Zwicklemania

This is not a Beer Blog. So sit back, relax and pour yourself a tall cold one as I tell you about two beer pubs I discovered thanks to Zwicklemania.




Zwicklemania just had its 5th annual event. Breweries across Oregon celebrate their craft by welcoming the public with free beer samples, free tours and sometimes a free bus to take participants from one brewery to another.



Skipping the 40 passenger school bus in Salem, my husband and I opted to drive between breweries. Five of them were offering the whole tour/sample welcoming of Zwicklemania.



We made it to two of them.



The first one was Gilgamesh Brewing. The tour started by one of the owners telling us a bit about his family who owned the brewery and then left us in the hands of the brewer Mark. He sure loves his craft and gave plenty of detail on the processing of beer. This brewery is nestled off the beaten path in Salem in an industrial part of town with a pretty awesome deck space with a stream view (can’t quite call it a river). In the summer time this would be the place to hang out and enjoy a well-rounded craft beer. The beer flavors are unique with good variety of flavors from mint, cherry & orange.

The second one was mere mile away discreetly hidden in an industrial park with poor signage. Santiam brewery started by 9 home brewers who meet regularly to support and drink each other’s beers. The 10 beers they have crafted are quite smooth, well balance and quite frankly wonderful. We purchased a growler of the beer brewed with merlot. My husband tells me that is a type of wine. I just know it made some pretty darn fine tasting beer. We skipped the brewery tour of this place because we didn’t think we’d all fit into the tiny space plus we wanted to sit at one of the two long German-beer-style-tables to enjoy the experience instead of standing at a wooden beam outlining what is going to be the bar. (Are you impressed with my long, run on sentence??)



After the growler purchase and our bellies full of beer we needed food. We went back to Gilgamesh to have some upper end/restaurant style pub food.

With our bellies full; back home to drink the growler. 

Prost!

Going to the Dark.....Beer Tour

On joyous day just a few weeks ago, I received an email from Rogue Ale Farms about a Going Dark Tour. My husband, the agreeable man that he is concurs this is a pub crawl we can’t miss out on.



Rogue Ale, oh wait you already knew that!



We arrived to Rogue Ale Farm in the middle of, well farm land in the area of Independence Oregon. You would never go to the farm on accident or find it by happy circumstance. However, the veterans that we are can drive there blind folded.

The farm would be the first stop of our tour. I had a Double Dark Chocolate Beer. Yum. A seasoned Rogue Ale Farm drinker tells me it’s rare to have that on tap and I should fill my growler while I have the chance; like he is doing. Unfortunately, my growler is on top of my refrigerator collecting dust. As the seasoned Rogue Drinker pedals away with growler attached firmly to his bicycle, my husband and I board the Rogue Bus, alone. Are we to be the only ones on the tour? I worried that this pub crawl will be uneventful. We quietly view the farmers pruning trees as the bus makes it way to the first stop in Monmouth Oregon.



Turn your head ...it's a cool picture from Yeast Beast. Really.

 First stop, Yeasty Beast. As we walk into the well light pizza/bar joint a table of 10 cheers for us, “Yea, more tour people.” I cheer right back and call out “Prost!” We sat at the bar and the server promptly gives us a chocolate brownie. She tells us all tour people get a brownie to start. I’m going to like this tour. I order a S’ more beer brewed by Base Camp in Oregon. Prost! The guy sitting next to me is also on the crawl and he himself is a beermeister, or brewer. The table of four women behind us offers to take our picture, for as they too are on the tour and “plan on seeing us rest of the day.”

Second stop, taster of six dark beers at a wine bar name appropriately Crush Wine Bar and Tasting room. All the people we had met are already present and accounted for. Again, we sit at bar. The Wine bar is a super cool old building with exposed brick walls and dark wood floors. The owner tells us it used to be a bank. We enjoyed our samples of dark beer while watching whatever ball-sports-game is on television. Unfortunately I commit a beer sin and spill a taster. I sure that would have been my favorite beer of the day as well. Forty five minutes later the bus rolls up and the bartender/owner announces the arrival. Many stay behind the in the relaxed quite atmosphere of the Wine Bar.

Independence Bar with Chocolate & Cherry Beer.

Third Stop; Independence hop bar in Independence Oregon. The bar was packed with tour people we hadn’t meet yet. We quickly plop down on the last two bar seats and let the other people on the bus fend for themselves. Live music plays directly behind us. The inattentive bartender finally asks us what beer we want after she has served all the other bus people who managed to find a table. I ordered a Chocolate Mint beer made by Gilgameshale and my hubby a Chocolate Cherry. I got the better beer. The mint was surprisingly smooth and quite nice. We prost our beer and listen to the music. The bus rolls up before our beer is done; however we board the packed bus and back to Rogue Ale we go.

Back on the farm, the Rogue Ale house crowded. But heck, with only five tables inside that’s not hard to do. I tell all the tables to pick up their stuff and get on the bus to make room for all of us off the bus. Hey, they listened to me….I sure know how to clear a room. A chocolate lady is present giving samples of her homemade toffee made with peppers.

At this point, I don’t buy another beer but I do buy a bottle to take home, Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana beer. Doesn’t that sound divine? We do buy a bowl a Beer Cheese soup and chat with the people we’ve meet along the way. At each stop, we get a stamp on our “passport.” Our passport will entered into a drawing of prizes donated from bars.

(Blogger’s note….two weeks later and still no telephone call that I’ve won a prize. Maybe they will give it to me right before next year’s Going Dark Tour.)

In the meanwhile, I sign up on more blog sites for receive email of places I like.



Until then, PROST!