Reason 312 Oregon is Cool

I had the opportunity to go on a little jaunt sponsored by the Brewers Guild yesterday afternoon. It was a ramp-up to Craft Beer Month, and we went to four breweries to try unreleased beers they plan to debut on July 1. I'll write more about those later, but the coolest thing about the event was this: after every stop, the brewers would join our traveling menagerie and continue one. By the time we hit Widmer, the last stop on the tour, we had John Harris, Van Havig, and Jerry Fechter in tow. For people who have followed the brutal history of beer wars throughout American history, this stood in stark relief--guys who compete in the market but seem to genuinely relate to each other as colleagues. Either that, or they're really good actors. (Nah.)

Here they are, at the final stop--

(l-r, Rob Widmer, Kurt Widmer, Van Havig, John Harris, Jerry Fechter)