#widmer

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?

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.

In my last post, I posted my pictures from 2020, the pick up day!

Read Part 2: The Company

Today you get a description of the collection -- what you'll see if you come to OSU and want to do research in this collection. Archivists arrange collections into series, which are usually topical but can be by format (e.g., marketing materials, photographs), and you'll see this collection is not exception.

The Widmer Brothers Brewing Company Records includes brewing records, photographs, marketing materials, office files, ephemera, and audio/video content.

Series 1, Brewing Records, documents the early brewing and business operations at the Lovejoy Street facility. Included are the earliest brewing records for Weizenbier, Widmer Bock, Altbier, Festbier, and many other unnamed beers. Also included is an inventory of beer stock, ingredients, and equipment on hand, as well as documentation of expenses for items such as tap handles, beer lines, faucets, and valves. Documents are handwritten and most are on notebook paper.

Series 2, News Clippings, documents the company and their beers, as well as the evolution and changes of the brewing industry and brewers in the Pacific Northwest. The news clippings are arranged chronologically and contain information about the company, the beers, and the brewing industry and brewers in the Pacific Northwest. For several years, the company employed a clipping service, which gathered articles from newspapers around the country.

Series 3, Photographs, includes pictures of the opening events at the Lovejoy and Russell street breweries, staff and customers, facilities and brewing operations, the Gasthaus Pub, company parties, advertising campaigns, and pictures of Kurt and Rob Widmer. Of special note is a series of time-lapse aerial photographs of the building of the brewery on Russell Street. This series includes multiple formats (slides, photographs, negatives, digital files). This series is epic!

Photographs include the opening party at original brewery on Lovejoy; facility, staff, and brewing operations at Lovejoy brewery; opening party, promotional photos, patrons, and staff at the Russell Street Gasthaus Pub and Restaurant; renovation and construction of the restaurant, brewery, and offices on Russell Street; events such as the Oregon Brewers Festival and company parties; promotional pictures of Kurt and Rob Widmer; ad campaigns; operations pictures of the bottling line, brewhouse, packaging, and employee offices.

Some photographs have corresponding prints, slides, or negatives.

Of special note is a series of time-lapse aerial photographs of the brewery on Russell Street being built. If there are multiple formats of the same picture or the pictures are not in a print format, that is noted in the description field.

Digital folder content was transferred from original digital media, which was retained by SCARC for preservation purposes.

This series contains approximately 1,450 slides, 1,000 photographs, 250 negatives, 875 digital image files.

The bulk of the collection is in Series 4, Marketing and Events. There are files for individual beer styles, with materials such as labels and bottle necks, design documents, beer information sheets, promotional items, and packaging. There are also materials grouped by format or purpose, including bottle neck bands and labels, table tents, stickers and bookmarks, and coasters. There are various Widmer logos and poster designs, including some original artwork. There are materials related to tap handle design and pricing, which compliment a set of tap handles in Series 7, Ephemera. This series includes materials related to marketing campaigns, such as Third Brother (2000), Widmer Boys Mysteries (2001), Fishing With the Brothers (2005), and Brrrr Holiday Ale (2007). In addition to beer promotion, there are materials related to the company's sponsorship and involvement in the community, analysis of the craft brewery consumer market, branding and rebranding, expansion into new markets, and sales. This series includes oversized posters and packaging, as well as digital files of Widmer graphic design and art assets.

This series reflects the marketing and promotion of Widmer beers.

This includes marketing campaigns and promotional materials, draft designs and original artwork, posters, market analysis, sales, advertising materials, beer information sheets, labels and bottle necks, stickers and coasters, tap handle design, packaging, correspondence, and press releases.

Digital folder content was transferred from original digital media, which was retained by SCARC for preservation purposes.

Series 5, Office Files, includes operational items such as building plans, project proposals, merger documentation, merchandising plans, press releases, presentations, and office documents. Of special note is a guest book (1996-2006) with names of visitors to the brewing facilities and their comments on experiences on tours.

Awards and other certificates of recognition are housed in Series 6. This includes ribbons and certificates for beer-related honors such as the North American Beer Cup, World Beer Cup, World Beer Championships, Great American Beer Festival, North American Brewers Association, California Brewers Festival, and various county fairs, as well as awards for sports teams and business contributions.

Series 7, Ephemera, includes tap handles from Widmer and RedHook, textiles, bottles, games, and other promotional items. This series includes tap handles from Widmer and Red Hook, textile items such as banners and t-shirts, souvenir and design prototype bottles, games, and other promotional items.

Series 8, Audio and Video, includes local radio advertisements for Widmer advertising campaigns, presentations from Anheuser-Busch related to company updates (2005, 2007), versions of the “From Grain to Glass” brewery tour (2005, 2013), and "Widmer Brothers Radio: Sly and Robbie." The videotapes include commercials and local television segments on new equipment, releases at the brewery, and a 1993 piece on brewing in the Pacific Northwest.

The majority of the video content is of television segments announcing events or new products at the brewery; most were collected by media companies.

Also included are informational videos produced by the company, radio commercials, and music mix tapes related to product launches.

Digital folder content was transferred from original digital media, which was retained by SCARC for preservation purposes.

Remember January 2020? 01_01_2020? A year that started out VERY fun until that special Friday the 13th in March when it wasn't.

On January 31, 2020, my co-worker Karl McCreary, collections archivist, and I made a trip to Portland in a very large white cargo van to pick up a collection. A very special and important collection.

Jeff Alworth, who had recently released his book The Widmer Way, had worked his way through many of these historic materials and gathered oral histories in the process. The company was at a point of transition and he knew these records needed to go somewhere. Fortunately, he also knew about the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives!

It took two years to process, but I finished up reviewing, organizing, and describing the collection last month. 2 1/2 years after we picked this up... I've been an archivist for nearly 20 years, but the twists and turns of this collection slowed me down! Also, there was a pandemic.

I'll post the info about the final product of the collection in the next couple days, but for today I want to celebrate these pictures. They are a set of "on the cusp of something these two people didn't anticipate" pictures, which are touching as we've rounded the corner from January 2020 into August 2022.

January 2020: my daughter turned 16. August 2022: my daughter goes to college. Life goes fast. Stop to appreciate the model cars and wall paintings.

But wait, there's more!

Part 1: The Collection