Joe Kline / The Bulletin file photoDrason Anderson, center, leads a tour of the Crux Fermentation Project brewery during the 2015 Zwickelmania event. This year’s Zwickelmania takes place Saturday.

If you don’t look closely — or, don’t think to ask — the zwickel at the heart of Zwickelmania, the statewide festival of craft brewing held Saturday, can be easy to miss.

“This is a zwickel right here,” said Drason Anderson with the Crux Fermentation Project, fingering a tiny metal spigot at the bottom of the 1,000-liter tank in the Bend brewery’s cold cellar. “This is what the mania’s all about.”

Popping open the tap, Anderson let a trickle of Lemon Drop IPA spatter to the floor.

“The freshest beer possible,” he said.

At more than 110 breweries across the state and more than a dozen in Central Oregon, beer lovers got a behind-the-scenes look at how their favorite pints are made, taking in brewery tours, meeting with notable brewmasters and sampling limited-run beers.

Boneyard Beer mixed pickles with their zwickels, serving up jumbo-sized pickles to peckish patrons. Visitors to the Bend brewhouse on Lake Place could play a game of cornhole while nursing a pint, or pop their face through a hole in a board to have their picture taken as a giant pickle.

Dan Keeton with Boneyard — alternatively, “Tap Man Dan” or “Danimal” according to him — said Saturday was something of a debut for the brewery’s new Hop a Wheelie IPA, and a fun opportunity to celebrate beer with the whole state.

“We have pickles, we have tacos, we have nuts,” Keeton said. “What could be better?”

Sisters Taniah Evans and Andrea Clark, of Bend, found Zwickelmania by accident. They went down to the Old Mill District for the Polar Plunge in the morning, and when they stopped by Crux for lunch, they found the event already in progress and decided to join in.

“It’s a great atmosphere, friendly people,” Clark said. “We’ve met a bunch of cool people.”

Evans produced a handful of barley grains from her pocket, an edible souvenir from their backstage tour of Crux. She said it was an educational look at how beer is made, particularly the exotic, open-fermented varieties Crux specializes in.

“It was super informative, so much fun,” Evans said.

Anderson, the tasting room leader at Crux, said he was having a blast leading tours through the brewhouse, explaining the basics to the uninitiated and fielding more technical questions from aspiring brewmasters.

“It’s fun taking different people through, connecting people with craft brewing and craft beer, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387,

shammers@bendbulletin.com