On Saturday afternoon from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., nearly all of Oregon’s craft and microbreweries will be opening their doors to the public for the third annual Zwickelmania Oregon Brewery Tour.
Now, you might be asking yourself — just what is a zwickel? That’s a great question; however, a much more important one concerns how many rounds of free, delicious beer samples you can get under your belt before you get kicked off the bus.
The Zwickelmania tour, put on by the Oregon Brewer’s Guild, is loosely based on the Oregon winery model of touring quaffers around from winery to winery, sampling and tasting along the way.
As it is, many breweries aren’t set up to accommodate large crowds, don’t have brewpubs or aren’t set up exclusively to brew beer. Tours of the facilities can be hard to come by, so the OBG decided to designate a day where tourists and Oregon natives alike can go see where and how some of the most amazing beer in the world is made.
“Basically, most of our breweries, with the exception of a few larger ones, aren’t set up to be open for people to come in, look around and take tours,” said Brian Butenschoen, executive director of the OBG. “But this was our kind of opportunity once a year to try and get as many breweries to be open during this time so people could come and do that.”
Unlike your traditional brewfest, Zwickelmania’s mobile aspect allows drinkers to visit multiple brewing premises and sample their beers, some straight off the zwickel (the sampling spout mounted on the side of a cask or tank of fermenting beer that allows the brewer to taste the beer throughout fermentation), or they can try others from a regular tap. However, considering the proximity of many of Eugene’s breweries, one could almost ditch the bus and just walk.
“With the exception of Oakshire, most of the breweries are within walking distance in Eugene, so if you want to walk the three or four blocks to Eugene City Brewery, we encourage people to do that,” Butenschoen said.
Probably the most interesting and exciting part of the tour will be the specialty brews that will be spotlighted.
For some, tasting a specialty beer like Eugene City brewer Nate Sampson’s “Adam and Eve” (a fig ale brewed with Belgian yeast) might not sound that enticing. But because most of the brewers will be on premise to answer questions during the tour, even novice beer drinkers will be able to take interest and ask questions.
“A lot of times, (brewers) will have timed beers to be done for this event or will have made specialty beers, but we’re not necessarily asking people to do special beers,” Butenschoen said. “A lot of times you’ll find people digging up stuff from the cellar and will be offering that as well.”
Ninkasi will be showcasing a session pale ale that uses a brand new proprietary hop variety, Falconer’s Flight (a nod to former Rogue brewer Glen Falconer). The brewery will also have local Eugene band Volifonix on hand to set the vibes right and tasty food catered by local food carts for those with beer munchies.
McMenamin’s High Street Cafe is also having some new offerings on tap, brewed by High Street brewmaster Charlton Fulton.
“I’ll have a rye beer on, which is my latest brew,” Fulton said. “We always have a new IPA, a new Porter; our tap list is pretty big. We’ve got about 12 taps here, nitro and cask.”
Oakshire will be having all their standard brews out for tasting as well as a bunch of other single-batch brews.
“We will be sampling beer off of the zwickel every hour — it will either be amber or stout,” Oakshire spokesperson Eriel Hoffmeier said in an e-mail.
Oakshire will also be serving other beers, including its Valentine beer, an oatmeal stout aged in a bourbon barrel with cocoa nibs, dried cherries and vanilla beans.
The tour begins at 11 a.m. at the Lane Events Center, where buses will leave every half hour from the beginning to the end of the tour. And if you’re not there to drink your samples, some other beer lover certainly will.
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