Widmer Sunburn
First apologies that I haven’t updated anything recently- I’ve been slammed with work since returning from Chicago. I have been to many great beer events, but time to type up my notes seems to keep eluding me.
Anyhow. Sunburn: Best press kit yet. I love well-thought out press kits, things that were obviously a ton of fun for someone in a marketing department or PR firm to put together. The best press kit I ever got was for a Noise music compilation, and involved a tsunami in a box, complete with sand, twigs and figurines and houses to strew about as you listened to the record. The Sunburn media kit was nearly as good. I’m used to getting sample bottles, so I opened the package expecting a couple of bottles of beer, and a blurb about the beer. To my consternation I opened the box to reveal a bottle of olive oil, and one of red wine vinegar and a jar of thyme. Also enclosed was a recipe for Sunburn Summer Vinaigrette, and behind a partition in the box two bottles of the Sunburn (aka Citra Blonde by Widmer Gasthaus regulars). I have yet to mix up the salad dressing, but I must say it is brilliant marketing.
The 15 IBU, 4.3% abv beer is a revival of Widmer’s Blonde Ale brewed with the coveted new Citra hop variety. Confusingly the bottle doesn’t tell you what style the beer is, and simply reads “summer brew.” Maybe Widmer was afraid Blonde Ale is no longer marketable in the Northwest. (A sentiment I would probably have to agree with. I think there is a perception that blonde or golden ales were crossover beers brewed in the 1980′s and 1990′s to appease mass-market lager drinkers. Sometimes though a softer beer is just what the doctor ordered. I’m working on a piece on session beers for American Brewer magazine, and Greg Hall brewmaster at Chicago’s Goose Island said “beer geeks don’t like refreshing beers.” I think that danger definitely exists, my comfort beer, the beer I go back to at the end of the day really is a massive NW IPA, but there is room for subtlety and diversity.
