Interview: brewer Ben Dobler (Widmer Brothers Brewing)

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Craft Beer Portland

INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Who’s a brewer you’ve never brewed with before that you’d most like to brew with?

Probably Steven Pauwels of Boulevard. The reason being is because they do phenomenal Belgian style beers. I’m a pretty big fan of those beers because, as I like to joke, I don’t make beer, yeast makes beer. I make sugar water. Hopefully it’s a complex sugar water. Belgians have this romantic relationship with their yeast. That’s one of the biggest things that American brewers are probably least knowledgeable in is yeast. I’m not implying we’re ignorant to yeast. We know a lot of technical things about it, but Belgians just have this romantic, touchy, feely relationship with their yeast that American brewers can really learn a lot from, just the utter subtleties. It’s almost that concept of if you play nice jazz music or classical music or talk to your plants, they’re happier plants than just sit in the corner. I’d probably say Steven.

What music do you like to listen to while brewing, if any?

It’s kind of again, a mood thing. Some days metal. If it’s a bigger, gnarlier beer, a little more aggressive music. If it’s something a little more subtle,, maybe the Black Keys or White Stripes, somewhat bluesy influence in that regard. I am an aging white suburban kid, so hip hop is near and dear to my heart.


Craft Beer Portland
Where and what do you like to drink when you’re not working?

I’m a pretty big fan of spirits. I like Scotch in the evening, single malts, but every day it’s a toss-up between gin and vodka. I can go back and forth with it. A really nice vodka with a splash of fresh grapefruit juice, it’s just really refreshing. And you can’t go wrong with gin and tonics, in my opinion, although I have been starting to experiment a little more. The cocktail revolution has really been taking hold, so there’s some really wonderful old cocktails that have some really, really nice flavors to them. Those can get a little spendy, so you have to watch yourself with those.

Any establishments in particular?

I just went to two new places in town. Kask, and Teardrop [Lounge] is the other place. Both of them are really, really priding themselves on the pre-Prohibition cocktail movement, and really bringing back the classics with just a little hint of their own interpretation. It kinds of reminds me of craft brewing back in the day, in that it’s kind of cavalier and cowboy. They’re embracing tradition, but at the same time, adding their own little interpreted twist to it.

If you could travel to any city in the world right now, primarily to drink beer, what would it be and how come?

It’d have to be Bruges, mainly because it’s close to Ghent and it’s close to Brussels, so it’s a great home base to go travel. It’s unfortunate how – I want to delicately choose my words here – how imported beers taste here versus drinking them fresh over there. I can only imagine what my IPA would taste if it got beat to hell in a ship over to Europe and sat there for awhile, then it finally got served. When you can go drink from the source, Belgian beers are just phenomenal. They’re steeped in so much history as well. It’s just the full experience of Belgian culture with food and drink. You can feel passion. I’ve only been there once. My wife took me over there when we first met. That was kind of my a-ha moment with Belgian beers. I had a fair amount, but again, it was the freshness factor. Some were good, some you could tell oxidation had taken over. Going and drinking at the source, it was awesome.

If you could only drink one more beer, and you couldn’t brew it, what would it be and why?

I’d probably have to say Saison Dupont. Either that or Avril, but you’re making me choose one, so I’ll go with Saison Dupont, just because there’s a little more alcohol in it. There’s just something that is so refreshing yet simplistic yet complex about that beer. It goes well with food across the board as well.

Address: 929 North Russell Street, Portland, OR 97227
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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

Blog Comments

I had to comment (I’m a ghost reader) when I saw Ben’s mustache. That is badass. I half-expect him to ride a motorcycle with a leather jacket. I had a dinner party with another professional brewer (coffee, nor beer) and he sported the most awesome mustache, too.

I know craft beers are a big thing in Portland, so I think it’s a cool image to think of all the brewers sharing a drink together. 🙂

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