Zwickelmania!!!

One of Oregon’s most anticipated brew events kicks off this Saturday. On February 13, 2010, the second year of Zwickelmania, a celebration of craft beer, gives thirsty beer lovers across Beervana an inside glimpse into daily Oregonian brewhouse operations and even better, provides them with tastes of what we love.

Running from 11 am to 4pm, Zwickelmania, in conjunction with the Oregon Brewers Guild, is a free statewide event that offers visitors a chance to tour Oregon breweries, meet the brewers and sample their favorite beers.

Here’s some highlights of this year’s Zwickelmania that we recommend you check out if you get the chance.

Caldera Brewing: In Oregon’s deep (Ashland, Oregon) , beer lovers can meet founder and president Jim Mills at the pub, try a range of Caldera’s wonderful brews including their Rose Pedal Golden, Ginger Pale, Dry-hopped Orange, Hopportunity Knocks, Lawnmower Lager, Pilsner, and more. Also, get sick deals on beer. Mills says “I’ll be at the brewery for Zwickelmania selling cases of cans for $20. Shirts, hats, goodies also available.”

Caldera Brewing Company, 540 Clover Lane, Ashland, OR 97520

Caldera Tap House, 31 Water St #2, Ashland, OR 97520

541-482-HOPS

Fort George Brewery: Speaking of expansion, the good folks at Fort George Brewing in picturesque Astoria, Oregon are growing their brewery to a full city block, increasing volume to a 30-barrel system, and planning to unleash their citrusy, piny hop treat, Vortex India Pale Ale, in tallboy (16-ounce) cans. Yeah, we can’t wait either! Head brewer Jack Harris says “Spencer (Gotter) will be brewing Nut Red Ale and giving brewery tours on Saturday. We will be sampling the Illuminator Dopplebock out of the magic zwickel.” On top of all this, February is Stout Month at Fort George, and this means a buttload of grubbin’ dark roasty treats and killer guest taps (Oskar Blues Ten Fidy, Stone RIS). You don’t have to be a Goonie to wanna do the truffle shuffle over these brews!

1483 Duane Street Astoria, Oregon 503-325-PINT(7468) fortgeorgebrewery.com

Vertigo Brewing: Hillsboro’s nano brewers, Vertigo will be serving up an assortment of their scrumptious brews including the Razz Wheat, Schwindel Alt, TBD Blonde, High Altitude Amber, Friar Mike’s IPA and High Dive Rye. But since the brewery is so small, brewer Mike Haines says “these could change rapidly as we go through the kegs.” Get it while the gettin’s good.

21420 Northwest Nicholas Ct., Hillsboro, OR 97124 www.vertigobrew.com

Ambacht Brewing: Hillsboro, Oregon’s other nano brewery, Ambacht, has been under the radar for some time. After lots of preparation and recipe development, the beer is finally ready to pour. Meet brewer Tom Kramer and sample an assortment of their unique beers including a Belgian-style pale ale called Ambacht Golden Ale, available at the brewery in 750 ml bottles for purchase.

1055 NE 25th Ave Suite N., Hillsboro, Oregon 503-828-1400 http://ambacht.us/

Oakshire Brewing: For those of you who will be in the Emerald City aka Eugene, Oregon, make sure to hit up one of Oregon’s best breweries, Oakshire. Brewmaster Matt Van Wyk, Co-Founder Jeff Althouse, and Head Brewer Joe Jasper will all be on hand to talk shop, give tours fill corn cans and provide good cheer. It also looks as though these guys might have the most impressive line-up of anyone for Zwickelmania: Oakshire Amber, Watershed IPA,Overcast Espresso Stout,Two Wheeler IPA, Frog’s Wort Pale Ale, Ill Tempered Gnome, Harvest Ale, Red Nugget, 09 Sasquatch, Duck Billed Platypus, Cascade Conundrum, Perfect Storm, and Bourbon Barrel Aged IPA! Hot damn!

1055 Madera St., Eugene, Oregon 97402 www.oakbrew.com

Hopworks Urban Brewery: Assistant Brewmaster Ben Love tells us that HUB will be doing brewery tours every half hour, sampling beer off the zwickel in the cooler (as expected) and on the Bar Bike and playing washoes!!!!! The brewpub will also be unveiling a new lager called For Those About to Bock.

Full Sail Breweries: Two location (Hood River and Portland, OR) will feature some rare treats including a new Brewers Share handle Collin’s Dark Secret (based on FS Packaging Manager Collin Godkin’s recipe) paired with artisan chocolate. Guided Brewery Tours at 12, 1, 2, 3and 4PM.

