Day 19 - Widmer Hefeweizen
Wheat Ale/Hefeweizen | Widmer Bros Brewing | Portland OR



Now here is a beer I have fond memories of, going back, shit, probably the 90s. My first time trying it, I was visiting some buddies in Portland, and, it just blew my damned mind. It was so unlike any beer I had tried before, with its thick body and refreshing sweetness. I was in love with the stuff, as much with the novelty as with the taste itself. I had never tried a hefe before, hell, never even heard of the stuff. There was nothing like it even available in my neck of the woods at the time, what with the craft brewery explosion still a good five years off yet. So, every time I found myself on the west coast, either visiting my buddies up in Oregon, or that punk Spun Lepton when he was living in San Fran, I would always seek Widmer Hefe out, and the beer remains indelibly linked to those good times in those good places.

But nowadays, hefes are easy to find, and to be honest, I tend strongly toward the IPAs, generally avoiding the hefes, cuz I am rarely in the mood for something as heavy in the summer, when they seem to be in the most abundant supply, which i guess is a longwinded way of saying I haven't tried this in years, and my tastes have shifted in the mean time. Lets see if it is as good as I remember.

On the nose, not a whole lot going on, really. Surprisingly bitter for a hefe, but an almost marshmallow like sweetness is there as well. It pours as cloudy as one would expect from a hefe, but the similarities more or less stop there. It's much lighter and noticeably more bitter than the traditional German hefes I've become acquainted with in the intervening years, likely to better suit American tastebuds. Another surprise is how dry the finish is. That I do not remember, or more likely that was something I was not really paying attention to in the halcyon days of my comparative youth.

In the final analysis, the beer is not as good as I remember. While still pleasant, it is definitely not something I would pine for, nor something I would seek out if I found myself on the west coast. Nor would I even half to go to the west coast to find some, for Widmer beer has been available here for years. I'm gonna give this a 3/5 - serviceable. Sometimes you can't go home again.