Veterans of the Bend Brewfest, which begins Thursday at Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend, know there are a few essentials you should bring along to our town’s biggest celebration of beer: Extra cash. A hat. A bottle of water.

And perhaps most importantly: a plan.

It’s easy for Brewfest to get away from you. You study www.bendbrewfest.com and make a list of beers you want to try. Then you get sidetracked, or lose focus as your stack of drink tokens dwindles. Soon, your plan looks blurry and you haven’t checked off every brew on your list.

So a plan is key, especially when it comes to the festival’s XTaps, which are special brews poured at certain times in the event’s Brewtality Tent. Here are a few suggestions of beers that should be part of your Brewfest plan:

• Logsdon Farmhouse Ales Peche ‘N Brett (XTap): This Hood River-based brewery’s saison is a crowd-pleaser. With a complex, pleasingly peachy flavor, it only seems right to drink this 8 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) brew in August. Get it Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

• Red Tank Cider’s Ginger & Maryanne (XTap): Sometimes, a refreshing sipper in between dark, heavy beers is just what the doctor ordered. At 6 percent ABV, this ginger cider promises to be a crisp zinger worth adding to the list. It pours Aug. 16 at 3 p.m.

• Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel stout: (XTap): When it comes to Brewfest’s dark, high ABV beers, it’s worth being very selective so as not to bog yourself down with heavy beer on a hot August evening. This stout, with its Wild Turkey bourbon notes, coffee vanilla flavor and 8.7 percent ABV, is worth leaving work early for. It pours Aug. 15 at 5 p.m.

• The Commons Brewery Myrtle Sour: Mmmm … crisp lemony goodness. This saison out of Portland is a light summer sipper at 5.3 percent ABV. It’s not an XTap, so get it any time at The Commons’ booth.

• Bridge 99 Wizard Falls IPA: Much of the fun of Brewfest is trying beer from breweries outside Central Oregon that you wouldn’t normally get a chance to try. But it’s also about trying beer from new local breweries that you haven’t gotten around to tasting. Bridge 99 is one of Bend’s newest nanobreweries, and its Wizard Falls IPA, which comes in at 111 IBUs and 7.1 percent ABV, is one that’s worth adding to your list.

— Reporter: mkehoe@bendbulletin.com, 541-383-0354