To start your Zwickelmania 2014 Overview, let’s start with the date. 11am-4pm, February 15, is Zwickelmania. This event occurs all throughout the state of Oregon, not just in Portland.
In case you have never heard of it, it is the annual one day a year sponsored by the Oregon Brewers Guild where breweries in Oregon open their doors for visitors to sample one (or possibly more) of their beers and often offer tours of their breweries and have brewers on hand to answer question about their process- all for free!
There are even shuttles (most are free, only the three Rogue shuttles in Portland are $5 for all day designated driving) that you can take to brewpub crawl to visit multiple breweries. Check out the list of breweries and a map of the shuttles here at the Oregon Craft Beer website. They have a great map of the entire state of Oregon listing all the brewery open houses and events statewide.
This year, I’m going off to Eugene for Zwickelmania to attend the Oakshire Brewing’s Hellshire IV release party/Hellshire IV Day and Barrel-Aged Beer Fest. We plan to take advantage of doing a little getaway, both for Valentine’s and because it’s a 3 Day President’s Day long weekend. This Oakshire festival offers more than 50 barrel-aged beers from breweries around the country, live local bands and food carts. F and I are big fans of barrel aged beers, so this seemed right up our alley.
You can see the list of available beers on their Facebook event for this. Oakshire’s Hellshire is a series of beers matured in spirits barrels {bourbon, whiskey, and brandy} and released every February. There is also several other breweries in Eugene that are open besides Oakshire- and a Rogue shuttle could possible help us travel to also visit Rogue, Falling Sky Brewery, McMenamin’s High St, Ninkasi, and Hop Valley Brewing.
I also know some people are heading out to Astoria for the Fort George Festival of the Dark Arts which features feature 55 specialty stouts to also celebrate the fact February is Stout Month. Other breweries in Astoria include Buoy Beer and Rogue at Pier 39. If you are interested, last I checked tickets were still available for a Brewvana tour that is going to this festival from Portland and can provide VIP Tickets to the festival AND transportation to and from Astoria and lodging for the night if you are interested!
But you don’t necessarily have to go that far- there are so many wonderful breweries in Portland alone – which is why there are FIVE shuttle bus routes to help you visit various breweries. BeerMusingKris helpfully made a Google Map of everything- check out the link to it on her blog post “Can You Tell Me How to Get, How to Get to Zwickelmania?”
You don’t even necessarily have to take a shuttle- as I recapped in a post last year my little group of friends walked or just used the Streetcar between Upright Brewing, Hair of the Dog Brewing, Cascade Brewing for a palate cleanser of sour beers, Harvester Brewing (which is entirely dedicated to being gluten-free both in beer and their gastropub), and The Commons before finishing up at Base Camp Brewing. I thought there were excellent beers to be had at all those stops.
Photos from Zwickelmania 2013 at Hair of the Dog Brewing and Cascade Brewing sampling
In the Zwickelmania of 2011 (with my more amateur blog recapping), I took the shuttle with a friend, and one of the stops included Laurelwood Brewpub where they offered up pairings of beer samples with sweet desserts!
Very awesome- such as below, with a chocolate cupcake with chili is paired with the Laurelwood vanilla porter, and our favorite pairing a smokey ginger and bacon cookie sandwich with maple cream filling, paired with the bourbon barrel aged Olde Reliable barley wine.
Other stops at the time in 2011 for the Brewvana shuttle also included Columbia River Brewing, Alameda, Upright and then we had more beer/dinner at Burnside Brewing. Trust Brewvana to pick out some pretty cool breweries, and their bus is awesome- I’ve been on it a few times since being introduced at Zwickelmania by taking some of their beer tours! This year, Laurelwood is on their route again- as are Ecliptic for instance, and other cool breweries!
So there is a list of some of the places I visited that I recommend. There are other breweries participating too- consult what is convenient or interesting to you.
Wherever you decide to go to enjoy Zwickelmania, follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Untappd to see what I’m up to, and be sure to share your experience on Twitter and Instagram using the #zwickel14 hashtag.
Is there a brewery you are planning to visit for Zwickelmania this year?
I unfortunately can’t have beer anymore (stupid gluten) but I love the dark stouts. It sounds like a pretty fun way to test out a lot of our local breweries, I know quite a few people who would love to do it.
You could try some of the gluten free breweries like Harvester- they made beer with chestnut or squash for instance! I mention them particularly because even their food is gluten-free!