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08 02 2008

Surfin’ Sudz in San Fran

Posted by: drfermento in Beer News

dr-f-patriot-for-blog.jpgOn the heels of my recent Colorado beer foray, I’m jumping state once again and headed toward

San Francisco to chase West Coast Beer.  Specifically, I’m running down to participate in the judging of the annual Toronado Barley Wine Festival.  This gig is touted as the biggest barley wine festival in the world.  Perhaps it is.  This is by sheer entry number, but don’t get caught up in the hype that it’s any kind of festival unless your idea of festin’ is cramming into a small pub and vying for the attention of a beer slinger for a fleeting sample of one of the winning beers.  This isn’t necessarily bad, but absent is the homespun, familiar feeling of our own Great Alaskan Beer and Barley Wine Festival that happens in January every year.  At Toronado, there’s no music.  There’s no food.  There is, however, a very frenzied sense of excitement on the day of the judging.  People line up all the way down

Haight Street

to try to get in when the door opens.  The judging takes place across the street in a dumpy little bar.  Curriers run back and forth across the street to fetch pitchers of beer from the Pub and bring them back for the judges to evaluate.  I’ve judged the Great Alaskan Beer and Barley Wine Festival every year since I can remember and this will be my second shot at Toronado.  I’m honored to be called to judge; this is a very prestigious event.   Still, there’s quite a difference in how things go down.  At the

Alaska judging, you can hear a pin drop as the judges silently and professionally double-blind each beer.  At Toronado, it’s party-like and definitely more casual.  This isn’t an indictment; I’m just highlighting some differences. 

When the judging is over, things revert back to the pub.  The last time I judged, I couldn’t get in the place because it was already open and filled to capacity with thirsty revelers calling out for beers by the number.  If you catch the attention of a server, you’d better move quick and scream out your number or you’ll get passed up in an instant.  After the first day, things settle down and the week long “festival” rolls in.  There really is no hoopla and if you return to the pub, it will have quieted down and you can simply go in and order whatever barley wine might be left on the menu.  This year for sure, I’m fighting my way in.  It’s something I really have to experience just once.  If I return to

Alaska bruised and shaken, you’ll know why. 

From there, I’ll branch out and tour the city and surrounding area for good beer.  I’m no stranger to

San Francisco; I grew up on the other side of the Bay and spent my formative years as an underage drinker in a very promiscuous town that didn’t seem to care.  Back then, though, surfing good suds was easy because by the time I left at the age of 19, only Anchor Brewing Company offered much beyond the mainstream and my pints alternated between Anchor Steam Beer and Anchor Porter.  The landscape for beer is of course much more varied now and I have many destinations to seek out and spank my liver with.  For one, there’s nothing finer than taking the high-speed ferry across

San Francisco

Bay, around

Alcatraz

Island and into Marin for a visit to Marin Brewing Company.  A favorite diversion during this escapade is to sneak a 22 ounce bomber on board and hoot and holler as we cruise by the California State Penitentiary at San Quentin and hold those beers high to show the convicts what they’re missing on the free side of

America. 

Because Marin’s a launching point to California’s north coast, I’m contemplating a drive up toward

Petaluma to visit Lagunitas Brewing Company.  These guys just have an attitude I have to experience in person.  Oh, and did I mention they have some yummy beers?  Their mostly malt-forward and aggressively hopped beer line is here in

Alaska, but there’s nothing finer than experiencing good beer at the source.  That’s what travel is all about. 

Unless I can do it from afar (not likely) you won’t see a blog entry next week.  Depending on recovery time, I’ll prepare a trip report the following week to recount all of my dreamy, foamy adventures in

California.  

I ignored the Super Bowl. I always do.  I had one Super Bowl party at my house years ago and swore off the gig forever more.  I prepared numerous thirst-inducing party snacks and warehoused a whole armada of good craft beer for the enjoyment of my friends.  The problem was that my friends were more into the football hype than the were the beers and when the more jovial and laid back of us in the crowed would interject some sudsy commentary while waiting for the beer commercials, we’d get shot down in flames.  I was actually told to shut up in my own house. 

