Woozily, I write. Café Amsterdam is a liver-trap for me. Tuesday night, I hit the pub with the innocent, simple, single intention of sampling Kassik’s new Oktoberfest as I promised brewer Frank Kassik that I would. Uh Huh. Right. “Sampling” the beer had to be done professionally, you know, and that translated into putting it in the ring with Paulaner Oktoberfest and Spaten Ur-Marzen Oktoberfest. Yes, I’ll admit it was MY idea, but Ken Pajak, Will, and Ms. Fermento never even uttered a PEEP of resistance when I suggested we pair the beers up. “Wait, is that Kasteel Bruin I see on tap? I’d better see if it’s as sweet as I recall. Certainly a goblet of the 11 percent quad can’t hurt.” Things were going downhill in a hurry, but did I pay attention? “Oh, and honey, you definitely HAVE to try the Alaskan Heritage Coffee Porter. What, you don’t get the coffee in that? Gimme a pint, let me see. Yup, its there all right, just let it warm a bit.” Why, oh why did Ken have to put Midnight Sun Obliteration II and Wrath on tap at the same time? “Yessssssss, I DID say I didn’t initially get the Belgian character in the MSBC Wrath when I attended the pre-release at SubZero the other night. Have I tried it side by side with Oblit II? Nope. Let’s do it….” Jesus, that was stupid on a school night.
HEAVY MEDAL WINNERS AT GABF
Thanks to the Moose’s Tooth Brewing Company, Midnight Sun Brewing Company and Alaskan Brewing Company, our local beer continues to show up on the national radar screen with wins at this year’s Great American Beer Festival in
HOMEBREWERS RUN AMOK
Homebrewers are generally fairly benign creatures, unless of course, you get caught mucking around in their stash. In all, I think many people become members of Anchorage’s Great Northern Brewers Homebrew Club in part because of the great camaraderie the membership offers that extends beyond making and sharing beer.
Occasionally, however, we hear about unruliness that becomes the result of a homebrew consumption session. Such was the case in Noorvik on Monday, October 8th according to Alaska State Troopers as reported in the Friday, October 12, 2007 Alaska Digest section of the Anchorage Daily News.
Apparently a couple of guys were slamming some home-made suds and an argument broke out. Yeah, that happens, even with the best of us sometimes. There was no reference in the story as to what these two gents were arguing about, but the alleged homebrewer then attacked his friend. This wasn’t your standard knock-down, drag-out fisticuffs kind of fight. The homebrewer attacked his victim with a fire extinguisher and a chain saw. The report is weak because it doesn’t indicate if the fire extinguisher was discharged in the battle or if the chain saw was running. It would have certainly made for livelier press, but it simply said the victim was “struck” with these objects. The report also said that the homebrewer threatened the other gent with a knife and broke his foot. This reduced the victim to crawling away for help.
I wonder if the fact that the Troopers responded to the incident at 7:40 a.m. indicates that these two upstanding citizens had been drinking all night? By the way, just for the record, neither of these two guys belong to the Great Northern Brewers Club. That group is much more cordial. In fact, the worst that I’ve seen is a couple of inebriates pissing off the top deck of the Snow Goose Restaurant at a Christmas party one year. Yeah, you know who you are, now hang your head with me in shame.
We don’t hear a lot of homebrew abuse stories in the news, so when we do, we perk up. The last one I recall had something to do with a villager getting busted coming out of his dwelling carrying a bucket of hooch that was the color of Pepto Bismol and tested out to around 18 percent alcohol. I’d be interested in seeing the guy’s recipe. I don’t want to duplicate it, but that pink color has me intrigued.
TAP ROOT’S ALLEGIANCE TO LOCAL BREW
Tap Root Café continues to proudly support local beer. Six Midnight Sun Brewing Company Beers are on tap including Kodiak Brown, Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter Oosik Amber and Sockeye Red from the flagship line, and the very interesting side-by-side feature of Humpback Jack Pumpkin Ale and the Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter. The café is suggesting a blending of the coffee porter and Humpback Jack for an interesting flavor profile. The Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewing Company’s Scottish Ale is on tap and Ring of Fire Meadery’s Brandy Barrel Aged Pear Cyser is also featured. Looking for something a bit more puckering? How about the Duchess de Borgogne, a Flemish sour red ale? Oh, and for the traditionalists in your group, Guinness Stout is also on tap, specially priced at $3.00 a pint. There’s no crap on tap at Tap Root this week.
SEWARD SUDZ
My astute and well-traveled field correspondent, Keri Canepa reports that beer is alive and well in Seward, but not always where we might expect it. Seward is a wet, damp, drizzly town at this time of year and I think a brewpub would spice things up some, but it’s just not destined to be at this point. To quell additional rumors, again, thanks to my worldly readers, here’s what I know. Chinooks Waterfront Restaurant is a small establishment located on Seward’s small boat harbor. A good attempt at fine dining awaits a patron at the place, but reports are that service is spotty and the staff isn’t very conversational. Most interesting is the fully installed, but inoperative brewery on premise.
Every time someone inquires about the brewing operation, the standard response is “We’re waiting for something.” My totally unverified suspicion is that they’re waiting for legal approval to brew. My guess (again, just a hunch) is that they constructed the brewery with great intentions and forgot some little details, perhaps like a brewery or brewpub license, code approval or something burdensome like that. My reporters indicate that the small cooperage is adorned with nameplates that include the names of the hopefully future beers.
My inquiries have not been responded to, save an email from Rory Petrick, the hopefully future brewer.
