DrFermento.Net

Hey Sudzfans! Thursday, August 09, 2007

I survived the Humpy’s/GNBC Golf Tournament. I don’t know if more rain or beer poured on Saturday, but it didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the thirsty duffers on the carts. Serving beer at 7:00 AM is an interesting concept. Oh, it’s not a new concept to me, but my experience this far has been limited to serving it to myself at 7:00 AM on odd occasions for odd reasons. There were some initial “no thanks,” but once the first couple of carts rolled through the Bloody Mary Hole and then the Jager-Bomb hole, everything changed. Suddenly pounding suds in the rain in the awakening day was in vogue and our four beer carts got very busy.

It took me a while to convince people that the GNBC/Humpy’s Tournament wasn’t about scoring. I told them they were on the 18-hole liver treatment program. It seemed to have effect. By the end of the day, I’d seen four passengers eject from carts on the corners, much to the hilarity of the remaining team members and yours truly.

Before I forget, if you lay beers down, mysteriously, at the Brown Jug store on Old Seward in front of Wall Mart (toward the street) some Vintage A Le Coqs Imperial Extra Double Stout (2000 and 2001 versions) showed up. How about some 2004 and 2006 Carnigie Porter? Pick up some Uerige Double Sticke while you’re at it. All great beers.

If you’re looking for something to do this fall, check out the Tall Sails and Ales Cruise that launches out of Sidney, British Columbia for a five-night, six-day cruise. What makes this rather unique is it’s on board the Canadian schooner Maple Leaf, a twin-master that rocks and rolls with the sea. It’s a big temptation for me because as a youngster, I was fascinated with sailing vessels. John Paul Jones was my childhood hero and a spent a lot of hours sniffing model glue while piecing together plastic replicas of the world’s famous ships. I don’t know if it was some sort of premonition, but back in those days, part of a sailor’s wages were paid in ale. Ale was common on sailing vessels because it had better stability and shelf life than water. Oh, it also made nice sailors a lot more cheery and nasty pirates a lot more vicious.

Point is that Maple Leaf Adventures is putting this gig on. The event organizer is Maureen Gordon. She knows beer too as she’s a member of the B.C. Campaign for Real Ale.

The sailing runs between October 25-30 and costs $1,999 in Canadian bucks (whatever you call those) which as around $1,875 in American green. This includes sampling of over 50 Pacific Northwest beers and probably a lot of Canadian flavor as the route travels through the British Columbian Gulf Islands. BC Brewing Historian Greg Evans will be on board imparting his imperial wisdom on the subject of beer. The cuisine served throughout the voyage is prepared with and paired with appropriate beers and ports of call include brewery tours.

This isn’t some fly by night outfit with a back yard raft. The experience is listed as a Frommers Canada best travel experience. The tour is only in its second year and seems like the kind of thing that might get popular enough to drive the price up and getting a bunk tough to do in the coming years. Call (250) 360-2423 for more info and log on to www.MapleLeafAdventures.com to check out pictures. You can email beer goddess Maureen at maureen@mapleleafadventures.com.

I hate to get political, but have you followed the news that a new alcohol tax is being proposed? The Tuesday, August 7, 2007 Anchorage Daily News article “Booze tax may make it to ballot” heralds Allen Bailey and his cohorts at MADD’s efforts to spike the already high alcohol taxes by another 10 percent. The stated objective is to curb public drunkenness. I don’t see a correlation. Bailey’s point is that “Certainly if you don’t have the money, that deters you from buying.” I could be wrong, but I’m not blind, and most of the outward, visible public inebriates aren’t the type the start with any money in the first place. I believe the vast majority of them are the folks we see standin’ and panhandlin’ on the corners while we try to avoid them in traffic. This neophrobie (Bailey) has a track record of anti-booze initiatives that seem to be gaining momentum in Alaska. The familiar downtown assemblyman Alan Tesche is also involved and helped write the initiative.