 

This was my fault of course because I wasn’t taking a very serious spectator sport seriously enough for my invitees.  I took it in stride and ended up with a smaller group out in the kitchen talking about beer.  No great loss; I’m not a football fan anyway.

 

Apparently I wasn’t alone this year.  If you watched the news a day or so after the big game, you might have picked up on the story of a Florida woman who was also bored with the game, or perhaps was dispatched by the sports fans in her hose to fetch more beer.  Either way, her erratic driving caught the attention of the local constabulary and she was pulled over.  It was then that the cops discovered that although the case of beer was safely secured on the front seat with the seat belt, a one-year old girl was roaming freely in the back seat.  Surprise-surprise that after running the red light and getting hauled to the curb, the gal didn’t pass the sobriety test and was charged with a DUI.  She didn’t have a valid license either.  I’m sure the state’s child protective service agency took good care of the endangered little girl, but I wonder what happened to the beer? 

 

The Midnight Sun Brewing Company Planet Series of Beers continues to orbit around our community with the heavily anticipated release of Mars, a Belgian-style Imperial Red IPA slated for Friday, March 28th at the brewery.  This will be the first of nine planetary beers that will take your palate into orbit over the next year.  This series rides on the heels of the decidedly cult-successful Seven Deadly Sins Series of beers that instantly became collectors items either singularly or in the coveted gift packs that I’m sure have been laid down to rest as we spin into the stratosphere with something new. 

 

It’s Rondy time (the

Alaska moniker for the annual Anchorage Fur Rendezvous Celebration that enlivens the town and brings people out in spite of winter’s icy grip) and this is the second year that Midnight Sun has produced the official Rondy beer: Rondy Brew.  Last week on Friday, February 01, Mayor Mark Begich was supposed to attend the official release of this beer at the brewery, but for some reason he bailed.  That’s unforgivable in my opinion because

Anchorage has a strong global presence with beer in no small part to Midnight Sun’s increasing recognition world-wide as a producer of unique, non-mainstream beers that appeal to increasingly sophisticated palates.  I should know better, but I have know idea if Begich even drinks beer. Does he even drink?  No matter.  We do and that’s what counts.  You can get your share of this fabulous, hearty (yet refined and imminently drinkable, malt-forward, aptly hop-spiced) brew in bombers at the more discerning grog shops and at the same time, get your Rondy Passport and surf the suds on tap at Suite 100, Platinum Jaxx, Simon and Seaforts, La Mex, Kinley’s, Tap Root, Café Amsterdam, The Anchor and McGinley’s.  If you obtain the passport from the Alaska Marketing Group (and other establishments soon to be announced) and complete it, you’ll be entered in a drawing for a bevy of great prizes.  I’m totally jazzed that someone in charge of

Anchorage’s defining winter event finally woke up and saw the value of an official Rondy beer.  And, nothing against Alaskan Brewing Company, but it’s time that another name is associated with big events and local beer. 

 

A very special version of Rondy Brew will be released at Café Amsterdam on February 23rd starting at 6:00 pm.  The brewers at Midnight Sun diverted a precious amount of the commemorative suds into a firkin that will go quickly in this pay-as-you-go event.  Who knows?  I might show up to indulge given that it’s my 50th birthday and the only thing I have to do the next day is run with the reindeers with a hangover in downtown.   

Anchorage.  This will be a rare appearance by Dr. Fermento because I intend to run as such with a beer in hand.  I have a special affinity for reindeer because they are the happy recipients of most of our local brewery’s spent grains, so just like me, they’re fueled on beer. 

 

Down at the venerable Tap Root Café in

South Anchorage, things are back in synch with a full music, food and beer menu.  As far as beer’s concerned (okay, well mead), grab a crayon and mark your sudsy coloring book for the February 16th Ring of Fire Meadery special release of two new fermented honey products.  Stray Dogma will ring out some “leashed” tunes (four out of six musicians will be in attendance) and the goods will flow until 2:00 am our you drag your carcass out of there (hopefully in a cab) and head home to dream of Vikings and other such miscellany entrapments of the mead world.  So, put your horns on and plan on attending. There’s a $5.00 cover charge for the band, so pack a half a sawbuck in your wallet before you head out.  Until then, Ring of Fire’s Brandy Barrel Aged Pear Cyser, Cosmic Honey Mead and Raspberry Melomel are available for your consistent enjoyment. 

