I was remiss in last week’s blog by not reminding everyone of a very important time in beer history. April 7th marked the 75th anniversary of the re-emergence of beer as prohibition was winding down. It wasn’t until December 5th in 1933 when prohibition was actually repealed, but the very second it turned April 7th, it was legal to sell and dispense beer that contained no more than 3.2 ABW. Still, those were welcome suds to a national populace that became closet homebrewers and speakeasy goers for the previous 20 years. The momentous event was so anticipated that over 1.5 million barrels of the weak, yet stronger and more flavorful beer was grabbed in the first 24 hours.
As part of all of this, an initiative called the 75 Years of Beer celebration has kicked off within which our nations estimated 1,400 breweries are encouraged to create special beers, host special events and such in celebration of 75 years of beer. More information is available at www.75YeasofBeer.org. Breweries can register and have their events and specialties posted there. Not surprisingly, there’s low participation from our Alaska brewers as they ramp up for the busy summer season ahead. As of Monday, April 7th, only Kodiak Island Brewing Company has mentioned anything, and they’re offering 25 percent off pints of beer. I don’t know the particulars, but if you happen to be in Kodiak, it wouldn’t hurt to ask! Kudos to Kodiak Island Brewing Company! 
And, while on the Kodiak subject, I’m a day late and a couple of bucks short on this one, but while at Humpy’s last night (Thursday, April 10th) Beverage Manager Christoff and I sucked down what was left of Kodiak Island’s Belgian Triple Ale. I wish I would have been paying attention earlier, because this stuff so totally rocked. I won’t bore you with the details of the sensory experience, but will assure you that I put a lot of pressure on Christoff to get some more. I think it’s great that we’re getting Kodiak Island beers up here at least somewhat frequently now. The Belgian triple’s empty keg was kicked to the side and a keg of Kodiak’s Sweet Georgia Brown was put in its place, so you can still go to Humpy’s and enjoy treats from this reclusive island brewery in Alaska. Remember, think globally, but drink locally; it’s our small breweries that need you to sustain them by voting for their product with your drinking dollars.
Not to digress, but I followed my Kodiak sample with a pint of Silver Gulch Brewing Company’s Winter Rye Bock. At least as of Friday, April 11, this beer was still on at Humpy’s and it’s worth a reach. The combination of elements lends an almost Schwarz-like character to the beer with rich chocolate and light caramel notes, some evidence of kettle carmalization, melinoidins and the dry, crisp finish you’d expect from something with a little rye in it. Overall, the beer is squeaky-clean and toasty-tasty. I’m going after more.
I hope that our local breweries are cognizant of December 5th this year. It would be nice if our guild, or at least breweries that would like to participate, got together and organized a gala event somewhere. The date’s very close to next year’s Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival, so perhaps that could be the theme. Wouldn’t it be cool if the fest included a costume contest where people came dressed in 1920’s and 1930’s garb? I’m just brainstorming here, but perhaps the contest winner could be afforded the chance to brew a batch at a participating local brewery. Maybe an all-expense paid trip to brew at Silver Gulch Brewing Company in Fox (just north of Fairbanks) to brew something called “Repealed” or something like that at the northernmost brewery in the United States (at perhaps the coldest time of the year) is in order for the winner.
Maybe the theme for next year’s Connoisseur’s Session at the fest could be celebratory beers. Hell, why not have each brewery try to feature a 3.2 percent beer? Wouldn’t THAT be a switch! It would provide huge contrast to the barley wine theme. Just doing some beersto….er….brainstorming here! Jump in with your own ideas.
Prohibition put half of our nations’ breweries out of business and cost thousands and thousands of jobs. Today, our brewers and breweries face different challenges. Currently, the hop shortage is having profound effect. Smaller brewing companies are really feeling the pinch because they typically only buy as many hops as they need for a couple of batches, then buy more as they can afford it. The situation is serious enough that brewery closures might even result. Well, kudos, then, to Boston Brewing Company (Sam Adams) for offering to sell 20,000 pounds of the brewery’s supply of hops to struggling smaller breweries in need. According to a recent AP article, the brewery received 352 requests from small breweries that needed over 100,000 pounds of hops. Boston Brewing sold slightly more than 20,000 pounds of hops at cost, but just couldn’t afford to sell more and not directly affect their own ability to produce beer. Now I want to know when other brewing giants with steady contracts and large supplies are going to become benefactors as well.
