This Week In Beer: Puckerfest, Kölsch Fest, and Breakside's Summer Luau

Montavilla Brew Works Grand Opening

The long-awaited Montavilla Brew Works finally opens its doors this Friday, after the lengthy multi-year renovation of a dilapidated commercial space at 78th and Stark. In that time, ex-homebrewer Michael Kora has squeezed a 10-barrel system, well-appointed bar, and 15 taps—about half of which will be used to pour housemade brews—into the place. Kora and company plan to start with proven English and American styles before branching out into the unknown, but the beers we have had from his pilot system—which he has been putting out since the beginning of the year—have been great thus far. Welcome to the neighborhood. PH. Montavilla Brew Works, 7805 SE Stark St. 4 pm.

Hollywood Theatre 89th Birthday/Fort George Vertigo Effect Release

The Hollywood Theatre celebrates its July 17, 1926, opening with a special commemorative beer from Fort George called Vertigo Effect, to go with a 70mm screening of the 1958 Hitchcock thriller, Vertigo. A 4.7 percent ABV pale ale with corn added to replicate the scarcity of good barley during the Prohibition era in which the theatre opened, the beer is bittered with Galena and Mt. Hood hops, a sessionable accompaniment to a summer evening at the movies. PH. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd. 7-9 pm.

Puckerfest: Out of State Day

California and Colorado get their time in the limelight at Puckerfest today, with yet-to-be-identified but assuredly rare pours from Crooked Stave, Russian River, Firestone Walker and New Belgium, among other non-Oregon alehouses. It’s worth checking out for the special house-cellared kegs that will make an appearance, even if their creators couldn’t trek the hundreds of miles to share them personally. PH. Belmont Station, 4500 SE Stark St. All day.

Loyal Legion Reopens

Turns out it was only closed three days. So 99 taps of Oregon beer are flowing again. Loyal Legion, 705 SE 6th St.

Saturday, July 18

St. Arnoldus Day

“Drink beer, not water,” was the favorite saying of Saint Arnoldus, or at least it was the Belgian’s favorite phrase of his. Every year, the country celebrates its patron saint of ale with a feast. Portland’s Bazi Bierbrasserie sticks closer to the quote, with a taster tray featuring the Huyghe Brewery’s Deliria, Delirium Argentum, Delirium Nocturnum and Delirium Red, and a small amount of complementary St. Arnoldus T-shirts and glasses to boot. PH. Bazi Bierbrasserie, 1522 SE 32nd Ave. 5 pm. $12 for four 5-ounce pours.

Prost! Kölsch Fest

Unless you’re a pretty big beer nerd, or have been to Cologne—the only place in the world where the beer can be legally labeled Kölsch—you probably haven’t the beer served the right way. In Cologne, the easy drinking pale pseudo-lager is served in massive halls in .2l increments, delivered on special serving trays. As soon as your beer is empty, you get another one, and a small tick mark on your placemat letting the server know how many you have had. Save the money on airfare and spend it on beer—Prost! looks to replicate this beer experience, with four authentic Kölsch beers served as though you flew 14 hours to Germany. It’s a hell of a staycation. PH. Prost!, 4237 N Mississippi Ave. Noon-10 pm.

Puckerfest: Block 15 and De Garde

Two of the Northwest’s finest sour breweries invade Belmont Station’s taps for this day of Puckerfest, with super rare pours like De Garde’s Citrus Desay, a blend of foeder aged Saison and two-year-old wine-barrel-aged saison, blended and conditioned on citrus peel and zest, and then dry hopped. That, plus a Rip Van Winkle barrel-aged dark sour, blended with nine- and 24-month-old oud bruins from Block 15, showcases Oregon’s ever-increasing passion for difficult and complex brews. Be on the lookout for rare bottles too, rumor has it some might be hitting shelves this afternoon. PH. Belmont Station, 4500 SE Stark St. 3-5 pm.

Sunday, July 19

Breakside Milwaukie Summer Luau

The parking lot of Breakside’s Milwaukie industrial park brewery is transformed into a suburban asphalt Maui this Sunday for a special Summer Luau. With live dancers, music, and food—like Kahlua pork sliders—all among special beers like Passionfruit Sour, Framboise, and Mangolust, this should be one heck of a party. Just don’t drink too much—you still have to drive back to real Portland after. PH. Breakside Brewery, 5821 SE International Way, Milwaukie. Noon-8 pm. $15 souvenir glass and four tickets, additional tickets $1.

Puckerfest: Upright Brewing

Willamette Week Beer of the Year creator Upright Brewing gets time to shine this Sunday, with funky pours like the Small World Saison and Saison du Blodget, among many other fine sour and farmhouse ales from the most fun basement near the Moda Center. PH. Belmont Station, 4500 SE Stark St. 3-5 pm.

Monday, July 20

Puckerfest: Day of Belgian Sours

The grand finale of Belmont Station’s annual celebration of funky and sour ales concludes with a thoughtful nod to the originators of many of the styles American craft brewers are infatuated with—Belgium. Very rare Old World beers from famed sour breweries like Cantillon, LambickX, Oud Beersel Still Lambic and St. Louis will be served, accompanied by thoughts from Belgian beer sommelier Luc de Raedemaeker, who will provide a looking glass into their creation, complexity and seemingly boundless longevity. PH. Belmont Station, 4500 SE Stark St. 5-7 pm.

Tuesday, July 21

Belgian Independence Day

Bazi Bierbrasserie celebrates Belgian independence with a special tasting tray featuring a final battle with the Dutch. La Trappe (Netherlands) goes head to head with Westmalle (Belgium) in with a double tasting tray of the breweries’ dubbel, tripel and quad ales. Who does it better? Well, they are considered to be Belgian styles…but you be the judge. PH. Bazi Bierbrasserie, 1522 SE 32nd Ave. 5-9 pm. $15 for eight 4-ounce pours.

Wednesday, July 22

Oregon Brewers Festival

Get ready to shout incoherently while raising a glass every 15 minutes. The 28th year of Oregon’s largest beer festival kicks off in Waterfront Park, with all the associated trucker hats and people who don’t “like dark beer” that typically accompany the pomp and circumstance. Relax, beer nerds. This is a festival to get those people off of the green bottled stuff. And it works. With 90 craft beers from all over the United States, and 15 from New Zealand and the Netherlands in the International Tent, the best time to enjoy the festival—read: to avoid the lines—is to get there early. Try the stuff you haven’t had, and be glad that this huge fest has been creating craft-beer drinkers out of bros for almost 30 years. It’s why you can find Deschutes when you go on vacation to Ohio. PH. Tom McCall Waterfront Park, 1020 SW Naito Pkwy, oregonbrewfest.com. Noon-7 pm. $7 glass, $1 tokens.