Today marks the beginning of Oregon Craft Beer Month, the best possible excuse to drink local beer you’ve ever been given. You may remember last year around this time I gave up spirits and dedicated myself to drinking nothing but Oregon craft brew for the entire month of July. I succeeded in that goal and learned a ton.

Now it’s your chance, Blogtownies. Join me this month in drinking one (or more) unique craft brew a day until the end of July. It’s not as hard as you might think considering how many breweries our state supports. The biggest difficulty will likely be in picking which micro you’d like to sip.

At the end of each week in July, beginning Friday the 9th, check back into Blogtown where we’ll be discussing what we’ve been drinking, what we’re planning on drinking, what we liked, and what we didn’t. It’s kinda like the Blogtown Lost and Glee discussion groups… You know, if those groups were way more AWESOME.

I’ll be joined in this endeavor by a couple folks on the Twitters, @mike_marsh and @toenut, who have way more beer knowledge than I do, not to mention a mash tun full of vim and vigor. If you’re a Twitter user, you can keep an eye on the month’s shenanigans (and play along) by tracking the #ocbm and #31beers hashtags. We’ll also have them chime-in right here on Blogtown, along with other notable beer lovers like the Mercury’s own Ned Lannamann.

Today, we’ll kick it off early. Are you planning on joining the statewide beer toast today at 6 pm? If so, where are you going to celebrate?

Let’s rock this beer month!