Coming up this Saturday, January 16, is my favorite January beer event: the annual High Gravity Extravaganza hosted by McMenamins Old St. Francis School. It’s essentially a festival for strong beers, the perfect type for winter, and even better, it features more than 20 breweries and cideries, roughly half of which are other McMenamins breweries and the other half our local Central Oregon beermakers.

It will be taking place from 1 to 10pm, with a special Meet the Brewer portion the first three hours, and there will additionally be free live music starting at 3. It’s free to attend and if you want to drink, you can purchase a taster punchcard (which is better than fumbling for tickets), which holds up to 10 punches (tastes) at $1.50 each—for $15 total per card.

The beer and brewery list looks pretty phenomenal, and on top of that there will be three McMenamins ciders and three of our local ciders pouring. A good number of these beers are not only strong, but barrel aged as well, which is always a treat.

But remember, these are strong beers and that’s not an exaggeration! If you go, plan to have a designated driver, have a cab or some other ride lined up, or walk. You’ll be glad you did.