I don’t like public inebriation any more than anyone else and applaud efforts to clear our streets of the exact people that give the remaining responsible drinkers a bad name. I just disagree with the proposed methodology. I can’t see the fairness in punishing the vast majority of responsible alcohol consumers to try to target the irresponsible few with a scheme that just won’t work. If the tax is passed, the same vagrants will just be in the streets 10 percent longer to achieve the same objective. Using this current group’s logic, how about boosting the tax on mouthwash, vanilla extract (14 percent alcohol) and other common sundries that contain alcohol and are commonly purchased to get more bang for the buck? Don’t believe me? Go check out Brown Jug Warehouse’s recycling area. The hard working folks at Brown Jug spend a lot of volunteer time cleaning up homeless camps and other inebriate gathering areas and guess what’s being found? Sure, maybe these places aren’t “public” but a little garb-ology reveals that it’s not just commercial booze that’s fueling the problem.

Right now, according to the article, beer is being taxed at $1.07 a gallon for breweries that crank out more than 60,000 barrels a year and $0.35 a gallon for breweries that produce less. I don’t know where all our local breweries are in their production, but assuming that the wholesalers would be taxed 10 percent, this would be passed on to the retailer and ultimately the consumer. How this fetters down to individual bottles and pints is unclear, but it’s doubtful that your typical street inebriate is going to do the math.

One of the proposed destinations for the increased revenue is something called a wet house where inebriates can stay and drink, but off the streets. It seems laughable at first, but given that the tax isn’t going to achieve it’s objective anyway, why not throw more good money after bad? I suppose if the objective is to curb public drunkenness, this is one way to do it, because no tax is going to make someone quit drinking or keep them from drinking in public if that’s what they want to do.

Here’s an idea! Let’s enforce the already existing laws that assist in keeping our community free of vagrants and drunks. Let’s do something with the repeat offenders.

I’ve got to step down off my beer keg and move on to more thirst-inducing subjects. When I set down to write my Press and Celebrator articles, I have a single objective: make people thirsty. That’s why those pieces are more upbeat and positive. Shitty beer politics and writing about bad beer don’t achieve that objective, so I write differently for those venues than here where I can speak my mind.

The Kenai Peninsula continues to twist nationally influenced palates into submission with the infusion of more craft beer. This fall, look for St. Elias Brewing Company to enter the scene with a brewpub located in Soldotna just north of the Fred Meyer complex as you’re headed out of town back toward Anchorage. I don’t know much about these cats yet and am relying on scant information from Frank Kassik of Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop and Doug Hogue from Kenai River Brewing Company, but both have been working amicably with the Zach Henry father and son team as they gear up to get the suds a-flowin’. According to Kassik, “they’re putting it together by hand. There’s beautiful artwork inside the building. It’s considered ad junior brewpub. That means they they’ll be able to brew for his clientele, but not for the bars and restaurants around town.”

Speaking of new brewpubs, I’m awash in rumors about a new brewpub on the cusp in Seward. Purportedly called the Chinooks Waterfront Restaurant, this place is scant on information. I can’t ascertain one way or the other if something’s fermenting or not. I can’t afford the time to drive down their either. If anyone knows anything substantive, clue me in. I’d like to scoop these folks.

What’s on tap, you ask? Over at Glacier Brewhouse, it’s pretty standard stuff except for the Black Rye Bock, which is one of my perennial favorites. This dark, heady brew combines the residual sweetness of a good bock, some of the swirling moderate dark grain flavors of a Schwarz and some of a rye beer’s dryness in the finish. This soaked-in-oak brew is fresh off the Beam (retired Jim Beam barrel) so there’s plenty of oak influence to add interest. Othern’ that, expect to find the Blonde, Amber, IPA, Hefe, Stout, Imperial Blonde and Cask IPA all pouring.