Correspondent Kurt Kried visited a while back (chasing fish first, then beer) and reported that Chinooks remained closed (as a brewery) but Ray’s Waterfront Bar and Grill next door to Chinooks was viable and satiating with a good mix of local Alaska beers and Northwest micros available. He also reported “…a new place downtown called an ‘Ale House’ that has Stone Arrogant Bastard and a few others on tap.”
Canepa reports another establishment out by the Seward Sea Life Center called Christo’s Palace Dining and Cocktails that had a “…rather respectable tap likne and mostly Alaskan beers (Guinness and Black Butte Porter being the exceptions).” Canepa enjoyed a pint of our own Midnight Sun Brewing Company Sockeye Red at Christo’s. My Google search shows that Christo’s is located downtown at 133 Fourth Ave ((907)-224-5255).
I’m long overdue for a trip down that way. The last time I spent any time in Seward was years and years ago when craft beer was emergent and mostly mega-beers were served in this little maritime town. I’ve been thrown out of a bar or two in that town. It sounds like the tides are bringing in increasingly good beer down there, so I’ll report back after my trip.
RUNNIN’ ON HOPS IN SOLDOTNA
Elsewhere on the Peninsula, Kenai River Brewing Company continues with its single hop series of IPAs with a new release approximately every other month. The current Single Hop IPA on tap features Simcoe hops. So far, KRBC has released Summit, Amarillo,
Beer selections at KRBC currently include Honeymoon Hefe, Pillars Pale Ale, Arctic XPA, Naptown Nut Brown Ale, Skilak Scottish Ale, Pothole Porter, Swiftwater Stout and Sunken Island IPA. The current Single Hop IPA features Simcoe hops and is on tap as well.
FIRST LAGER FLOWS IN NIKISKI
Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop passed a new milestone this week with the release of their Oktoberfest/Marzen beer. It’s currently on tap at Café Amsterdam. O’fest beers certainly aren’t uncommon at this time of year, but this is Kassik’s first lager from the brewery. For the uninformed, lagers are a little more difficult to produce than ales because they require cooler, extended fermentation. Given a lager’s typically “clean” characteristic, they’re also less forgiving than ales and even the slight flaws that might be masked by an ale’s inherent fruitiness are immediately apparent in a lager. Kassik’s O’Fest is flawless in the cleanliness department and overall, pretty spot-on to the festive style of beer it was designed to represent.
The beer is a tad soft in the aroma and missing is the telltale scent of a good, even mixture of Vienna and/or Munich malts, although they show up some as the beer warms. Otherwise the aroma is clean. Things liven up in the flavor as this slightly darker than style beer is sampled. Those robust malts make a good showing in the beer that’s just slightly hop forward for style, but very clean overall. I sampled the Kassik’s beer against the world benchmark Spaten Ur-Marzen Oktoberfest and Paulaner Oktoberfest just for comparison. This probably isn’t fair, but Kassik’s emerges as less dimensional than the other two hallmarks, but it’s still a highly respectable beer. It would be a joy to have another large glass of this very smooth, clean and tasty stuff.
Kassik’s Buffalo Head Barley Wine is perking along in anticipation of the January Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival.
ALE-WAYS GREAT STUFF AT CAFÉ AMSTERDAM
Also on at Café Amsterdam (in addition to the Kassik’s, Spaten and Paulaner O’fest beers) (at least as of Tuesday, 10/16) are Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter, Wrath (Belgian-style double IPA), and Obliteration II, Alaskan Brewing Company’s Winter Ale and Heritage Coffee Porter, Chimay Cinq Cents, Kasteel Bruin, Kenai River Brewing Company’s Swiftwater Stout, Celestial Mead’s Razzery Cyser, Manger’s Irish Cider, Lagunitas Imperial Red Ale. I also sampled the Kasteel Bruin while at Café and as I suspected this is one sweet treat. My experience with Kasteel beers is that they all seem sweet for style, although it’s hardly inappropriate. My first experience was with the Kasteel Tripel when I was somewhat new to the style. Having been accustomed to the more common drier tripels, I was taken aback a bit, but a review of style guidelines indicates that sweetness is okay in this style. It’s certainly appropriate in a quad, and in addition to the overall, almost cloying sweetness in the Bruin, the beer is rich with dark fruit character including plum, fig, grape and other noisy flavors, but they meld well as they try to disguise the formidable 11 percent alcohol. One goblet was enough for me.
THE HUMPY’S LINEUP
Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse continues to amass a good collection of winter seasonal specialty beers.
Wheats / Fruits Moose’s Tooth Wild Country Raspberry Wheat Pyramid Apricot Pyramid Hefeweizen Pyramid Imperial Hefeweizen ** (7.1%) Lindemans Framboise
Golden Ales / Pilseners / California Common Alaskan Dunkel Ale Kassik’s Brew Stop Beaver Tail Blonde Ale Midnight Sun Gold Strike Kolsch Paulaner Munich Lager * Spaten Premium Pilsner *
Pale Ales / E.S.B.’s (medium hop bitterness) Alaskan Pale Ale Moose’s Tooth Polar Pale Ale
Rogue Dry Hopped St Rogue Red
India Pale Ales (med - high hop bitterness) Alaskan Icy Bay I.P.A. Humpy’s Sockeye Red by Midnight Sun Kassik’s Brew Stop Morning Wood Dry Hopped I.P.A. Moose’s Tooth Fairweather I.P.A. Barley Wines
Brown Ales Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown Ale Newcastle Brown Ale * Porters / Stouts Homer China Poot Porter Midnight Sun Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter
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