Brews News At Widmer
Last May, the Widmer Brothers Brewing Co. took a big step by beginning to bottle its beers, including a wildly popular hefeweizen.
Since then, the Portland brewery has been busy keeping up with demand. But now, it’s making news again, with two new beers, a hard cider - and a business partnership with Budweiser.
But, beer before business. The first of the new products, Widmer Vienna, has already started showing up on draft at such places as the Viking in Spokane and Capone’s in Coeur d’Alene. The golden-amber brew is clean and malty, lighter and less hoppy than Widmer’s Amberbier.
While Vienna is technically a lager style, Widmer’s Vienna, like its previous beers, is brewed with an alt yeast - fermented at warmer temperatures, like an ale, but conditioned at cooler temperatures, like a lager. That gives alt beers a balance between the fruitiness of an ale, and the smoothness of a lager.
Widmer’s other new beer, a Czech Pilsner, is the brewery’s first lager, loaded with the spicy Saaz hops that give a classic pilsner its perky character. It’s due on draft around the end of the month, with both the pilsner and Vienna scheduled to debut in bottles shortly afterward.
The pilsner is the product of Widmer’s test brewery at the Portland Rose Garden, says marketing director Tim McFall. The Vienna, a seasonal offering in the Portland area this spring, proved so popular that the brewery decided to add it to the regular lineup.
The third new product is a hard apple cider that Widmer will market under the Wildwood label. “There’s so much going on with that (cider) category, so much excitement,” McFall says.
Along with its expanded product line, Widmer hopes to continue expanding its customer base through a “distribution and equity alliance” with industry giant Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Budweiser.
In an arrangement similar to A-B’s recent partnership with Redhook, the big brewer is buying a piece of Widmer (reportedly the same 25 percent share as in the Redhook deal). In return, Widmer gets to use A-B’s vast nationwide system of distributors to sell its beer.
That will help as Widmer, now in 16 states, continues to expand, McFall says. For example, he says, Widmer recently had trouble nailing down a distributor in Denver. (Nothing changes in Spokane, where Widmer already is handled by the Budweiser distributor.)
“The farther we get away from Portland, the less control we have over our product,” McFall says. “This makes sure we don’t get locked out of a city as we expand.”
And it ensures a new round of “Widweiser” jokes now that the “Budhook” cracks are dying down.
Frenzy in need
Another new Widmer wrinkle - serving its draft Blackbier through a nitrogen tap, for lower carbonation and extra creaminess - was one of the highlights of the recent MicroBrew Frenzy at the Interstate Fairgrounds to benefit the Wishing Star Foundation.
For a first-time event, it went relatively well, but there’s always room for improvement. For starters, nothing against agriculture, but there’s got to be a better location than the Fairgrounds’ noisy, barnlike Ag Building (outside in the summer would be wonderful, although Spokane weather can’t be counted on to cooperate). A wider selection of food would help, particularly given the amount of beer some patrons were packing away.
And while the selection was decent, next time it would be nice to see beers from more than one major distributor. Bigger players like Pyramid and Grant’s - and smaller sophisticates such as Rogue and Fish Tale - were conspicuous by their absence.
Down on the farm
If you really want to see what a beer festival can be, check out the annual Father’s Day weekend bash at the Herbfarm in Fall City, 30 miles east of Seattle.
Some 150 beers from 50 regional breweries will be showcased amid the herbal gardens surrounding a gourmet restaurant (being rebuilt following a recent fire), along with brewing lectures, live music and lots of food.
The 10th Annual Northwest Microbrewery Festival runs June 14-15 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $10 in advance, $12.50 at the gate. For tickets and information, call (800) 866-4372.
Dad-blasted
Speaking of Dad, the Birkebeiner Brewing Co. is featuring a four-course brewmaster’s dinner on Father’s Day, with beer samples accompanying each course and a pint of your favorite afterward. Cost is $28 per person, including tax and tip; call 458-0854 for reservations.
By the way, if you haven’t been by Birkebeiner lately, it’s worth a stop. The India pale ale I sampled there recently was top-notch; while the Birk’s brewers have never been afraid of hops, the beer had a balance and complexity that seemed to be missing from some of their earlier efforts. (The chili beer and Bavarian-style weizen I sampled weren’t too shabby, either.)
Hopping around
It’s bock season at area brewpubs, with golden Maibocks at the Ram Family Restaurant and Solicitor’s Corner in Spokane, and a big, dark doppelbock at Casey’s Pub in Post Falls. Other seasonals include an apricot ale at Solicitor’s, and a light, pale Quad Park Premium, designed for the softball crowd, at Casey’s. …
If you’re looking for something a little exotic on tap, try the Maredsous 8 at the Viking. The fruity, reddish-brown Belgian abbey-style ale comes from the Moortgart brewery, producer of the famed Duvel. The Viking has been able to get it on a fairly regular basis lately. …
Another month, another new beer from Samuel Adams. Actually, LongShot Hazelnut Brown Ale, one of the winning recipes in the Adams-sponsored 1996 World Homebrew Contest, has been out for several months, but it’s just arrived in Spokane; it should be around for a while, until the 1997 winners are bottled. On the sweet side, with pronounced hazelnut and vanilla notes, it should find plenty of fans, even among people who don’t particularly like beer.
, DataTimes