Not to steal my own thunder, but mark your calendars for the April 24th Spring Grillin’ Big Beer Dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse. I will cover this in a Press article, but the feature of the dinner is the release of a lambic that’s been in production for four years at the brewery. It’s been peacefully snoozing in oak all this time. This will be the first release of several more throughout the summer. Lambics are a big departure for Glacier, and I expect these to be intensely interesting.
The Italian Plum Lambic will actually be the warm up beer for the dinner that’s limited to 21 people (figure 20, because I’ll be there). This will be followed by Glacier’s Double India Pale Ale that will be paired with Spring Pea and Crab Bisque, U-10 Scallop, Goad Cheese Cream Fraiche, and Osetra Caviar. Big Woody Barleywine, Imperial Blonde and Glacier’s Cask Conditioned IPA will be paired with a 
New Style Cheese Plate featuring three Artisan cheeses. Glacier’s Nut Brown Ale will then be paired with Tea and Peppercorn Smoked quail Salad, Asparagus, Morels and a Truffle. Jim Beam Stout will follow and will be paired with Spice Crusted Umpqua Valley Lamb, Sea Salt Roasted Peanut Potatoes, and Braised Fiddlehead Ferns in Craft Brew Jus. Finally, the formidable Raspberry XXX will be paried with a 2-Chocolate Cherry Terrine, White Chocolate Porter Ice Cream and fresh berries. The go-home beer will be Glacier’s Big Woody Barleywine.
This is a dinner you definitely want to RSVP for. It’s $70.00 a person but I can personally attest that the combination of food and beer is well beyond worth that. You might want to think about a designated driver as well. Parking sucks down there anyway, so having someone drop you off and pick you up makes even more sense.
If you just can’t wait until then to get your Glacier fill on tap as of Thursday, April 10th includes: Blonde, Amber, IPA, Hefe, Stout, Double IPA, Raspberry Wheat, Imperial Stout, Beam Stout, Rye IPA (Cask) and Imperial Blonde.
As my Thursday, April 03 Anchorage Press article indicated, things continue to shape up at the Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewing Company under the close scrutiny of brewers Clay Brackley and Greg Mills. I just wanted to shout out that the brewery is now featured on MySpace because not only is Brackley the Zymurgist at the Goose, he’s also the computer guy and just built the page. He intends to make some enhancements to the organizations web page (http://www.alaskabeers.com/) as well. One nice addition will be a more or less current beer menu as often as Brackley can update it. If you’re a MySpace freak (Dr Fermento is on there as well and invites you all as friends) be sure to check it out. Send your comments concerning your experiences with the beer as you sample the suds.
It’s going to be a busy weekend at the Goose because the First Round of the National Homebrew Competetion is being held at the facility. Over 500 beers have been sent forth from aspiring homebrewers from around the nation and it’s been an “all hands on deck” call for judges. You know where I’ll be from dawn to dusk this weekend! The nice part is that at the end of the day, when the judging is done, there are plenty of tempting libations on tap at the Goose. Here’s the line up as of April 9th:
Gold Rush Golden Ale, Fish On! IPA, Urban Wilderness Pale Ale, Bravehart Scottish Ale, Frozen Kriek Chocolate Cherry Wheat, McFarland’s Irish Red Ale, John Henry Oatmeal Stout on Nitrogen, Portage Porter, Nordic Ale, Belgian Wit Bier, Cuvee Du Houblon Belgian Saison, Oak Aged English Braggot and Oak Aged Old Gander Barleywine. These are all great beers, but I recently sampled the Belgian Wit, Saison and Braggot and they delighted my tummy.
Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s Meltdown Double IPA, perhaps the only child-inspired label thus far at the brewery, is now available for your consumption and liver-tweaking. Meltdown is Midnight Sun’s CoHoHo’s alter ego. It’s a big, fatty, insanely hoppy beer that will command shelf space in CoHoHo’s absence until our brooding, badass beer returns sometime in September. Actually, Meltdown is replacing the brewery’s Saison of the Sun. That’s because it’s what you wanted, not what the brewery wanted. You vote with you palate in Anchorage and apparently you like HOPS! Uh Huh. That’s right. You big hop heads out there wanted something with more ommph than Saison, so now you have it. Shop for this stuff on the shelves and through the taps at your favorite hop spots around town.
Midnight Sun’s first release in the Planet Series of Beers will be at Subzero Microlounge on Thursday, April 10th at 7:00 PM. This will be followed by the “official” release at the brewery on the 11th at 6:00 PM. Either way, this kicks off a stellar tour of our solar system via beer with each of the eight planets featured in a special Belgian-style ale. Pause and take a sip of your beer. Argue that there are/were nine planets in our solar system. Either way, you’re right, and the brewery is going to make it “righter” still because the bastard “planet” Pluto will be featured as well, thanks to the winning argument by the brewery’s La Femme de Marketing BaRb MiLlEr who insisted that the rogue rock be included despite the recent astronomers’ rejection of the globe as something other than an orbitary presence rather than a planet. Nuff’ said; Pluto’s in, and you can expect a release of this Belgian style golden strong ale aged in French oak chardonnay barrels late in the game.
No matter what, its time to pay attention to the releases of each of the nine beers and make sure you get a bottle of each of them for what’s destined to become a collector’s series.
Back to Meltdown. Use and abuse the beer and record your impressions and send them to Midnight Sun at barb@midnightsunbrewing.com as part of their “Share Your Meltdown Moment” and who knows where your version of your own debauchery might show up?
I got a little more detail on the Alaskan Brewing Company label change, most notably on the flagship Alaskan Amber. According to Alaskan, “The artwork on the label was created by renowned Alaskan artist John Fehringer whose unique style airbrush and opaque 
watercolor can be seen in galleries throughout Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The illustration on the new packaging maintains the image of the Southeast Alaskan fishing vessel featured on the past Alaskan Amber Labels, since its release in 1986, but with a new sense of place and the exhilaration of running the waters of the inside passage.” The entire brand line of labels is currently in redesign and over the next two years, we can expect to see all new imagery on the Alaskan products.
The intensely local tap line at Tap Root continues to showcase our finely crafted local fermented wares in an atmosphere that familial, warm and inviting. I wish it wasn’t so far away from my little crack hovel out in the ‘Dunes because I’d ride my bicycle there this summer when the snow’s gone from the bike paths. It just seems like the right place to ride to (among others). More and more of my friends are hanging out there and I want to be a part of it. Look for Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s Sockeye Red, Kodiak Nut Brown, Oosik Amber, Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter, Sloth and La Maitresse du Moine on tap this week. From The Sleeping Lady Brewing Company (Snow Goose) expect the Scottish and Saison and from Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop, look for Roughneck Stout and Beaver Tail Blonde. The Ring of Fire Meadery’s Pear-Agave Cyser is on and from our friends in Eugene, look for Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale. Finally, if you’re up (or down) for it, Delirium Tremens a Belgian strong pale ale at 9 percent alcohol, is sure to get your knees-a-knockin’. Maybe I’d better rethink my bicycling strategy.
I ran down to the Brown Jug store on 88th and Old Seward because as best I can tell, they are the only place that got some of new imported beers I was anxious to try. After mentioning Hue, King Fisher and Taj Mahal beers in last week’s blog, I got some feedback from readers concerned about my gut, based on their own experiences with these beers elsewhere.