Back to the Peninsula: Two of Kenai River Brewing Company’s beers are currently on tap at Café Amsterdam. Resurrection Summer Ale and Skilak Scottish Ale are on and flowing fast. I’m patiently awaiting the likes of some Honeymoon Hefe and something out of their continuing Single Hop IPA Series to wander up here. The single hop series is the same base beer that’s spiced with a different single hop variety each time. This is the two brewers’ way of slowly mutating the stodgy Peninsula palate toward better beer. Kassik’s Moose Point Porter and Pale Moon Pale Ale are on tap at Humpy’s.

Over at Café Amsterdam, Ayinger Brau-Weisse, Magner’s Irish Cider, Avery Collaboration, Not Litigation Ale, Avery 14^th Anniversary Ale, Unibroue Maudite, Mestreeches Aajt Flemish Red, Kenai River Brewing Company Scottish and Summer ales, Celestial Meads Cyser Does Matter, Bitburger, Gouden Carolus Tripel, and Alaskan Stout are currently all on tap. On deck beers include Anchor Steam, Bavik, Leavenworth Friesian Pilsner Lager, Moose’s Tooth’s Hefe, and more Lagunitas IPA and Censored IPA. The Freisian from Leavenworth Brewing Company has been here before, but very sporadically, so this is a good reach.

Finally, here’s the list from Humpy’s (about two days old):

Wheats / Fruits

Moose’s Tooth Wild Country Raspberry Wheat

Pyramid Apricot

Pyramid Hefeweizen

Lindemans Framboise ###

Spire Mt. Apple Cider #

Golden Ales/ Pilseners / California Common

Alaskan Summer Kolsch

Midnight Sun Gold Strike Kolsch

Leavenworth Friesian Pilsner Lager

Oregon Honey by Portland Brewing

Amstel Light

Pale Ales / E.S.B.’s (medium hop bitterness)

Alaskan Pale Ale

Kassik’s Brew Stop Pale Moon Pale Ale

Moose’s Tooth Polar Pale Ale

Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Alaskan E.S.B.

India Pale Ales (med - high hop bitterness)

Great Bear Double Trouble I.P.A.

Humpy’s Sockeye Red by Midnight Sun

Moose’s Tooth Fairweather I.P.A.

Big Sky I.P.A.

Bridgeport I.P.A.

Deschutes Inversion I.P.A.

Great Divide Hercules Double I.P.A. # (9.1%)

Stone I.P.A.

The Lagunitas I.P.A.

Stone’s Arrogant Bastard Ale

Specialties / Seasonal

Rogue Dad’s Little Helper Malt Liquor # (8%)

Barley Wines

Pike Old Bawdy Barley Wine # (10%)

Belgian Ales

Blue Moon Belgian White Ale

Duchesse De Bourgogne Flemish Sour Red ###

Hooegarden Belgian White Beer *

St. Bernard Grotten Brown ###

Strong Belgian Ales (Alcohol by Volume over 7.5%)

Avery Collaboration not Litigation Ale ## (8.99%)

Chimay Cing Cents Triple ### (8%)

Delirium Tremens ### (8.5%)

Gouden Carolus Classic ### (8%)

Liefmans Goudenband Brown ### (8%)

Unibroue Maudite ## (8%)

Amber Ales / Bocks /Dopplebocks/Scottish
Alaskan Amber Ale

Sleeping Lady Forty Niner Amber Ale

Sleeping Lady Forty Niner Amber Ale * (Cask - Conditioned, Dry - Hopped)

Rogue American Amber

Mac Tarnahan’s Scottish Ale

Brown Ales

Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown Ale

Newcastle Brown Ale *

Porters / Stouts

Midnight Sun Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter

Deschutes Black Butte Porter

Full Sail Top Sail Imperial Porter

Kassik’s Brew Stop Moose Point Porter

Alaskan Oatmeal Stout

Deschutes Obsidian Stout

Guinness Stout *

Great Divide Yeti Oak Aged Imperial Stout # (9.5%)

Meads

Ring of Fire Razzery Cyser

That’s it for this bleary pint! If you get the chance, tell your assemblyperson and others that have influence that you don’t support the proposed liquor tax. I’ll be doin’ my talking, in between sips.

BNC Fermento