Belmont Station Celebrates 20 Years Plus Weekend Fests That Celebrate IPAs, Cider and Farmhouse Beers

Belmont Station quickly became a pillar of the Portland beer community by holding beer releses, tap takeovers, meet-the-brewer events — that’s Ted Sobel of Oakridge’s Brewers’ Union 180 pub with Belmont Staton co-owner Carl Singmaster — and the like nearly every day; hundreds of beer events over the years. Bless ’em! (FoystonFoto)

Belmont Station celebrates 20 years along with weekend fests that celebrate IPAs at Roscoe’s, Hophouse Ciderfest and farmhouse beers at Saraveza.

Logsdon Peche n Brett Release
5- 9 p.m. Thursday March 30, Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom, 3090 SE Division St.;
The Imperial will have Logsdon Peche n Brett 375 and 750 ml bottles for sale — limits will be two 375 ml bottles & two 750 ml bottles per person — and they will also be pouring draft Peche ‘n Brett, plus Shilpi’s F’Alt, Conversion #1, 2016 Cerasus and Krieke Vier. Get a sampler tray of all 5 beers for $15.

Rogue UniPorter Release Party
5 p.m. Thursday March 30, Rogue Eastside Pub & Pilot Brewery, 928 SE Ninth Ave.;
Rogue has once again teamed up with local legend Brian Kidd aka The Unipiper to release the third one-off beer brewed with him. First they brought you The UnipIPA, a habanero infused IPA. Then The Pickled Piper, a kettle-soured cucumber gose. Now comes UniPorter, a robust porter brewed with peat smoked malts resulting in a bold, full flavored porter with just a touch of smoke to round out the palate. The release party also features a special Star Wars themed menu and the chance to have a pint with the Unipiper himself.

Portland Farmhouse and Wild Ale Festival
VIP Session 4- 9 pm Friday, March 31; General Admission 11 am – 9 pm Sat. April 1, 11 am- 6 pm, Sunday April 2, Saraveza, 1004 N. Killingsworth St, $25 General Admission includes branded glass and 10 tix; VIP Session $35 for glass and 10 tix.
The fifth annual Portland Farmhouse and Wild Ale Festival and the first Portland Farmhouse Weekend celebrate the rustic, working-class, yeast-driven beers that originated in France and Belgium but have taken hold over here. There are all weekend long including Upright Brewing’s eighth Anniversary on April 1 and a weekend brewer meet-and-greet and tap takeover at The Commons on March 31.

The main event is even bigger this year with more outdoor tented space and a new Friday evening VIP session and more than fifty different farmhouse ales pouring during the weekend — beers from Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, The Ale Apothecary, Alesong Brewing & Blending, The Commons Brewery, Upright Brewing, pFriem Family Brewers, Agrarian Ales, De Garde, Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery, Ruse Brewing, Great Notion Brewing, Culmination Brewing, Yachats Brewing, Reach Break Brewing, all who will be participating in this years festivities.

Roscoe’s Ninth Annual IPA Summit
2 p.m. Friday March 31, Roscoe’s, 8105 SE Stark St.;
It’s your weekend, Hop-Heads: Roscoe’s annual IPA Summit features great IPAs on tap all weekend long. You’ll want to be there Friday afternoon for the best selection. A few of the breweries and beers include: Upright Schade IIPA, Boneyard Beer, The Commons Mister Irrelevant, Russian River Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig, Hop Concept Brewing, El Segundo, Half Acre, Marble Brewing, Fat Heads Ransom Gin Barrel Aged Head Shrinker, Firestone Leo vs Ursus Fortem, Laurelwood Passionfruit Rando, The Bruery and many more.

Groundbreaker Coffee Pale Ale Release
4 p.m. Friday March 31, Groundbreaker Gastropub, 2030 SE Seventh Ave.;
Ground Breaker Brewing releases its first Experiment Ale Series installment of 2017, Coffee Pale Ale, a spring mainstay in the line-up. The combination of Equal Exchange’s Medium Peruvian roast coffee with a specially formulated pale ale was selected by the guests in the Ground Breaker Gastropub. “Having our own pub gave us the ability to try several coffee/beer combinations and get an immediate response from our customers,” said Ground Breaker’s head of R&D, James Neumeister. “When it comes to coffee, people think dark beer would be the obvious winner but no other coffee beer we made matched the positive response we received using this pale ale and coffee combination.”

