#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.