While you have your crayon out, pencil in the Tap Root Flemish Beer Tasting on Monday, March 3rd.  This is a correction because the event was originally billed for March 04.  Clay Brackley from The Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewery will emcee the event along with another beer luminary savvy in the history and lore of sour beer. 

 

The Tap Root beer line up currently includes selections such as Midnight Sun Oosik Amber, Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter, Kodiak Nut Brown Ale,  and Sockeye Red IPA.  The Moose’s Tooth’s Moonflower ESB, Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop’s Roughneck Stout and The Sleeping Lady Brewing Company’s Scottish Ale  will be on board with the even rarer Homer Brewing Company Broken Birch Bitter to round out local selections.  North Coast Brewing Company’s La Merle will is available as is Verhaeghe Duchess de Bourgogne.  Pack your baby along as well and fix her up with a glass of Liefman’s Frambozen; it’ll help with those horns later on. 

 

I mentioned before that Midnight Sun’s Rondy Brew will be available at La Bodega in the University Mall, but more new beers will tempt you if you shop there including Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s Bigfoot Barley Wine, Stone Brewing Company’s Old Guardian Barley Wine, Sierra Nevada’s ESB and Lagunitas Brewing Company’s Hairy Eyeball. 

 

Thanks to recent Specialty Imports distribution of

Kenai Peninsula products, plan on enjoying Kassiks’ Kenai Brew Stop’s Imperial Spiced Honey Wheat at both Café Amsterdam  and Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse.  Brewer Frank Kassik revealed that this 8.9 percent big American style wheat beer has at least 50 percent wheat in the grist and is lightly dosed with cinnamon.  Both venues should have this beer on tap soon. 

 

Deschutes Brewery is an amazing institution.  I wish I could remember when I had my first

Deschutes beer because I’m sure it was a noteworthy experience.  The brewery’s been around since 1988 and at that time, I was well beyond my formative years.  I’m sure if I were to dig through my archives, I could trace the brewery’s inception in Alaska, but that takes work better devoted to just heaping accolades on the continuing line of stellar beers that show up here in Alaska.  Few beer lovers can discount the anticipation every year when Jubelale shows up in town.  It’s long gone now, except for the coveted, remaining six pack I’m nursing to oblivion on special occasions.  Spring has probably sprung in Bend, Oregon, the home of Deschutes, and the brewery’s already announced the annual debut of the spring seasonal Cinder Cone Red.  This is another one of my all-time favorite beers. 

 

Cinder Cone Red embodies the spirit of the northwest, and when I think of it, I have fond recollections of tall green trees  (free of spruce beetle infestation) and the flamboyant, yet earthy smell of the forest and the warm, glow-y feeling of being away from the trappings of my all-too-normal utilitarian life.  I lived in Tacoma, Washington for a couple of years and remember fondly driving deep into long expanses of woods with a cooler full of cold beer on ice and just getting lost for awhile.  Cinder Cone reminds me of this.  We probably won’t see this beer until the end of March up here, but so be it. It gives me something wistful to think about in the cold, but brightening days ahead. 

 

I was so enamored of the recent release of Full Sail Brewing Company’s Top Sail Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Porter that I had to go out and get another 22 ounce bomber sample.  Top Sail is a recent release within the brewery’s notable Brewmaster Reserve series of beers (along with Slipknot Imperial IPA). This inky brown, not-even-translucent knocker rips the glass full and settles under a deep tan head.  I’m getting old, so I have to hold this stuff up to the light and turn it round and round and look for highlights even in the darkest brews to see if any light leaks through.  Is it my eyes or the beer?  I drink consistently out of my favorite Aventinus wheat beer glass with its long stem and bulbous head because it presents the beer nicely by allowing enough top space to waft off the full onslaught of any aroma a beer might throw at me. 

