Your weekly roundup

Catching up with more news from the week in local craft beer:

• River City will star in a pair of upcoming beer dinners with interesting wrinkles.

On Wednesday, it will be featured in the first of a monthly series of fried chicken beer dinners at Yards Bruncheon in Kendall Yards, presented by sister restaurant The Wandering Table.

For $35 (includes tax and tip) you get three pints of beer – this time, River City Red, Afternoon IPA and VB Stout – plus the meal. Reservations are required; call (509) 443-4410 or email info@thewanderingtable.com.

Similar dinners are planned with local breweries on the second Wednesday of each month.

And on Jan. 26, a “Mystery Beer Dinner” at The Blackbird will pair anonymous River City beers with a five-course menu, with their identities revealed and discussed once you’ve finished each dish. “We hope this format will encourage diners to dig deep into the flavors of the beer,” the restaurant says.

Only 30 seats are available. Cost is $55, including tax and tip; call (509) 392-4000.

• Following Wednesday’s release of a Coffee Amber Stout homebrew recipe at Black Label, Bellwether next week is tapping two more collaborations with winners of local homebrew contests.

On Tuesday, it’s a Dirtier Chai Stout with clove and cardamom. Next Friday, look for a Chocolate Chipotle Porter with roasted cacao nibs and home-smoked jalapenos.

And the following Sunday, Bellwether will release its latest collaboration with local brewery-in-progress Four-Eyed Guys, brewed with wild rose hips and pine resin.

• More reports from the ever-evolving brewery hours front: Up on Green Bluff, Big Barn is back to winter hours – Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 8 – while nearby 238 is taking the entire month off. And Badass Backyard is opening two hours earlier now on Wednesday and Thursday, at 2 p.m., like it has been on Friday and Saturday.

• Finally, Ninkasi is looking for an Inland Northwest Market Manager to oversee sales in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Applications are being accepted through Jan. 16 at 5 p.m.