Widmer Brewing

Felecia and I walked over the Broadway Bridge to Widmer Brothers Brewing in North Portland for lunch and beer reconnaissance. We walked down Interstate Ave along the MAX tracks in one of Portland’s most stark, industrialized neighborhoods. There’s a plaque outside the brewery that says the neighborhood in north Portland used to be its own city, Albina, but merged with Portland in the late 1800's to make the third largest city in the American West.

It was our first time at Widmer. The pub has a couple rooms that wrap around the part of the brewery separated by huge windows. Across the street is a distribution center. The whole thing matches the neighborhood well; cargo ships load up Oregon grain a block away in the Willamette to ship across the Pacific as Widmer ships another great export, cases of Oregon beer, across the country.

They have a good selection of new interesting beers on tap; much more than you can find at the store. 4 oz. tasters are 99 cents, so we shared six new brews. We agree one of the best at Widmer is Summit Hop Pale Ale. It’s light, with liberal aroma hops for a nice chewiness without an overwhelming bitter.

It’s a really great beer. Besides seasonal and yearly releases, Widmer teams up with local homebrewers via the BrewCrew with the Collaberator project. The current offering is awesome. It’s the Pre-Prohibition Lager; and I think beer like this could remove the stigma surrounding anything light among beer geeks. It's an incredible insight to what an American lager can be… compared to PBR. Better than Session? Probably, but everything’s more tasty on tap.

Pints are $3.50 except on Mondays after 4 and Sunday afternoons, when they’re only 2 bucks. The only thing missing is something really strong and interesting, like an imperial IPA or barleywine.

They have a stout on nitro that’s fine but unmemorable. So my advice to the Widmer Bros is brew me up something thick and dangerous.