An NHC Interview With Rob Widmer
A day into the National Homebrewers Conference in San Diego, Pro-Brewer night began to take shape against a backdrop of beer euphoria. I got the chance for a quick interview with one of the professional brewers that were one hand to serve their beer to the thousands of evidently extremely thirsty homebrewers. Working quickly before the noise reached a level that made it impossible to continue a conversation, I spoke with Rob Widmer from Widmer Brothers Brewing Company about setting the bar for the American wheat style, Cascadian dark ales and the trend towards sour beers.
The Widmer American hefe really seems like the gold standard of American wheat beers. I think most people would associate Widmer with wheat beer. How did it happen that you would become synonymous with the American style hefe weizen?
Our family comes from Germanic ancestry and we brewed an alt style German beer and a filtered wheat beer early on. But in the mid 80′s the alt style was ahead of its time. Too much, and too dry and roasty for most beer drinkers. At that time, really the only beers available to the public were ‘light and dark’ beers. We couldn’t sell enough of our alt and knew we had to do something different. We decided to use our alt yeast on an unfiltered version of our wheat beer. Not having to filter the wheat was also financially beneficial at the time in terms of labor savings. Our two beers were served at the Dublin Pub in Portland where it became popular. We didn’t brew the traditional German hefe because we were concerned about cross contamination in the facility. Today, we still use that same strain of alt yeast to brew our American wheat.
What about the lemon wedge, how did that become the norm for the American wheat?
Friend and owner of the Dublin Pub in Portland who insisted on the proper glass for the style of beer being served, was the first to add a lemon wedge to the wheat beer for his customers. This was based on the common practice for some German styles of wheat. I guess it was born there. I personally drink it with a fresh lemon, rubbed around the rim. We use cascade hops in that beer so I think the lemon does a good job of enhancing that flavor.
Do you have any advice to homebrewers who attempt to brew your hefe?
There’s no trick to brewing it, it’s pretty straight forward. I will say that we don’t re-use the yeast for many generations.
What happened to the original Alt?
Our alt is still our in-house beer.
So, what’s new for Widmer?
At Widmer, we’ve always brewed different styles of beer, but lately the use of the Nelson Sauvon hop allows us to be unique, giving us room to put out another IPA (the Nelson Imperial IPA) in a flooded market. We’re also using the Galaxy hop because of it’s difference. It has the flavor/aroma of juicy fruit. Our Drifter Pale Ale has Summit hops and the interesting thing about that beer is that even with the higher IBU’s it’s still not that bitter tasting. The Pitch Black IPA we’ve fooled with from its origins as our Cascadian Dark which we had entered in the GABF before there was even a name for the style.
I have to say that I was really impress with your Blonde Ale which you brew using the Citra hops. Now, the interest in sour beers seems to be the new thing these days. Do you have any intention of brewing a sour beer?
We’ve talked about it and I’m interested but again I’m concerned about cross contamination of yeast. Also, there is the question of what we would do different when there are so many good ones already out there.
Mark Taylor teaches and writes about homebrewing in California and Mexico and while determined to avoid becoming a beer snob, blogs about all things beer at Beer Diary…
Read Mark’s full recap of NHC over at Brewed For Thought.
