A sad day in beer with the passing of Don Younger.

…Don Younger is seen as a legend in beer for co-founding the Horse Brass Pub in Portland, Oregon, with his brother, Bill, 35 years ago. Rogue Ales even produced a beer in honor of Bill Younger several years ago and remains as one of the brand’s staples today.

Columnist, John Foyston, wrote about his friend for OregonLive last night. Jay Brooks has some worthwhile coverage as well (hat tip to Brooks for the video above). Over 600 tweets about Younger have poured in since the initial report that he was close to passing. Younger’s death was the result of complications arising from a fall last week.

R.I.P., Don Younger, 1941-2011.

On with the rest of the beer news…

…Surly Brewing turns 5 in February and just released a schedule of events. The brewery will be releasing Surly Pentagram soon. Here is the beer description:

“In honor of Surly Brewing’s fifth anniversary we brewed a 100% Brettanomyces fermented brown aged in used red wine barrels. Brettanomyces is a yeast used in place of ‘normal’ brewing yeast, it produces a unique flavor profile. Pentagram is a single barrel ‘tasting’ of Five. Five (with all barrels blended together) will be released later this spring in bottles and kegs. Pentagram has strong flavors of earthy black cherry and raisins with a sour finish. 6.66% abv, 14 IBU.”

The brewery also has a special version of Smoke called, “Mole Smoke.”

…BBC reports that craft beer is booming over in the UK as well.

…It took Portsmouth Brewery less than 29 hours to sell out of its Kate the Great scratch tickets and raise $20,000 for charity. Other craft breweries with limited releases should take note.

…Triangle Brewing will release its Stout on February 17th.

…Oakland Brewing Company sent a message out on Facebook that it was able to procure a liquor license. “James and Steve are working with local breweries to put OBC beer in tanks. The first batch (Saut du lapin) should be ready around President’s Day, with more to come in March.”

…Pateros Creek Brewing has filed paperwork for a building in Fort Collins, Colorado.

…Finally, some footage from Oskar Blues‘ creative method of destroying leftover Gordon cans and filling in the first cans of G’Knight.