 

I think what pulls me back to this beer again and again is the rich, alluring and complex nose replete with tons of chocolate, a dash of caramel and molasses and plenty of dark fruit sensuousness that keeps me smelling as much as drinking.  The beer’s 7.5 percent alcohol content finds its way out at the end of the sniff, and by then I’m done and have my face fully in the brew.  The bourbon barrel aging is evident but well in the background and I appreciate this.  All too often, “bourbon” beers are over the top and I’m not into hard liquor and if I was, a shot of Jack Daniels might seem just as good. 

Sometimes I struggle when things get “imperial” in dark beers and have to search to discern between a porter and a stout’s merits, but it’s easy in Top Sail.  Absent is the more acrid roasted malt and black patent character and I appreciate the fact that I can easily discern a porter’s essence as the base.  I don’t care what the beer is, if it references a base style, I’d better find that first and the imperial part later.  This is easy donuts with Top Sail.  The flavor mimics the aroma in most senses, but add additional complexity of very feint background notes of citrus, the defining

Pacific Northwest hop flavor and just enough bitterness to keep the beer from being too sweet.  I guess what makes the beer big is the alcohol content and intensity of malt, but it all balances so well that I’d easily reach for this beer over some of the more mundane, over-hopped American interpretations of even the basic porter style. 

 

Mouthfeel is just above medium and as evenly balanced as the hop/malt profile and I respect that as well. The beer is big, but not full and overdone.  Imperialism has merit when its artfully done in a beer and I consider Top Sail a benchmark. 

 

A beer accomplice at work handed me a stubby bottle of Bofferding Lager Pils from Brasserie Bofferding in Luxumbourg.  He’s got a friend that’s an international cargo pilot who brings him back curious samples from around the globe.  He likes to share and therefore we’re great friends.  I’d just turned him on to some examples I brought back from

Colorado and he was equally jazzed. 

 

The 4.8 percent alcohol beer beer rocks up frothy with almost angry carbonation fighting to the top of the glass and forming a dense, loose white head.  There are so many bubbles that the golden yellow beer almost seems white at the bottom of the glass.  This goes on for some time, so teasing the aroma out was initially no easy feat.  Lager character abounds with telltale sulfur notes and traces of corn-borne dimethyl sulfide, but behind all that is a nice, clean, light grain contingent that adds some respect to the beer.  My sample gave indications of very light oxidation as well.  The hop presentation is subtle and only slightly evidenced in the nose and comes across as coarse of anything at all.

Ample bitterness greets the palate at first, but this quickly fades to reveal a rather sweet-centered beer with some corn and expected light grain notes.  The bitterness shows up again briefly in the end as the beer dissolves to a clean, albeit slightly thin finish.  The beer is only slightly upscale when paired against any of the American macro lagers.  Research indicates the beer’s also produced in cans (mine was a bottled version) and I would suspect that a canned version might ward off the slight light-struck character I evidenced and with less head space in the bottle, perhaps the oxidation as well.  This is definitely a session beer for overseas masses and I could see where some appeal might be found for those unaccustomed to the rich tapestry of fermented goods across the pond.  

 

Here’s the Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse lineup for this week!

 

Wheats / Fruits

           Celestial Rarzzery Cyser

                     $6.00 for 8 oz gl / $10.00 for  13 oz gl

           Moose’s Tooth Wild Country Raspberry Wheat

           Pyramid Apricot

           Pyramid Hefeweisen

           Lindemans Framboise ###

          

Golden Ales / Pilseners /

California Common

           Midnight Sun Gold Strike Kolsch

           Sleeping Lady Imperial Pilsner (7%)

           Anchor Steam

California Common

           Oregon Honey by

Portland Brewing

 

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

           Alaskan Pale Ale

           Moose’s Tooth Polar Pale Ale

          

Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

           Pike St. Pale Ale

           Pyramid D.P.A.

          

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

           

India Pale Ales (med - high hop bitterness)

           Alaskan Jalapeno Imperial I.P.A. * (7.5%)

           Homer Broken Birch Bitter

           Humpy’s Sockeye Red by Midnight Sun

           Moose’s Tooth Fairweather I.P.A.

           Lagunitas I.P.A.

           Pyramid Thunderhead I.P.A.

