As you are probably aware (seeing as how you’re a beer geek reading this), there’s a lot going on craft beer-wise in Cascadia during the month of March. Really, there’s always a lot going on here. It seems the fun never ends. Here’s three can’t miss events that we recommend you attend for the love of great beer.

March 13 Double Mountain 3rd Anniversary Party

One of Hood River’s top three best breweries, Double Mountain, has been turning heads and captivating palates big time. Now just three years deep in the game, they’re throwing a blow out not to be skipped. Starting at noon on Saturday March 13 and lasting until 11PM, there will be lots of great DM beer, an array of great live music, and delicious food. All this under a heated tent outside of the brewpub. Read more at our earlier post here. We’ll see you there!

What: The release of Double Mountain’s new beer “The Empire Strikes Back”

When: Tonight, Thursday, March 4, 2010,  5-9pm

Double Mountain, one of the best breweries in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, has just informed us of their third anniversary party (you have to say “par-tay” when it’s this cool).

Double Mountain co-founder Charlie Devereux says “Come on down to Double Mountain and help us celebrate three years of fantastic beers, tasty fare and good times with friends. We pay homage to our great family of fans every March with a big blowout party… It’s our way of saying thanks for supporting us all the year round.”

Brewpublic and Saraveza’s My Beery Valentine event during Zwickelmania/Valentine’s weekend was good enough to scare up a grand ($1000) for Mercy Corps Haiti Relief Fund. Thanks to a great turn out and generous donations from breweries, chocolaters, and folks like our man Tyler “The Elder” Vickers, Portland’s craft beer community again came up big for those in need.

Shazbot! The folks at Fanno Creek are at it again. During the last weekend of February, the Tigard, Oregon brewpub will be hosting the second Nano Beer Fest and the first annual Winter Nano Beer Fest to celebrate the success of small breweries throughout Oregon.  The three day festival will house big beers from eleven small breweries under heated tents. The summer event may have been overshadowed by the Oregon Brewers Fest which ran during the same time (last weekend in July) but now, there’s no excuse to miss out on the wonderful selection of beer to be pouring from some of the best breweries in the Pacific Northwest. Further, with the way the weather has been going here in the Willamette Valley, we’re not even sure heated tents will be necessary. It’s Spring! Here’s the anticipated highlights:

Mt. Tabor Brewing: This is the public’s first chance to sample a brew from this awesome new brewery. Fresh off of being approved by both the OLCC and TTB, owner Brian Maher and brewer Eric Surface are anxious to showcase what they’ve been brewing in their Montavilla brewhouse. During this weekend, thirst patrons will get to try MTB’s Rocket Blonde Ale. Look for MTB’s beer around SE Portland soon at places like the Canton Grill on 82nd and Division. For more info on these guys, check out their new blog that recently went live at www.mttaborbrewing.com.

Shame on us for not visiting The Hop & Vine sooner. Our friends and colleagues have been raving about the place for some time. The respectable North Portland pub and bottleshop offers artisan grub, five thoughtfully selected rotating draught lines, and a plethora of bottled beer from around the globe. Just down the road from our friends at Saraveza, the spacious, relaxed ambiance of The Hop and Vine is a welcomed addition to the vibrant Portland beer community.
Upon a first visit, we met with proprietor Yetta Vorobik, the friendly beer geek behind the public house. Vorobik’s passion for beer and people is as evident as her appreciation for art. In an adjacent room, soon to house more beer, several intriguing works of art hang from the walls. The hardwood floors and warm environment make The Hop & Vine a quintessential dwelling to enjoy a delicious honest pint of brew. The establishment also offers a wide assortment of liquors and spirits for those not as inclined to opt for a malty treat.

I asked Ms. Vorobik about her wonderful establishment in this recent interview:

When did The Hop & Vine open?

As always here in Beervana, the weekend was chock full of wonderful brews to enjoy. For us, we were lucky to also enjoy said brews with great folks who live and breathe craft beer here at craft brewing’s epicenter.

The weekend sometimes starts on Thursday (heck, sometimes it never really ends), and this past one was such a doosie.

More Top 5 lists. You gotta love it!

Looks like fellow blogger, Jeff over at Beervana, has posted his own short list of highlights/trends in beer in 2009. Here is our own take on the matter.

Top 5 Oregon Beer Stories of 2009

1. The announcement of 19+ breweries and brewpub opening in Oregon in 2010 (Beer Around Town, Beervana)

2. Representative Ben Cannon’s 1900% beer tax increase fails

The past weekend could have been one of the best beer weekends to date. But to be perfectly honest the memory is a tad jogged. Down at the Holiday Ale Fest in Pioneer Square, it was amazing how many friends and brewquaintences you can run into, and even better, it’s great to meet new people and get their perspective on beer and life (which to us is pretty much synonymous). Laymen and brewers clicked their plastic HAF mugs amidst intermittent roars that rumbled through like “the wave” at a baseball game. As always, it is essential for the craft beer enthusiast to get down under the tents early. In fact, our weekend really started on Wednesday, as the organizers of the HAF did a nice job of preparing for the swarms of festivalgoers by adding this extra day.

