Saturday, February 16 was Zwickelmania. Every year, 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 that you can take to brewpub crawl to visit multiple breweries. This year, we stuck to the Portland Streetcar (utilizing the now open CL Line) and walking, reminding us how lucky we are in Portland metro area to have so many options, often many not very far from each other!

We started out at Upright Brewing, which specializes in a farmhouse style beer. Visiting Upright was one of the opportunities Zwickelmania offers, as usually Upright has much more limited openings to their tasting room. There, I caught up with my other drinking companions who had a 45 minute head start on me and tried out their recommendations, the Captain Beefheart and also enjoyed a free sample of their Chocolate Stout. Yes, Captain Beefheart actually has beef hearts as one of the ingredients of the brew.

Our next stop was Hair of the Dog Brewing, where they were pouring samples of Adam. While there, I also was able to enjoy a taster of Greg (made with Organic Pilsner and Winter Squash, no hops, so was a nice palate cleanser after Adam), and shared a glass of Otto while we had lunch. The Otto is amazing also, a beer composed of Bourbon Peach Fred from the wood mixed with Cherry Fred from the wood- from the wood notating that they have been barrel aged.

Next we went to Cascade Brewing Brewing House, where they were offering samples of four of their beers: Blueberry Triple, a Rum Tangerine Spiced Quad, Blond Bing Blond Ale with Cherries, and Bourbonic Plague Spiced Double Porter. Unfortunately they were pretty crowded or I would have stopped for a glass of their hot Glueh Kriek, so we pressed on to Harvester Brewing.

We were happy to visit little Harvester Brewing, a tiny little brewery that can- they have no tasting room and are just two rooms big, but are producing amazing gluten free beers you can enjoy and not care its gluten free. Kindly, they were slicing up and warming up Jensen’s bread for us too as we entered, and then were treated to compare how the Pale Ale tasted from the fermenter versus the bottle, as well as trying their Red Ale, IPA, and test batches.

Our final Zwickelmania stop was The Commons, where they specialize in a beer viewpoint of Belgian and Flemish/French style beers. Here, we could taste the Urban Farmhouse Ale and the Holden Dark Farmhouse Rye. We also bought glasses of the Walnut Belgian Porter (pictured) and Avant Flandre Belgian pale ale.

Since we weren’t too far away, even though Zwickelmania was over we stopped at Base Camp Brewing just to check it out, where we tried the Ripstop Rye Pils, Belgian Session Ale, and Out of Bounds Brown. I had already had the S’mores Stout beer before, and though I like the concept of the toasted marshmallow being served with the beers, overall we found the beers more weak on flavor than what we had been enjoying all day. If they want to do this lighter lager style (which to me says mass market appeal) I suppose this is fine, it’s their vision to go with. But we had higher hopes of them pushing the boundaries, given the ambition and adventure that seems implied by the brewery name and theme. It’s still in its first few months though, so let’s see where they go- I am glad they are giving such attention to the S’mores Stout as a flavor possibility. I’d like to see more of that and less oyster stouts, let’s branch out, thanks!

The Beer Weekend ended on a high note, as on Sunday February 17 we attended the Pappy’s Dark bottle release from Block 15 (specializing in barrel aged beers) at Hop and Vine. There we were able to procure 2 bottles of Pappy’s Dark and 3 of Super Nebula (thanks to other beer friends who let us use one of their 2 bottle allotment- the Super Nebula sold out within the few hours at Block 15 brewing, and within 20 minutes at Hop and Vine! ) to add to our beer cellar. The event also offered tastings of many Block 15 beers:

• Super Nebula
• Pappy’s Dark
• Golden Canary
• Wonka’s Wit
• The Demon’s Farm
• Ferme de la’ Ville Provision
• Wandelpad
• Alpha IPA

And that’s how I had the Brunch of champions at Hop and Vine: Block 15 Brewing Co. barrel aged beer goodness with Gorgonzola Biscuits w/ Sausage-Black Pepper Gravy and a side of crispy bacon!

Now I need to rest my liver for next weekend, when I attend the Showcase of Wine and Cheese event for the Boys & Girls Club of Portland which  features hundreds of wines, dozens of gourmet cheeses, hors d’oeuvres, and other specialty foods, and then on Sunday the Block 15/Saraveza Prix Fixe dinner, a beer and food pairing dinner.