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!