Zwikelmania - Trip to local breweries

Zwike what? As our patron saint of beer - Homer Simpson aptly puts it, mmmmmmm...beeeeer.

Oregon is known for its awesome artisinal and local breweries. Some of the flavors produced in the Northwest are not found in most of the country. Its still surprising to our visitors at the amazing choices to be found here. I mean seriously, can you imagine having beer with complex flavors like chocolate stout, raspberry hints, orange, coriander - whenever you please?

Zwikelmania is basically an awesome thing that Oregon Brewers Guild presents. So once a year some of the private or small local breweries open their doors to beer lovers. You get a factory tour, taste their new and/or award winning beers, talk to the beer makers and basically get to appreciate what it takes to make that awesome beer you love :)
For this year's Zwikelmania, we visited two local breweries - Laurelwood and Hopworks. We had the most amazing time, both of us Mr. Hubby and myself love beer, him admittedly more so but nevertheless I can appreciate a good stout or amber :)

Laurelwood

This is probably one of the smallest breweries I have been to. But man oh man, it may be small in size but its big on flavor! They make about 8000 barrels a year with only four people on staff. Can you imagine? Of course, that makes em' ridiculously busy BUT considering they can actually influence every pint of beer that leaves the brewery. Amazing!
Laurelwood brewers surprised us by actually having Beer X - a brand new beer they have made on a trial basis. Now without going into much details because its not in production and I do want them to sell it. It was most certainly a great beer. With complex flavors, and cherry notes, it paired incredibly well with some chocolate they had. Fabulous! They are such generous brewers, taking the time to make sure their guests have a great time, they put out several trays of wonderful handmade (in house) chocolate barks. Some with figs, cherries, nuts, all with excellent Callebaut chocolate (one of my favorites). Yumm... still remember the taste.

Hopworks
Such a fantastic experience. Hopworks' brewers really took their time to make everyone feel at home. Their brewer - Jaime was awesome! He really explained the brewing process with much vigor and enthusiasm, you could tell that all of them took pride in their work and loved what they did. Its such a cool place, they have a disco ball in the brewery! 

Check out this fantastic cycle. This is taken to beer fests and is a workable tap. Hopworks gave us samples of their award winning IPA, now I personally don't prefer IPAs, most are done badly, over roasting their chocolate/cocoa beans and grains. This one was just incredible! I have never enjoyed an IPA more. In fact we liked it so much, we got a growler filled with it for home!

Click on the below links for more info
http://oregonbeer.org/zwickelmania/
http://www.laurelwoodbrewpub.com/
http://www.hopworksbeer.com/