Time To Go A'Zwickeling

On Saturday (tomorrow), one of the more distinctive events in the annual beer calendar visits Oregon: Zwickelmania.  It is the day when you are invited to mosey around the innards of breweries, partaking here and there of beer pulled straight from the tank (zwickel [v]: when a brewer sprays himself with beer from a conditioning tank in an attempt to fill a small container with a few ounces of fresh, fresh beer).  If you love beer, you should try to get inside as many breweries as you can, because for some reason it is fantastically entertaining inside them.  Ask questions, too, for the answers are always interesting and usually surprising.  And no beer tastes better than beer straight from a tank.

Full Schedule here.

Also on Saturday, Double Mountain celebrates its sixth birthday [whoops, that's in March, sorry!] and Fort George celebrates stouts with the Festival of the Dark Arts.

Uerige's Sebastian "Basti" Degen zwickeling some
Sticke alt in Düsseldorf

Time to Go A' Zwickellin'

Beer is an organism, and like any organism, it goes through stages of development. This may not be obvious to the average beer drinker who's used to finding beer in its adult state, in pint glasses or six-packs. There's conception (the mash), gestation (the boil), and development (fermentation). Eventually you get to a stage where you can feel the baby kicking, and get a pretty fair sense of what will happen in a few days: conditioning.

The first time I experienced beer pre-packaged, I was at Portland Brewing's then-new plant in NW Portland. (It's called MacTarnahan's now, though I keep hearing rumors they plan to return to the old name.) I had been writing for Willamette Week for about five minutes and was beginning my tour of the city's breweries. I don't recall who took me to the massive tanks outside the building, or what beer we sampled. I mainly recall thinking that it seemed a little transgressive to be opening a spigot on the side of the tank and slugging back raw beer. (I had a similar experience when in second grade I went on a field trip to a farm and milked a cow.)

That lovely experience is the inspiration behind Zwickelmania, the annual event organized by the Oregon Brewers Guild that turns participating breweries into open houses for a day--so everyone can cruise up to a tank for a wee zwickel.* That day is tomorrow, from 11am to 4pm.

Click on the poster for details about where the events will be happening--and take note of the descriptions provided by the breweries. Some breweries offer tours but not actual zwickels; others give you the full monty. My recommendation is, obviously, always, the full monty. Some breweries are releasing new beers, others are reprising old beers, others have specialty menus, and still others appear to be winging it. Plan accordingly.

Another cool thing: shuttles are available. Check the Brewers Guild website for times and locations (follow the same link).

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*The German Beer Institute offers this definition: "The name Zwickelbier stems from the sampling cock ("Zwickel" in German, pn. tzvickle) mounted at the outside of a cask or tank to take tastes for assessing the brew's progress during fermentation." Whether the Brewers Guild's extended uses--as a verb to indicate the act of pouring beer from a tank and as a noun to indicate the beer thus poured--are traditional, I can't say. But it seems to have taken root.

Everything But the Squeal

Among thrifty carnivore types, there's an axiom: "everything but the squeal." This applies to a pig and how much of the body to utilize. Apparently that axiom is one Ron Gansberg applies to beer, too, because he has re-harvested his apricots and included the meat from the pits in his latest beer.

When I was out there in December, he showed me the high-tech process they use once they have the discarded pits from their Apricot Ale. As I recall, it involves a hinged lever device and a lot of grunting. And then an explosion of pit shrapnel. In the end, what you have is an almond-tasting nut so small it takes 600-700 to make a pound. These have been used to flavor amaretto liquor and other almondy-tasting things, as well as tonics to ward off cancer. (Studies say it doesn't work.) In any case, the fruit of this laborious process is finally at hand. Over the weekend, Cascade will unveil a blended "white port/raspberry/apricot seed beer" for Zwickelmania.

Which reminds me-- Zwickelmania is this Saturday. It is an annual event wherein members of the Oregon Brewers guild throw open their brewery doors and give tours to the public. It was a smash hit last year--a little unexpectedly, according to the brewers I spoke to--and this year breweries are making an even bigger deal of it. Like, you know, releasing white port/raspberry/apricot seed beers.

For full details, including itineraries, maps, and addresses, go to the Oregon Brewers Guild website.

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PHOTO: OSHIMS
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