Cool Winter Events

I know Angelo is the blogosphere's resident social coordinator, but two events have caught my eye--and perhaps yours, too.

Amnesia Winter Brewfest
Saturday, Dec 11, noon
832 N. Beech
$15 for a glass mug and 5 six-ounce pours

Amnesia has absolutely zero web presence. They don't even have a Facebook page (just one set up by "friends of" Amnesia.) Nor do they send out emails or press releases. As a consequence, I had to learn about this via our old-timey MSM correspondent, John Foyston.* He describes it thus in his column in today's A&E:

They'll also be pouring, for the first time in five years, The Precious Pilsner, plus a new ale from brewer Sean Thommen.... Amnesia alos has invited Walking Man, Double Mountain, Everybody's Brewing, Upright, Caldera, and Fort George to bring special beers to the fest.

If you were to assemble a list of the best NW breweries under 5,000 barrels, every one of those would be on it. I am otherwise occupied, but this seems like an absolute must-see for those of you who want a break from the gift-buying rat race.


Week of the Wild Fest
December 14-18
16 Tons Bottle Shop
265 E 13th Eugene

Remember when Eugene was lame? Like, five years ago? It was easily the most under-performing town in Beervana, with just a handful of breweries and no real scene to speak of. Well, we can now definitively say the city has gotten its act together.

Week of the Wild fest looks a whole lot like Belmont Station's Puckerfest--but possibly better. Sixteen Tons will be pouring ten beers on tap, and 50 from the bottle, but the very cool thing is that you can get 3-ounce tasters for $1-4. (Yeah, four bucks for three ounces is steep, but sour ales can get mighty spendy in the bottle; this way you get to taste a $20 beer for a whole lot less.) No beer list, but the breweries look fantastic:

Featured Breweries:

Oregon: Block 15, Boneyard, BridgePort, Cascade, Deschutes, Hair of the Dog, Rogue, Upright

Other States: Allagash, Avery, The Bruery, Jolly Pumpkin, New Belgium, North Coast, Ommegang, Russian River, Victory

Belgium: Frank Boon, Cantillon, De Dolle, De Proef, De Ranke, Dupont, Girardin, Hanssens, Lindemans, 3 Fonteinen, Orval, Oud Beersel, Rodenbach, Strubbe, Verhaeghe

Germany: Bayerischer Bahnhof

Norway: Haandbryggeriet

Denmark: Mikkeller

Good times. Don't miss it, Eugenies, this will be cool.
____________
*John has his own tech issues. Apparently, he has to send his blog posts to New Jersey, where the parent company of the Oregonian vets his content before posting it themselves. New Jersey! And you wonder why the O keeps having to lay off writers because of collapsing sales.