Did you know that for ever barrel of Collaborator beer Widmer Breweries sells, they donate $1 to the Bob McCracken Scholarship Fund, which supports Oregon State University Fermentation Science students? To date, Widmer has donated over $5000 to Oregon State. So the next time you walk into Widmer’s Gasthaus Pub any time of the year, you can order a Collaborator beer or two. If you can’t make it to Portland, the Snow Plow Stout shows up at your local grocer’s shelves in October.
Widmer has been working with the Oregon Brew Crew since 1998 on the Collaborator Project, a competition that allows craft brewers in the area a chance to have their creations brewed commerically – something that wasn’t an option back in the late 90s.
“Today a home brewer can go to a home brew shop and buy a good quantity of yeast to brew with,” says Rob Widmer, who is an Oregon State alum. “Back then home brewers would call us all the time and say ‘hey, i’m going to be brewing over the weekend, can I stop by and pick up a quart of yeast? And we’d tell them ‘Sure. Just bring us a couple of bottles of whatever you make.””
The Widmer Brothers and the Brew Crew decided that there was so much good beer out there they had to figure out a way for more people to know about it. And the competition was born.
Your next chance to enter is July, when the Brew Crew’s annual competition takes place. And for a great list Collaborator winners through 2007, check out the Beervana blog.
Drink up!
