Widmer why not?

Last Friday I got the opportunity to take a private tour of Widmer’s brewing facility and what a facility it is. From their tanks that stretch from the basement of the building all the way up to the roof tops; from their bottling plant where they can bottle 300 beers a minute to their brew kettles where the magic happens I saw it all. Alan Taylor is one of the brew masters and he was the one giving the tour. Alan went to a brewing school in Germany before coming back to Oregon and working for Full sail then Widmer. The most interesting (and also one of the most gratifying) things about the plant was that the process of brewing was the same as the one I do at home. 

              The only difference is that it is on a much larger scale and computers help to do a lot of the work. The hop room was my favorite room, as I walked in a wall of hop aroma hit my senses and tingled my spine. There were Willamette hops, Cascade hops, and one hop that I had never heard of; a hop that had the aroma of wild berry’s with hints of citrus. This hop smelled like no other and as I breathed in the aroma it transported me to the fields New Zealand where they were grown.  Once back from my journey I asked Alan where I could get this hop, and he replied, “I don’t think you can”. My heart was crushed, how could they deny me such a flavor,  such a smell, but alas I left the room with my mouth watering and my nose tingling with the forever scent of that New Zealand hop. Thank you Alan for the awesome tour and I will post again soon so keep checking and keep drinking