Murmurings of a possible merger between Seattle brewery Red Hook and Portland brewery Widmer have started circulating. Please say it ain’t so! Red Hook is already dead to me.
3 thoughts on “Red Hook and Widmer”
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NOOOOOOOO!
From what I’ve been reading, Budweiser already owns a big piece of both of them, and they’ve had a joint operating agreement for a couple of years. Cha-ching for the Widmer folks.
Hate to see it happen, though.
They’ve had combined (along with Kona) distributing under the craft brand alliance, and I think Red Hook East has brewed for Widmer, but my friends out east say that RHE has some quality control problems. I feel like RHW has had some too, which they’ve just started getting under control in the last year.
I can see how this would be a boon for the owners and maybe AB Shareholders, but Widmer is filling the gap that many of our original big craft brewers have left. Grants is gone but was on a strong decline before sputtering out; Portland Brewing was absorbed by Pyramid, and Red Hook and Bridgeport have largely settled on a standard line and seem to be targeting a wine-drinking clientele. Widmer is finally branching out with some interesting bottled beers and serves some excellent beers on tap.
It would be a shame for Widmer to loose the name when they have such a strong brand recognition for their “Hefe.”