The third annual Base Camp Brewing Collabofest is coming up at the end of January, and we couldn’t be happier! Not only will we Portlanders be treated to some exceptional brews crafted specially for this festival (as well as some of the first brews of 2017), but most all of the breweries that we visit during our Brews Cruise Tour were selected to participate this year!

The first CollaboFest in 2015 featured only 10 local breweries, but it was such a success that they expanded the field to 16 breweries for the next year. All Portland breweries are invited to enter, and in October the final 16 are selected by a blind-draw.  They are then split into pairs and tasked with developing 2 new, unique brews. The 16 brews produced for this year’s festival will debut at the main event Saturday January 28^th at 2pm at Base Camp Brewery. While there certainly is a competitive spirit among the brewers, Collabofest is not a competition but rather an opportunity to showcase the creativity and innovation of some of Portland’s breweries and the camaraderie that exists between them.

Tickets are available for the event at two levels here. All proceeds benefit two non-profits. One of the NPOs is SheJumps, a national organization that provides outdoor education, youth initiatives and grassroots recreational gatherings for girls and women. The other beneficiary is the fund to maintain the Oregon Timber Trail, an iconic 650 mile mountain bike trail that runs from the Gorge down to the California border- one of the crown jewels of Oregon’s bike infrastructure.

Not that we ever need a reason to hoist a pint of local brew, but celebrating collaboration and helping out a couple of worthy organizations seems like a pretty good reason, nonetheless!

Hope to see you there!