Happy Winter Solstice and Mayan Apocalypse Day! I hope you are cracking open an appropriate beer sometime today. This is also the final Oregon beer news post before Christmas, as I’m taking next week “off” (from the news blogging) for the holiday, so in the meantime here’s the news for the weekend. As usual I’ll be periodically updating this post throughout the day, so check back often. And if you have news to share, please contact me and I can get that updated.

McMenamins Old St. Francis School (Bend) has got a special Holiday Beer Tasting Flight on tap all day today, offering up a flight of three holiday ales for $6, with food pairings available as well. Brewer Mike “Curly” White says, “This special beer flight came about during a conversation with some of the pubsters here at OSF. We had a few Winter inspired or even Christmas inspired beers and putting them all on one taster tray just seemed the appropriate thing to do so everyone could enjoy the merriment of the Season. Whether you like winter warmer style beers, big bold out of the ordinary brown ales or deep dark beers with spices you can’t go wrong with this flight. If you are cold from the chilly wind or if you need your insides to be consumed with the feeling of Christmas than a taster of these three should do the trick.”  The three beers are Winter Spiced Terminator Stout, Kris Kringle, and Parson Brown.

Upright Brewing (Portland) has the new version of their Fatali Four released in bottles today, and on sale in the tasting room (others will hit the shelves soon). This is a chili version of their Four: “A blend of barrel-aged Four that has fresh homegrown fatali chiles added for a couple months before bottling. It also incorporates light use of brettanomyces yeasts providing a contrasting earthy backdrop for the bright chile flavors.  Cellar for up to three years.” It’s 4.5% abv as well. It’s just in time for the holidays, so don’t miss out!

Crux Fermentation Project (Bend) is invading Portland’s Roscoe’s today, starting at 6pm, for a Brewers Night Party along with 21st Amendment Brewery: “In addition, we are excited to be pouring two beers from Crux Fermentation (Bend, OR), it will be one of your first opportunities to try these beers on tap in Portland.. Come down and hangout with the brewers, try some great new beers, and if the Mayan’s are right, it might be your first and last chance to experience them.” Portlanders, get out to try some Crux!

Barley Brown’s Brewpub (Baker City) has a great Apocalypse Day lineup on tap now: “HOPACOPLYPSE! 12.21.12.  Marks and Eli will have hid kegs to put together a kick-ass tap list. Turmoil, 2012 Chaos, DisOrder, Forklift, TankSlapper, Stumble Off, Joan, Pallet Jack IPA, and others.”