Whenever there’s a cool festival in town, the fixture beer outfits around the city step up their game as well offering a great line-up of seasons. Between our few sessions at the Ale Fest, we made a few essential stops to the Horse Brass pub to pull back from the mayhem that would inevitable ensue down at Pioneer Courthouse Square. On Friday we also happened over to New Old Lompoc’s 5th Quadrant SideBar to meet with event staff coordinator Amy Casanova. She and the other nice folks at Lompoc helped Brewpublic raise nearly $800 for start-up community radio station KZME during our Cocoa Hop. We are grateful for Amy and Lompoc’s contribution in this noble cause, and also to all the brewers and chocolaters who gave of themselves, their time, and their products.

While at the 5th Quadrant we witnessed the brewers and Green Bottling put the yummy seasonal C-Son’s Greetings into 22-ounce bombers. We were also reminded of Lompoc’s upcoming 8 Malty Nights event coming up on the 11th to kick off Chanukah.

Further north, we found ourselves over the border in Vancouver, Washington to pick up some essentials at By the Bottle and check out the collaboration brewing of Salmon Creek Brewpub’s owner/brewer Larry Pratt with Seattle brewstar Tom Munoz. Munoz, a former brewer with Silver City teamed up with Pratt to put together a one-of-a-kind pale ale that should be ready to drink at Salmon Creek in a few weeks. See you there!

Later on Friday, we had a blast over at Belmont Station for a meet the brewer night with Bear Republic head brewer Peter Kruger. The Healdsburg, California brewer, we found out, has roots in Oregon brewing. Kruger was one of the early brewers at Full Sail in Hood River. Former Full Sail brewer Charlie Devereux of Double Mountain was on hand to say hello to his old friend and greet him with a growler of DM’s delicious Fa La La La La winter ale.Bear Republic’s delicious array of specialty and mainstay brews were the highlight of the night, and at the front and center was a Clobberskull wine barrel aged strong ale brewed with 10% split peas. Apparently the beer has a great history, and is of a recipe revitalized in Randy Mosher’s pioneering book Radical Brewing.

While at Belmont Station, we also meet with Michael Branes of Migration Brewing, one of Portland’s newest breweries. Branes, who worked for some time at Mountain Peoples Distribution, was join by fellow Mountain People’s Oregon sales manager Tim Ensign, who was pouring samples Bear Republic brews as well.

Saturday, as blogged about earlier found us back under the hearkening tents at 11AM stat for twitterworthy special tappings of select Bear Republic beers like the Trebuchet, a Belgian trippel aged in 100-year-old cognac barrels and two special fruited “The Grizz” super brown ale–one with nectarines and another with blackberries–to accompany the might Old Baba Yaga that was kickin’ ass since Wednesday. The boozier than all ungodly sin Trebuchet was the first thing to hit my stomach on this fair day. A brewer friend said it was too much “nail polish” for him, but to me, I rendered it my breakfast of champions. Several other wonderful beer rounded out my HAF weekend. I have to admit this was the best one yet. In fact, despite others’ gripes, I honestly didn’t experience on dud in the lot.

After escaping the mob scene that was Pioneer Courthouse Square, we trudged off some of the liver burn by hoofing a few miles home to Southeast. We were not extinguished yet. There was still Green Bottling’s holiday party at the cozy Horse Brass. Here, several local brewers raised a tall one to the great year and to Jack and Mike’s successful year of bottling up some of Oregon’s finest like Lompoc, Full Sail, and Laurelwood. After just a few more lighter beers to rehydrate (Full Sail and Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ales), this one was in the bag.

Sunday was relatively mellow, save for a few brews shared with fellow blogger D.A. of Beer Around Town. All said and done, I think I may just hybernate until the ‘10 Barley Wine and Big Beer Fest.

On Tuesday night Barley Brown’s Brewpub of Baker City, Oregon made a rare appearance in Portland at a meet the brewer event at Belmont Station. Brewer Shawn Kelso and owner Tyler Brown were on hand to share some of their specialty brews from their four-barrel nanobrewery including a two year vertical of the Sled Wreck Winter Ale, an Imperial IPA, and an Imperial uber-hopped Cascadian Dark Ale. Following a successful trip to the Great American Beer Fest that landed Oregon’s Far Eastern pub two medals, the brewery has been making more of a presence in the Rose City. BB’s will also be participating in the forthcoming Holiday Ale Fest during the first weekend in December. Brewpublic was fortunate to sample the five brews available at the Belmont Station event and conduct a brief interview with Shawn Kelso whose passion for his craft and people is far from abstruse.

Two different versions of the Sled Wreck–an ‘08 and an ‘09. The ‘08 has a little bit of American oak character and some bourbon notes. How did this beer change?