portland) is celebrating their one-year anniversary (under their current name and location at any rate) today! “Come help us celebrate our first year as The Commons Brewery. We’ll be tapping a few special kegs, including the last bit of Plum Bretta, Gin Barrel Bruin and 2011 Sticke. We’ll have appetizers provided by Lardo, Pacific Pie, 2nd Story and Cheese Bar.” What a great year it’s been for The Commons, with big wins at both the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer Festival and have become one of the required beer destinations of the Portland craft beer scene. Big congrats to The Commons on the successful year, and many more to come! (Brewpublic and New School both had extended writeups on The Commons and their first year as well.)

McMenamins Thompson Brewery & Public House (Salem) has a special holiday weekend beer flight that sounds amazing, dubbed “A Snowball’s Chance in Ale” that would totally be worth a trip to Salem for: “To celebrate the release of the 2012 Kris Kringle Yuletide Ale, brewer Jen Kent will present guests with a special taster tray of Kris Kringle and several other seasonal beers for $7.50. Seasonal beers include Kris Kringle, Santa’s Flask (Kris Kringle with oak spiral soaked in whiskey), Little Drummer Hop (Romulans-tyled IPA), Parson Brown Maple Ale, Lady Kringle (Spanish coffee porter on nitro), and a special holiday surprise ale.”  And as for the holiday surprise, a Facebook post earlier in the week reveals all: “Ichiban Biiru ~ “First Beer” ~The Sake Yeast fermented Ale is done! She’s rather interesting in flavor. Slight notes of Belgian style brews, soft back of malts and a hint of Cascade hops.” Get thee to Salem!

Amnesia Brewing (Portland) is holding their annual Winter Ale Fest tomorrow, Saturday the 8th all day from noon to 10pm: a great low-key fest (especially after the craziness of the Holiday Ale Festival), featuring a handful of Amnesia’s own special winter beers (SleighJerker, Frosty’s Revenge, and Milk of Amnesia along with vintaged versions of these), along with a nice select of guest brews. $20 gets you a glass fest mug, 10 tickets, a sticker and a coupon for a free pint at Amnesia’s Washougal, Washington location—a good deal all around. This should definitely be on your must-do list for Portland this weekend.

Another winter beer fest this Saturday is the Mt. Hood Meadows Brew Fest taking place up at the Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort from 12 to 6pm—not your usual beer fest venue but great if you’re a skier or snowboarder. “Taste some of the NW’s best microbrews! We’ll have several breweries sampling their microbrews from 12-6 PM. Widmer, Kona, Redhook, Full Sail, Double Mountain, Everybody’s Brewery and Laurelwood Brewery are among the tasty microbrews celebrating the new of the season with us. $10 entry (21 and over) includes a glass mug and 4 chits, and extra script can be purchased at $1 pe 3oz sample. Rhythm Culture will be performing from 1-5 PM.”

16 Tons Beer & Wine (Eugene) is hosting a tap takeover with Sierra Nevada Brewing today from 5 to 10pm, with eight Sierra Nevada brews available, and a bit of an early bird special: “We’ll have several Sierra Nevada Ovila beers as well as other special releases on tap. The first 30 people to get an Ovila will receive a stemmed Sierra Nevada glass.”

Chehalem Valley Brewing (Newberg) has a pair of new releases hitting the taps today: Chocolate Cream Stout and Hard Apple Cider. Obviously I’m partial to the Stout over the cider, but another thought occurred to me—half stout and half cider in a snakebite! I don’t know if the brewery will do that for you but it couldn’t hurt to ask!