Traveling

Unfortunately I'm going to have to break my Cal Ripken-like streak of straight days posting about beer (three, a new record!) because I'm going out-of-town and I don't have a computer. I'm flying up to Portland in mid-afternoon, borrowing one of my parents' cars, and driving up to Tacoma, Washington, to meet up with my fiancée Becky. We're attending a wedding up there, and while there is beer to be had, there is not a computer to be had. So, no updates for the majority of this weekend.

However, I will be touring a beer store or two in Tacoma and Portland (I really want to get over to Belmont Station in PDX) and may return to Reno with some choice brews that you may be interested in. Since Portland is one of the greatest beer cities in the world (hey, it has more breweries than Cologne, Germany), the beers there are always excellent.

Speaking of Portland, I fired off an e-mail a few days ago to the Widmer Brothers Brewery when I was writing up my Hefeweizen review. I asked them if they could tell me something interesting about their tasty yeast-wheat concoction, and they did not disappoint. Today, Rob Widmer responded with this revelation: they reluctantly brewed their flagship beer. Here's the scoop:

One interesting thing is that we were reluctantly persuaded to offer Widmer Hefe by Carl Simpson and Kate Bullard of the Dublin Pub. Carl wanted to have as many beers on tap at the DP which was a little unusual in the mid-80's. We were selling him our Altbier and Widmer Weizenbier and were not able to brew any more different styles due to limited tank space. However, we knew that in Germany Weizen beers were offered filtered, like Widmer Weizen but also unfiltered, as hefeweizen. We were reluctant to sell Carl unfiltered weizen because of the appearance but Carl took the time to explain to people that it was supposed to be cloudy. From the Dublin Pub word spread and today Widmer Hefe is recognized as the original American Hefeweizen and the standard for the style. Sometimes good things just happen!

And I do have to agree with that last sentence.

I do want to thank the brothers Widmer again for taking the time to respond to little old me. Anyone that does that is awesome in my book.

Have a good weekend everybody. Prost!