Some beer styles exist on the fringes of our consciousness, and it takes just a nudge for one to revel in the discovery of something new on which to sip. This Saturday, dark lagers see the limelight as ColdFire Brewing hosts Dark Lager Fest from noon-9pm, featuring eight beers across five styles from Oregon breweries. The fest was inspired by the coincidental release of Czech-style dark lagers from ColdFire and Arable Brewing.

The fest is $25 and includes a flight, a commemorative Kostritzer-style mug filled with your choice of dark lager, and, immediately useful, a Dark Lager Fest beanie. ColdFire will be open for normal service with all of the fest beers available in pint or taster size to the public.

Niche beer festivals like this are rare these days, and allow attendees to experience a brewer’s talent in a lesser-known oeuvre. “Celebrating dark lager seemed to be a natural fit for us and how we think of beer,” says Stephen Hughes, co-founder of ColdFire. “Dan [Hughes, Stephen’s brother and co-founder] mentioned the idea to Chris [Archer, Arable Brewing] and I and we were like ‘Yes!’

“I think we’d like people to see that you have a really cool spectrum of flavor inside of Dark Lager, depending on the brewer, ingredients and the creative allowance that’s defined within each style.”

The latter statement could be the basis for any style-specific beer fest, but Hughes shows his true colors as a beer lover:

“IPAs and pilsners have center stage right now. Both are really cool overarching style categories, but if we’re doing our job correctly as brewers, we should be educating our consumers of the wide ranging beer categories and the joy that comes along with exploring and experiencing them. Selfishly, I’d love to see saison rise again as well.” Amen.

Hughes also mentioned that the selection would likely expand in subsequent years. This year’s lineup is as follows:

Alesong – “Baltic Storm” Baltic Porter

Arable – “Rule of Two” CZ Dark Lager

Block 15 – “Black Gold” Schwarzbier

ColdFire – “Tmavé Pivo” CZ Dark Lager

Falling Sky – “The Drizzle” Dunkel

Heater Allen – “Dunkel”

Van Henion – “Schwarzbier”

Von Ebert – “Noctifier” Mexican-Style Dark Lager

Three food carts at ColdFire will offer a special menu item for the fest. Paper Plate BBQ will serve up house made brats made with ColdFire Tmavé Pivo with sauerkraut & stoneground mustard, plus salted pretzels with beer cheese.

Stretched will serve Citrus Beef Biang Biang: Citrus braised bottom roast on top of ponzu oil hand-stretched noodles. Garnished with cilantro, red onion, and lime. Inspired by and meant to be paired with Von Ebert Noctifier.

Yardy has not yet announced its special, but will also be participating in the pairing opportunity.