Hard to believe it’s been nine years since McMenamins Old St. Francis School opened up in the, er, old St. Francis school property in downtown Bend, but there it is. I loved it when it first opened and I still love it today; I know McMenamins historically gets a bad rap sometimes for mediocre pub food and lackluster beers (undeservedly so, particularly in the past few years since Mike “Curly” White has been manning the brewing helm and has been cranking out great beers) but there’s simply no denying that the Old St. Francis School has had an integral impact on the Bend beer scene.

And today they are celebrating their 9th birthday, all day long, with a special “birthday beer flight” and free live music kicking off in the evening. Here are the details on the birthday flight:

• Parson’s Double Brown: Curly’s local winter seasonal creation, 7.9% alcohol by volume (abv)
• Sleepy Hollow Nut Brown: McMenamin’s classic fall/Halloween seasonal, 5.03% abv
• Black Widow Porter: McMenamins winter seasonal porter, 7.35% abv
• Rum Spun Black Widow: Curly’s local spin on the Black Widow, with “added oak spirals that were soaked in our Three Rocks Rum for 3 weeks” which “were then added to the Black Widow Firkin where another 4 weeks of conditioning.” Yum!

Tonight’s live music (free, of course!) is featuring:

• Sassparilla playing from 5 to 7:30pm
• McMenamins’ favorite, Freak Mountain Ramblers kicking off at 8pm

If you haven’t been down to the Old St. Francis School lately—or even if you have—make sure to stop by today, try the birthday beer flight and maybe another specialty beer or two, and check out some live music and enjoy the party!