Full Sail Tasting Room and Pub, 506 Columbia Street, Hood River, Oregon 541-386-2247

Full Sail at Riverplace, 0307 SW Montgomery, Portland, Oregon 503-222-5343

www.fullsailbrewing.com

Gilgamesh Brewing: Turner, Oregon’ start-up brewery has been receiving quite a bit of buzz of late. Their presence at the Oregon Wine, Food, & Brew Festival at the fairgrounds in Salem last month made quite an impression on folks. Amidst an expansion process that will grow the nano brewery from a one-barrel system to a seven-barrel system, the Gilgamesh crew will take time out of their busy schedule to serve up free samples and sell growlers at the Willamette Valley Vineyards’ Pinot & Chocolate Celebration in Salem. In a recent email, Gilgamesh said “This is sure to be a great day with some of Willamette Valley Vineyards’ special Pinot Noir that is only served to the public this one day of the year. There will be different companies with chocolates and candies… and now GILGAMESH BREWING! We will have our Chocolate Mint Stout (naturally!), as well as two other brews on tap so please come on out to visit!” We sure hope the other brews  will be their Black Mambabeer brewed with black tea (instead of hops) and tangerine peels, or maybe their Cranberry Saison. Either way, beer geeks near Salem who like off-the-wall brews should check this out!  Please see Willamette Valley Vineyards’ site if you need more info – http://www.wvv.com/whatsnew/#events210.

Pyramid Breweries at MacTarnahan’s Taproom: The NW Portland brewery will offer two separate tasting tables in the Taproom for Pyramid and MacTarnahan’s brands as well as complimentary three-ounce samples of six different beers including Mac’s new Spine Tingler Belgian-Style Tripel and Pyramid’s latest Ingnition Series release, a “Barbed Wire” Imperial Hefeweizen. There will also be complimentary light appetizers, a short walking tour of facility culminating in a sample of Haywire Hefeweizen from the Zwickel on a brite beer tank.Brewers Tom Bleigh, Vasilios Gletsos, and others will be on hand to discuss offerings.

2730 NW 31st Ave.,Portland, Oregon 503-228-5269 www.macsbeer.com

Upright Brewing: Always feels like Zwickelmania at Upright. These guys love making imaginative beer with a don’t give a damn attitude. Brewer and owner Alex Ganum says Upright’s first Zwickelmania event will highlight a firkin of the Four, a wheaten farmhouse ale, dry-hopped with a pinch of Mt. Rainier hops. Brewer Gerritt Ill will be pouring bottles of random Upright favorites as well.They will be rockin’ until 6PM as well.

240 N Broadway, Portland, Oregon 503-735-5337  www.uprightbrewing.com

Cascade Brewing: Stop by the Raccoon Lodge and say hello to the Ron Gansberg, Curtis Bain, and Chris Baggenstraus of Cascade who are taking time out of their very busy schedule to unleash some unbelievable brews. Recognized globally for their sour, lactic, and fruit and spice infused recipes, this could very easily be the hot spot for this year’s Zwickelmania.  Brewmaster Gansberg discloses “For Zwickelmania, we will be tasting select beers from the oak barrels. We will taste the Spring Gose from the Zwickel, as well as the Noyeaux…a blend of White Port barrel aged Strong Blond Ale on Raspberries blended with Noyeaux…apricot nut infused Tripel. We will also release this years Apricot and Sang Rouge for tasting and sale from the bottle!” Servus!

7424 Southwest Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway Portland, Oregon (503) 296-0110 www.raclodge.com

New Old Lompoc: Stop by the 5th Quadrant brewery for a special tasting experience at one of Portland’s best breweries. Brewer Bryan Kielty says “We’ll have the Lompoc Lounge set up in the brewery and have two beers on tap there. Brewery tours given by Dave Fleming and myself and tasting off of different tanks from 11:00AM-5:00PM. SideBar will be open 11:00 AM-9:00PM with a bunch of crazy beer on tap (Bourbon Barrel Aged LSD, 69 Baltic Porter, Double Dry Hopped Cnote, and Old Tavern Mouse). We will also be serving pulled pork sliders at SideBar.”  This is a must stop for craft beer lovers!

3901 N. Williams, Portland, Oregon (503) 595-1876 www.newoldlompoc.com

BridgePort Brewpub: What would a Zwickelmania be without visiting a piece of Oregon’s craft beer history? Bob Negele, general manager of retail operations at BridgePort tells us

that we have “some compelling reasons to come by BridgePort this Saturday as part of the Zwickelmania Celebration:

* First 50 people who come into the brewpub between 11:30am – 4:00pm with two cans of food for donation to the Oregon Food Bank will receive free of charge a BridgePort growler; all they need to do is pay $11.00 for a fill. Regularly a $27.00 value

* We encourage everyone to bring cans of food to be donated to OFB, we’ll be offering $2.75 pints from 11:30am – 4:00pm

* We’ll conducting brewery tours on the hour 12-4pm.

* Great food specials that day.”

1313 NW Marshall St., Portland, Oregon (503) 241-7179 www.bridgeportbrew.com

Bend Brewing: Central Oregon’s finest microbrewery, Bend Brewing will offer a special tour of the downtown bend brewpub. On this special day, Hophead IPA and Outback X will be pouring on tap. Also with a collaboration between Tonya Cornett and Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton. called Desert Rose will be available. This distinctly refreshing offering is based on a Berliner Weisse but brewed with dried cranberry and hibiscus. If you can, don’t be ridiculous…be it! Days like this we wish we had a private jet and personal pilot.  Prost!

For a complete listing of 2010 Zwickelmania events visit http://www.oregonbeer.org/zwickelmania