Cascade Brewing Showcase
6-8 p.m. Friday March 31, McMenamins 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop, 2290 NW Thurman St.;
Sour beer fans rejoice because the Cascade Brewing team is coming to Northwest Portland and the tap list is amazing: Gose 2014, Elderberry 2015, Cosmo Sour 2015 and Triple Beam.
Gose 2014
A refreshing tribute to an obscure 16th century German beer style, our Gose 2014 features sour wheat ales made with sea salt and coriander and aged for up to six months. Dry and crisp, the Gose offers soft grassy wheat flavors with hints of lemon, a subtle salt brine, brisk lactic acidity and touch of coriander spice.
Elderberry 2015
This Northwest sour ale is a blend of red ales aged in red wine barrels for up to 25 months with dried elderberries. One of our most complex offerings, Elderberry captures flavors of dried dark fruits, red wine, leather, chocolate, earth and plum.
Cosmo Sour
A playful variation on the classic Cosmopolitan cocktail, Cosmo Sour is one of the most recent additions to our cocktail series of sour beers and features sour wheat and blond ales aged for 14 months in oak wine barrels with cranberries and fresh lime zest.
Triple Beam
This Belgian-style triple spent five months in a Jim Beam barrel: Bourbon, oak and vanilla are all present in the aroma and flavor of this smooth and quaffable beer.

Belmont Station expanded a few years back to include an inviting beer garden. (FoytstonFoto)

Belmont Station’s 20th Anniversary: First event of many
11 a.m. Saturday April 1, Horse Brass Pub, 4537 SE Belmont St.;
As befits its status as the bottle shop that taught us what a great idea bottle shops are, Belmont Station is celebrating its 20th year with 20 days of events starting Saturday with a party and a toast at the Brass, where Don Younger and Joy Campbell opened Belmont Station in a small adjoining space in April 1997. Grab a beer, a special lunch made just for Belmont Station supporters and complimentary birthday cake at the Brass.

Then join Belmont staff, including founder Joy Campbell, and current co-owners Carl Singmaster and Lisa Morrison, along with brewers, distributors and members of the Oregon Piper Society as we march four blocks north in tribute to the Station’s 2007 move to its current home at 4500 SE Stark St. for a complimentary toast with the first tapping of 3-Headed Monster IPA, a collaboration between Barley Brown’s, Boneyard and Melvin breweries.

Hophouse Ciderfest
Noon Saturday April 1, 15th Avenue Hophouse, 1517 NE Brazee St.; $25 includes fest glass and 16 tix.
The oldest outdoor cider festival in Portland — and possibly the most fun, say organizers — happens rain or shine in a tent at the 15th Ave. Hophouse and this year features more than 60 of the more unusual ciders such as Portland Sangria, HiWheel Death Wish Bunny, Bull Run Laughing Water Perry, Ace Blood Orange, Schilling Passionfruit/Pineapple, New West Ginger, Reverend Nat’s New Moon Mandarin. About 60 ciders from mostly local/small cidermakers, like Tumalo Cider, Runcible Cider and more.  And if you get tired of being adventurous, there are about fifteen straight-apple ciders on hand:  Bad Apple from 2Towns, Baumann’s two apple ciders, Finn River Apple Abbey, and five apple ciders from Woodbox and Wandering Aengus.

Gigantic’s Fifth Anniversary Greatest Hits, Axes of Evil Release
3- 5:30 p.m. Sunday April 2, Civic Taproom and Bottle Shop, 621 SW 19th Ave
You may not be surprised to learn that Gigantic is celebrating it’s fifth year semi-gigantically, by bringing back some of the most loved brews in their roster of ever-changing seasonal beers. They’ll be brewing an entire year of Gigantic “Greatest Hits” starting in April and running to June 2018 — a 15 month-year, you might note.

After receiving hundreds of votes from Gigantic fans as to which beers to reprise, They’ll start their “Greatest Hits” reissue collection where it all began, with Axes of Evil and The City Never Sleeps, both beers that were top vote getters. And yes, there is more: Gigantic 5th Anniversary reissue beers will be signified by a special “5 Years Greatest Hits” stamp. The beers will also come paired with songs from local musicians.
Axes Of Evil
Gigantic + Three Floyds collabo: Citrus, floral and tropical hoppiness lead to full malt flavor from proper English malt, kilned over Welsh coal. ABV 6.0 percent; 70 IBU

Cinema Sundays
9 p.m. Sundays, EastBurn, 1800 E Burnside; free admission
Cinema Sundays is EastBurn’s new event that includes recent release and classic movies on the big screen plus food and drink specials and a popcorn bar.