Here’s a trip down memory lane: Oldenberg Weiss Beer. Back in the early nineties I first visited the Oldenberg Brewing Company in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, just across the border from Cincinnati.  We stayed at the hotel adjacent to the brewery, and I can still remember to this day finding a token for a free beer at the brewery bar on the nightstand next to my bed.

Also fondly recalled are a tour of the brewery, watching the steam rise of the brew kettle as the wort was brought up to temperature, the “Great Hall” of breweriana, and a night spent sipping beers at the bar. A few years later I would return to Oldenberg for Beer Camp.

I loved the beers here, brought cases home, and wished we could get them in Rhode Island. Then one day my wish came true, and cases of Oldenberg beers showed up at the liquor store where I worked.

Oldenberg Weiss beer was a favorite, to this day one of the few examples of an American brewed Berliner Weiss I’ve come across. Trinity Brewhouse in Providence, RI produced the other. Oldenberg Weiss was a tart, quenching, refreshing brew of 2.5% alcohol by volume. The distinct sourness may not have been as pronounced as say, Berliner Kindl Weiss, but the beer was very tasty.

Berliner Weiss is, for me, the perfect beach beer, and I recall smuggling bottles of Oldenberg Weiss onto Scarborough beach. The low alcohol content and quenching character made the beer perfect for sipping in the sun.

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