Behold the 30 Beers for 30 Years series, which debuted in April with 1984 Altbier, and now includes 1985 Weizenbier, 1986 Hefeweizen, 1987 Festbier, 1988 Mäerzen, and 1989 Bockbier. These first six releases showcase Widmer Brothers’s German influence that inspired one of the brewery’s first taglines, “unique interpretations of traditional German beers.”
“Historically speaking, Widmer never did a ton of true-to-style beers,” says Brewing Innovation Manager Ben Dobler. “It was a lot of interpretation of what a beer would be. . . . Bocks, [for example], are lager-style beers, but back in 1984 our brewers only had access to alt yeast [as opposed to lager yeast].”
Dobler helped to choose the thirty anniversary beers from the brewery’s original archives with Widmer brothers Kurt and Rob, as well as some of the other Widmer staff . “Kurt and Rob still had their first brew sheet—if you could call a legal piece of paper with three lines of chicken scratch a brew sheet—of the first altbier they ever made.”
That Altbier would become the first of the series. “We built the list of beers that were ahead of their times, and that helped shape the brewery,” Dobler continues. “We were using molasses and licorice root, which for today’s experimental beers isn’t all that unusual, but wasn’t something all that common [then].”
In 1994, Widmer brewed one of the original fruit wheat beers, the Widberry, which will make its comeback in the 30 Years series. “For a while it was our most award-winning beer,” Dobler says, laughing. “It was a joke among brewers that it won . . . again.”
Coming soon in the series is the 1998 Pilsner, a beer that marks the first time Widmer moved away from the house Hefeweizen yeast and pitched a standard Czech Pilsner lager yeast and the 2005 Broken Halo IPA, named after an Imperial IPA called Halo for the Holiday Ale Festival that brewer Angel Marquez created in 2004. Check out the complete lineup of beers.
The 30 Beers for 30 Years series, says Dobler, “is a testament to what Kurt and Rob have done. Among our brewing staff, I’m the baby, having been here eighteen years. We’ve literally and figuratively grown up together.”
Photos courtesy of Widmer Brothers Brewing Co.