Widmer Brothers had somehow until now not had a pale ale in their regular beer offerings.  They recently brought on line a lot of new capacity in their new brewhouse and I suspect that one of the early results of that new capacity is the permanent return of this great pale ale.  This is a really easy to drink pale ale, with a noted hoppiness that doesn’t permanently infest your sinuses or overwhelm the rest of the beer like some others that I won’t mention here.  The malt flavors are still evident and the mouth feel is very smooth.  I’m now torn about which Oregon pale ale is my favorite, Deschutes’ Mirror Pond or the new Drifter, but then, I’m not sure I need to choose: they’re both excellent beers.  The new labeling for drifter is nice, too, invoking surf images.  With the abnormally long and cold spring that summer imagery might be part of the appeal.  If you like pale ale it’s worth picking up a six-pack of Drifter, or if you’re here in the Northwest, grab it on tap.  It’s nice to see such a great beer follow on the heels of the disaster that was W’09.