As a freelance writer, I’m basically grateful for any publisher and editor willing to suffer my pitches, edit my work, and spend the ink or kilobytes to publish it. Thusly, I bid a fond adieu to typing about beer for Portland’s other alt-weekly, Willamette Week, and merrily begin doing such for The Merc who graciously extended the role of beer blogger and, soon enough, columnist. This entails 1-2 weekly blog posts on beer news big and small, breaking or just timely, and again, sooner than later, a half-page column in the paper.

First up was a 1,700-word story about the best places local beer lovers can enjoy imported craft beers during Craft Brewers Conference.

*Then came news of advance tix for the 10th Annual FredFest.

*Oregon Public House kickstarted #Aletruism Brewing.

*Super fun breaking news that Bend’s Worthy Brewing is expanding up to the stars.

*Jacobsen Sea Salted beer in the form of Jammer Gose from Bklyn’s Sixpoint Brewery.