Zwickelmania: The Spring Training of Brewing
Base Camp Brewing Company’s Pollinator Pale sample station during Zwickelmania in Portland, Oregon.
Baseball’s Spring Training is a magical couple of months designed to build the hype of what every fan hopes to be “their year”. But it’s not just a hype machine like many other pre-season sporting events, it provides a critical time to allow the body and mind to ease back into peak performance, rebuilding muscle memory and sharpening the mechanics. It’s also an essential time for managers to alter the recipe and experiment with new players and positions. Spring Training found the perfect formula for generating buzz while also perfecting the product. Now imagine if this approach was implemented by other businesses like restaurants or breweries. Well pine no more. Breweries around Oregon have adopted this Spring Training-esque practice in a yearly event called Zwickelmania.
Zwickelmania, hosted by the Oregon Brewers Guild, provides craft breweries the opportunity to show off what they’ve got brewing before it’s ready for the big show. Many might argue that this comparison of Spring Training to Zwickelmania isn’t all that appropriate because there isn’t a “Beer Season”. Well they’re right and they’re wrong. There isn’t a single beer season but four beer seasons, and as you might have guessed, they mimic the seasonal changes of our little planet…
Winter is the season of the strong and dark (and if you’re lucky, barrel aged) porters and stouts.
Spring eases us out of the darkness into red ales and full-bodied (some may say thicc) lagers.
Summer plunges us deep into the fun and flamboyant with fruity wheats, sours, citrusy IPAs, and pale ales.
Fall takes us on a stroll into the bold with hoppy IPAs, fresh hop ales, malty amber ales, and of course the controversial pumpkin beer.
Now that I’ve convinced you beer has seasons, you need to understand exactly what a zwickel is, how it gifts us with foresight, and why we are manic about it! Well, Zwickelmania gets its name from the zwickel valve, a simple screw valve attached to the side of a fermenter that allows brewers to view and taste the beer’s progression without exposing their brew and all of its secrets to the outside world. These pours provide an insightful glimpse of what the beer may develop into. In other words, the not-fully-fermented beer represents that prospect who’s been crushing it in Triple A but has yet to stare down the hooking curve of Clayton Kershaw or a four-seamer from Aroldis “the Cuban Missile” Chapman. You aren’t quite sure if it’ll be above or below .270, but you can taste the promise. And yet, Zwickelmania isn’t just about sampling the potential of a bright future. It’s also a time to meet the brewers (managers), go behind the scenes, and party with fellow fans… and, most importantly, free samples! The world would be a better place with a little more Zwickelmania.
