Well we are fully engaged in the social networks these days. There's no excuse for missing an event now. In addition to this blog (which you should be subscribing to the feeds (RSS button coming soon, I hope), we are also a group on facebook and would love to have you follow along. (www.facebook.com Search Oakshire Brewing). Finally, we've started using the twitter account. I know, I know, you're avoiding that worthless piece of time wasting. I was too, but now I see the value in real time updates for you. That way you're just a tweet away from our next event.

We don't have as many events in through the end of May, but the ones we do are not to be missed. As always, if you know of any events or festivals that we should be involved in please let us know so! Without further a due, here your Oakshire events....

Please join us on Wednesday April 29th at the Bier Stein in Eugene, 345 E 11th Ave, from 5-7PM. The whole crew will be sampling out spring seasonal, Hindsight ESB. Our Watershed IPA will be pouring as well. Everybody's doing it.

Ahhh...Beantown, the site of this year's Craft Brewers Conference. Jeff and Matt(and beerwife Eriel) got a chance to travel across the country to learn, network, and of course sample great beers from the East Coast and around the country. Yes, believe it or not our industry does have a professional conference to teach, to promote and to bring together a small but growing group of like minded people.

..... if you have your guys weld a "trojan horse" to give a little lift tothe fork, you can. Jeff had this steel doo hicky welded together so that we could do the setting of the tanks with our own equipment and not hire a rigging crew...... if you have your guys weld a "trojan horse" to give a little lift tothe fork, you can. Jeff had this steel doo hicky welded together so that we could do the setting of the tanks with our own equipment and not hire a rigging crew. It fits over the forks and with a little forethought, worked like a charm.

Catch up time. Rewind. Last Thursday we motored north to Corvallis and the Crowbar. It was Oakshire night and a great time was had by all. Great music(sorry I could not play that harp Chris), killer pizza and great people. If you find yourself over there, stop by for a slice and a pint. We've got several lines there. Some pics from the event.

Where did the time go? We got to this point via a meet and greet in Corvallis, the Spring Beer and Wine festival in Portland, a little time with the family in Portland and a long afternoon on Monday with two idiots (one being me) trying not to break stuff as we rigged these tanks with far too few hands. Pictures and posts on that later this week when I get a chance. Cheers Matt

This weekend is the Spring Beer and Wine festival in Portland and it marks the first fest that I get to attend as a member of Oakshire's team. This looks like a fantastic fest with beer, wine, cheese, food, seminars, and music. It runs both Fri and Sat from noon to 11PM. We'll be pouring Watershed IPA and Overcast Espresso Stout. I'll be around the booth Friday and Jeff will be in attendance Saturday. Stop by and say hi and try two of the first beers that we will be bottling as soon as this summer. Cheers Matt

Hop Talk blogger Al pointed out today that some new data put out by the Brewers Association places my new home state of Oregon as the third highest number of breweries per capita. Vermont and Montana lead the way. Check his comments and the BA link here: http://hop-talk.com/2009/04/06/vermont-number-one-in-breweries-per-capita/ While this is great news for the diversity of craft beer in my new home state (Illinois ranks 37th-boo!

Wow! What a day at work. Joe and I made the first of two batches of IPA. Just as we were knocking out to the fermenter, Willy pulled up with his rig and three shiny gifts for us. After a little fiddlin' whe dragged them off and into storage for a few days. When the cellar expansion is complete, we'll roll them in. And just for good measure, we got the first two (of many I hope) bourbon barrels for our collection. Hopefully we will have a nice collection soon. I have the floor space right now. Thank you everyone who made this day rock. You know who you are! brew on, Matt