The Beer Here: Fresh hops and Oktoberfests By the Metric Tonne

Fresh hops and Oktoberfests by the metric tonne: The Beer Here for the week of September 27, 2018.

Mac’s Celebrates Silver
4-7 pm Thursday Sept. 27, Portland Brewing Taproom, 2730 NW 31st Ave.;
Among the 22 medals Oregon won at this year’s GABF was one dear to my heart: a silver medal for MacTarnahan’s Amber Ale, a longtime favorite of mine and one that — thanks to Chris at Mongers —  I sip nearly every day. But, my preference aside, Mac’s is not huge in today’s market because it’s not the oakiest/hoppiest/souest/newer/latest/greatest beer out there. Instead it’s a classic pale ale with a couple decades of history,  a Portland-sized dose of hops and a lovely malt balance, and perhaps this ringing affirmation from the country’s biggest beer competition will impel some new customers to reach for that green-labeled neo-tartan bottle…just leave one for me! The Portland Brewing crew is celebrating MacTarnahan’s Silver with a special Happy Hour tonight featuring MacTarnahan’s as well as Fresh Hop Mac’s, and they’ll also have a special two-beer flight featuring both beers, so you can taste the conventional Cascade hops side-by-side with the wet hops.

Portland Fresh Hops Fest
5-9 pm Friday Sept. 28, noon-8 pm Saturday Sept. 29, Oaks Amusement Park, 7805 SE Oaks Park Way; free admission, $20 includes souvenir tasting glass and six tix. Kids ok Saturday only until 5 pm, mannerly dogs on leashes are ok, too. Event parking is free.
The 15th annual Portland Fresh Hops Fest will present more than 60 fresh-hop Oregon beers, each made with hops picked off the bine and used within hours of harvesting. Each brewery provides only one beer, so attendees are encouraged to arrive on Friday or early on Saturday for the greatest selection. The festival will also feature homebrew demonstrations from Portland U-Brew on Saturday from Noon to 5 pm; a number of commercial vendors; and on-site food from Urban German Grill.

Roscoe’s Fresh Hop Summit
2 pm Friday Sept. 28-Sunday Sept. 30, Roscoe’s, 8105 SE Stark St.;
The fresh hop summit will feature fresh hop beers in many different styles. Fresh hop beers, cask beers, and cider will all be on tap. There will be more than 30 fresh hop beers available and rotating throughout the weekend and many of your favorite breweries will be on tap including Breakside Brewery, Fort George Brewery, Culmination, Gigantic, Deschutes, Laurelwood, Sunriver, Barley Browns, Migration, Reuben’s, pFriem Family Brewers, Flat Tail Brewing, and many many more. As usual with Roscoe’s summits, there will be great fresh hop beer and cider on tap all week leading up to the event and all weekend long and taster trays will be available…just don’t look for Roscoe’s owner Jeremy: he’s going to be at Munich and the BIG Oktoberfest…

Fresh Hop Fridays
Each Friday in September, Uptown Market, 6620 SW Scholls Ferry Rd., Beaverton;
Uptown Market plans to have a new roster of fresh hop beers each Friday in September.

Widmer Brothers Brewing 14th Annual Oktoberfest
Noon-11 pm Saturday Sept. 29, Pioneer Courthouse Square, 701 SW Sixth Ave; event is free and all-ages until 4 pm and legal-age drinkers can buy a mug ($6) and tokens. The concert portion costs $39 and includes all day and concert admission, and a complimentary beer stein.
Join the Widmer Brothers Brewing folks to celebrate all things bier and music, featuring musical guests Dirty Heads, Rare Monk, The Weather Machine, Jumblehead and Those Darn Accordions. For those of legal age, the event features all of your favorite Widmer brews, including Hefeweizen, Russell Street IPA and specialty small-batch brews you can only sample at Oktoberfest. theyll also be celebrating their Oktoberfest beer, which will be available in cans, only at this event. There are lots of free family activities before the ticketed evening concert, including face-painting, a masskrugstemmen competition, pretzel necklace building, palm/tarot card readers, Classy Camelids Llama and Alpaca (in German attire) and a photobooth.

Prost Oktoberfest
Friday Sept 28 – Sunday Sept. 30, Prost! Portland, 4237 N Mississippi Ave.; free admission, kids OK.
Prost’s 2018 Oktoberfest will once again take over the Marketplace for a massive biergarten with live music, glassware for sale, face painting, and plenty of Oktoberfest bier flowing, plus something new, Punktoberfest: Hammerschlagen will be coming down from Seattle to play punk versions of Oktoberfest covers on Saturday night from 8-9 pm.

Oregon Zoo Oktoberfest
11 am – 4 pm Saturday Sept. 29, Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Rd; free with zoo admission, parking costs $2/hour or $8/day and fills up quickly…better to ride MAX or the bus and get $1.50 off zoo admission.
Join the zoo crew to celebrate autumn, the harvest season and excellent craft beer: Local vendors will be stationed around the concert lawn offering free samples of Oregon beers for the grown-ups, and family activities include live music, dancing, lawn games and fun crafts for kids. Events include live music from the European Take-Out Band (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and the Michael Fischer Trio (1:30 to 4 p.m.), check out Wildlife Live! meet-&-greets at noon and 3 p.m., an elephant pool party at 2 p.m. and the Unipiper. There will be German-inspired fare including Bavarian pretzels, Bier Bratwurst and Cheddarwurst, along with some of the usual zoo food options.

Edgefield Oktoberfest
11 am-10 pm Sunday Sept. 30, McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey St, Troutdale;
As befits the enchanted village that is Edgefield, there is a slew of events at their Oktoberfest including Beer, music, more beer, bratwurst and hamburgers and more, including:
Oktoberfest Plant & Veggie Sale: noon -5 pm
Loading Dock
High 5’s Polka Band : 11 am
McDougall : 1:30 pm
Melville : 3:30 pm
Korgy and Bass: 5:30 pm
Kool Stuff Katie : 8 pm
The Soulful Daze : 5 pm
Michael Berly and the Yellers : 7 pm
Little Red Shed
Chervona : 1 pm
Tribal Heart Bellydance : 4 pm
Ezra Bell : 5:30 pm
Roaming
Balloons & Facepainting : 3 pm

Australian Inspired Collaboration Dinner
6-10 pm Saturday sept. 29, Migration Brewing Company (Wilkes), 18188 NE Wilkes Rd., Gresham;
Chef Outta Water has been throughout China, Australia and are now making their way stateside to team up Chef Chris Holen of Baked Alaska Restaurant & Lounge, Astoria OR and Casey Lee Gipson of Migration Brewing for a Australian Inspired Food Collaboration that features an ala carte menu of such delicacies as Australian meat pie; beetroot burger; housemade tim tams and halibut fish & chips.