 

Belgian Ales

           Homer Belgian Bruin (Dark) Ale

           Midnight Sun Greed Belgian Single Ale #

           Blue Moon Belgian White Ale

           Rodenbach Flemish Sour Ale ###

 

Strong Belgian Ales (Alcohol by Volume over 7.5%    Midnight Sun Wrath Belgian Double I.P.A.                                            ## (8.2%)

           Midnight Sun Gluttony Belgian Triple I.P.A.                                             ### (10.5%)

           Bosteels Triple Karmeliet ### (8%)

           Chimay Cing Cents Triple #### (8%)

           Delirium Tremens ### (8.5%)

           Pater Lieven Triple ### (8%)

           Unibroue Maudite ## (8%)

          

Seasonal / Special

           Sleeping Lady English Braggot # (8.8%)

 

Brown Ales

           Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown Ale

           Rogue Hazelnut Brown Ale       

 

Barley Wines

           Pyramid Barley Wine #

 

Amber Ales / Bocks / Dopplebocks / Scottish
           Alaskan Amber Ale

           Midnight Sun Oosik Amber

           Rouge American Amber

           Mac Tarnahan’s Scottish Ale

 

Porters / Stouts

           Alaskan Baltic Porter 2007 ed # (9.7%)

           Deschutes Black

Butte Porter

           Midnight Sun Mammoth Stout #

           Guinness Stout *

           Young’s Oatmeal Stout **

          

Christmas Special Ales

           Alaskan Winter Ale

           Midnight Sun Cohoho Imperial I.P.A. # (8%)

          

Deschutes Jubel Ale

           Elysian  Bifrost

           Fish Tale Winterfish

           Full Sail Wreck the Halls

           Gouden Carolus Noel ### (10.5%) 2006 ed

 

Dr Fermento Beer Calendar

 

 

01/31/08          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Fur Rondy Brew Release at the Brewery                                   5 – 7 PM   Pay As You Go

02/01/08          McGinley’s Pub                                    First Taste Event Featuring North Coast Brewery Beers            5 – 8  PM  $7.00

02/10/08          Around Town                                       Midnight Sun Rondy Brew Available                             Open Hours            Pay As You Go

02/02/08         

Kenai

River Brewing Company             Single Hop Day Celebration                                                      Noon-5 PM     $25.00

02/05/08          Kinley’s restaurant and Pub                  Midnight Sun Seven Deadly Sins Dinner                                    6:00 PM      $70.00

02/08/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Fur Rondy Homebrew Comp. Entries Accptd                                 11:00 AM         $$ Per Entry

02/08/08          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Fallen Angel Release at the Brewery                                         5 – 7 PM   Pay As You Go

03/22/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Fur Rondy Homebrew Competition Judging                                   10:00 AM         Free

02/15/08          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Envy Imperial Pilsner re-release                                                5 – 7 PM   Pay As You Go

02/16/08          Tap Root Café                                    Ring of Fire Meadery Special Release                                       8:00 PM           Pay As You Go/Cover TBD)

02/16/08          Toronodo Pub (

San Francisco)             Toronodo Barleywine Festival                                                   10:00 AM        Pay As You Go

02/17/08          Marriot Hotel,

Oakland, Calif.              Celebrator Beer News 20th Anniversary Party                           3:00 PM      $55.00

02/23/08          Café Amsterdam                                  Rondy Brew Firkin Night                                                          6:00 PM      Pay As You Go

03/28/08          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Mars Planet Beer Available (Imperial Red IPA)

03/03/08          Tap Root Café                                     Flemish/Sour Beer Tasting (Date Correction)                          5:30 PM      $$??

03/19/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Entries for 2008 Breakup Homebrew Competition Accepted            Noon               $$ Per Entry

03/22/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Breakup Homebrew Competition Judging                                 10:30 AM        Free

03/28/08          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Planet Beer Mars Belgian Imperial Red IPA Release                 6:00 PM      Free

05/03/08          Chena Pump Campground (Fbx)          Zymurgist Borealis Nat. Homebrew Day/Big Beer Celeb.            Noon               Free

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Beer News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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