Free Oregon Brewery Tours This Weekend
Saturday, February 13, 2016
GoLocalPDX Food Team
A little light in the wallet after buying gifts for your valentine? Sounds like you could use a beer. Check out a free brewery tour this weekend in honor of Zwickelmania.
Zwickelmania is the annual one-day event in the great State of Oregon when breweries open their doors to beer fans of all types. The event is sponsored by the Oregon Brewers Guild.
This year’s celebration lands on February 13, and will run from 11 AM to 4 PM. More than 11o breweries across the Beaver State will participate with meet-the brewer events and beer samples.
For those who are planning a special Valentine’s Day trip in Oregon, check out one of the seven regions of Oregon on the Zwickelmania event page to see what breweries are participating in your area. You can also check out iterates and maps for the Bend, Eugene, Portland, Salem and Southern Oregon areas.
More than 32,000 took tour of 115 breweries statewide in 2015. With more than 120 breweries participating in this year’s festivities, the Brewers Build is expecting that number to increase this year.
For more information including a full list of events and participating breweries, check out the Oregon Craft Beer website.
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#7
Upright Brewing Oyster Stout
Oyster Stout sounds strange, right? Just imagine your stout with a salty kick and a mineral taste at the end. It turns out to be very flavorful, time tested concoction. Locally, Upright Brewing makes a tasty one in their seasonal portfolio and looks like it will be released shortly after the first of the year.
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#6
Rogue Ales Beard Beer
While most beer is brewed with carefully cultivated yeast strains, there are any number of wild yeasts that can be used, though this one is decidedly the strangest. Somehow Rogue Brewer John Maier “discovered” a natural yeast ideal for brewing in his beard. Yuck. Stylistically, an “American Wild Ale, if you are really interested in trying it yourself, you can buy a bottle here.
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#5
Wynkoop Brewery Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout
What started – and should have ended – as an April Fools’ Day prank led to the release of Wynkoop Brewery’s Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout. They only sell it in two packs. Get it? I won’t suggest where you might buy this one, dear reader, because I like you and would not do that to you.
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#4
Rogue Ales Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale
Rogue Ales Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale has been on the market for a while and is ubiquitous in Portland, as are the other mistakes they brewed to taste like Portland’s biggest tourist trap’s products. Good for Rogue for hopping on the tourist bandwagon by partnering with Voodoo Doughnuts on this uniquely Portland beer. This beer drinker has to admit that drinking this beer forced me to admit that not everything is actually better with bacon.
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#3
Evil Twin Turkish Delight
Me: What does Turkish Delight taste like?
Beer store clerk: Um, it tastes like Turkish Delight.
Me: Um, okay. What is Turkish Delight?
Clerk: Just try it.
Tastes like put coffee and cardamom in my darker ale. Nuff said? I’m not chomping at the bit to try either Turkish Delight or the Evil Twin’s Turkish Delight beer again. It is available locally at Belmont Station if you are interested.
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#2
Bison Brewing Organic Gingerbread Ale
Ginger. Nutmeg. Cinnamon. No I’m not talking about a dessert or even a hot beverage but Bison Brewing’s Organic Gingerbread Ale. Somehow, it works to create a great flavored porter. Yum. Rumor has it that John’s Market still has a few sixers of this one left.
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#1
Rogue Ales Sriracha Stout
Apparently 2014 was the Year of the Rooster, with millions more discovering Sriracha, a simple staple in Vietnamese restaurants (and a product that has stayed stocked in my fridge since at least 2005). Never one to miss hopping on a bandwagon, Rogue Ales brewed a stout with it. Shocking, right? It tastes exactly like you’d expect: like someone pranked you by sneaking some hot sauce into your otherwise tasty stout when you went to the loo. The only place to find this gem is at Rogue Hall until more is released after the first of the year.
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