#widmer

[fieriframes]

[You don't want to stretch the dough at all. You want to push it out. We're going to start out with a three-cheese blend. That's the two-year cheddar, aged Widmer, and then a mozzarella.]

[whatchudrinkin]

Secrets and Subterfuge

I’ve forgotten how great a really subtle beer can be. This new Brut IPA is brewed with apples and fermented with both plain ale yeast and champagne yeast. It’s incredibly effervescent. The flavor never punches you in the face. A white grape is suggested in only every other sniff. A hint of apple is just perceptible, like the skins of a granny smith left on the counter. The apricot notes don’t taste like ripe fruit. It tastes like you left a shriveled, dried apricot in a glass of water overnight and then took a sip in the morning. It’s subtle. The finish is bitter and dry and makes great use apple-y tannins. It’s great. 

But the thing that really stuck out to me is who brewed the beer. It’s labeled a pH Experiment by Craft Brew Alliance. The CBA isn’t a brewery; the CBA owns breweries. It’s the parent company of Widmer, Redhook, and Kona. CBA, which is itself partially owned by Anheuser-Busch, controls distribution and logistics for all the member breweries. Thanks to the CBA Kona is brewed here in Portland at the Widmer brewery, not in Hawaii. The CBA has never itself made a beer. Why is this incredible beer being sold as a CBA product and not part of an existing brand?

According to a recent article on the alliance on Good Beer Hunting, “CBA partnered with the Yale School of Management … and this summer launched the ’pH Experiment,’ which provided 50 participants access to a new brand every month if they were to provide feedback on their impressions and alcohol buying habits.” So why is on shelves now? To see if the beer sells. Then they can give it a brand. Does Brut IPA make sense as a Widmer beer? Maybe it would make more sense under the Kona brand. When next you see it, this Brut IPA could be sporting a Wynwood logo. Who knows.

[auraeseer]

Didn’t this beer have an 80′s hair band hit?

[modernizor]

Jean Widmer for Galeries Lafayette ▪ unpublished advertisement, 1959 #Widmer #galerieslafayette #ad #50s #shoes #portrait #fashion #bnw #Modernizor #inspiration #eyes #graphicdesign #click #icon #photography #vintage #legendary #symmetry #Paris #retro #graphisme #studioshot

[hiddenstashart]

[auraeseer]

What is “What one does with a dead body? Alex.”

[whatchudrinkin]

You Can’t Go Home Again

Drifter is back. I haven’t had one since before this blog was born, but I have fond memories of the old Widmer Brothers’ pale ale. It stands out in my mind as one of the first beers I really tasted. As young lad, every beer tasted like beer, though some were hoppier -- read bitter -- and some were darker. Drifter actually tasted like something. Drifter tasted like citrus. I never tasted that before. This beer was key in my understanding of beer, that beer could be dissected, analyzed. And then they took it away.

But it is back. And this very week David Bardallis at All Brews Fit to Pint is hosting a Session on the topic of Late, Lamented Loves. It’s fate. I was meant to drink this beer, this week. 

Was it ever so sweet? I don’t remember Drifter being so malty. It has the richness of an amber ale or Dunkel lager. It’s a coppery colored ale. It still smells of lightly of citrus. The flavor is fairly balanced, maltier than your average IPA, and less hop forward. That citrus peel returns on the tongue, followed but a light green bitterness.

It could never live up to the hype. Since its disappearance, Drifter has taken on a sort of mythology. It was a foundational beer. It was important. And so it must have been delicious. Eh. Not so much. It’s a pale ale. It’s a good pale ale, but it’s not as good as the story I tell about it.

[1kbeers]

843. Widmer Brothers Brewing – Brrr Hoppy Red

We’ve been cleaning the house all day, preparing for family to come over tonight after my in-laws 50th anniversary dinner. I was ready for a beer about two hours ago, but I’m finally gr…