The first I picked up a Hue Beer, a product of Viet Nam. The beer is brewed at the Hue Brewery in Hue City, formerly the capital of Vietnam. The brewery is situated along the banks of the famous Perfume River. Let me tell you, except when you get to the Michelob Ultra 
class of light beers, it doesn’t get much lighter in color than Hue does when it pours in the glass. It’s crystal clear, white gold in color implying thinness to me. A thin, wispy veil of white foam initially covered the top of the glass, but that dissolved to leave behind a trace ring around the edge. Painfully sour malt notes hit the nose first followed by some semblance of unassuming hops. Light grain follows, along with some corn-like sweetness. I thought I detected alcohol, but whatever I was smelling was more solvent-like than boozy. My sample was also just slightly oxidized as evidenced by the feint wet cardboard and a tad light struck by some skunkiness coming off the top.
The beer was surprisingly cleaner in the flavor department and washed back with some grain character and an overall sweetness with just balancing bitterness. Absent were the hints of oxidation and light struck character, but the corn-like essence was there and some grassiness as well. I’m assuming the beer is intended to be light and refreshing given its country of origin and it certainly is light. I find this beer comparable to an American light lager and it might be okay within that context except for the funky aroma on the beer. It got worse as it warmed and by mid glass, I was having problems working my way around it. At this point, I thought I even detected some bretannomyces, which would be totally inappropriate and would come out in the beer’s flavor as well as aroma. I should have taken the advice of my concerned readers and stayed away from it, but curiosity got the best of me. I wouldn’t recommend this one.
The next new beer I discovered at the Brown Jug on 88th and Old Seward was Kingfisher Lager Beer, brewed and bottled by the Kingfisher Brewing Company of Saratoga Springs New York. I had my doubts right off the bat because this unit came wrapped in green glass which is almost always a no-no because it has even less light-blocking power than brown glass.
Background sulfer notes, some hops and some very feint light-borne skunkiness wafted over the edge of the glass during the sniff. This was followed by a light hop grassiness and some clean light grain character. I also detected a slight soapy essence in the aroma. This is another very light beer as evidenced but a just shy of crystal-clear golden pour under almost no topper. The flavor was a pleasant surprise. My sample was clean, crisp and refreshing. A nice bittering snap rouses the beer in the finish.
I could tell I was drinking an all-malt product and it inspired to me to poke around a little further. This beer has an interesting history, and I’m not surprised after drinking it where it ended up. United Breweries (UB) took over five India breweries that date back as far as 1857 and combined them into one brewing conglomerate in 1915. Kingfisher is the flagship beer of the UB line and is popular there (as it always was 
with occupying British troops of the day) and in any of the other 55 countries it’s currently exported to. It showed up over here in 1983. Demand in the United Kingdom was so great that the beer was even produced at the Shepherd Neame brewery in England under license. It’s incredibly popular as the lager of choice in over 7,000 Indian restaurants in the UK.
It seems like the same thing is happening here in the United States because even though the beer is brewed at the Kingfisher Brewing Company in New York, it’s done under the control of the much more craft-brew recognizable Mendicino Brewing Company in California. Assuming your sample comes across as clean and defect free as mine did, I’d recommend this one.
The next beer in the repertoire was Taj Mahal Premium Lager Beer also from the United Breweries (UB). This is another incredibly light lager designed to the region in which it’s brewed. This one pours just like the previous two; pale and not very frothy on top. Of the three, Taj Mahal has the cleanest, most benign nose in the bunch, absent of sulfer, light-struck (skunky) or oxidized elements. Clean, albeit sweet-ish light grain and malt flavors dominate with a background essence of some coarse hops. Hops are understandably not the featured ingredient in the beer.
The beer was quite satisfying in the flavor department as well as long as I was able to remind myself tha I was drinking a very light lager. My sample was clean, and that’s something I appreciate in any bottled beer that’s sold singularly on the shelf. This is another beer that had problems upon warming, however, and the nose turned south as the beer warmed. The beer was also just slightly oxidized in the taste. There are other cleaner, crisper and more refreshing lagers with a little more character in them than this one, but it’s a decent beer overall and attractively priced. At 4.5 percent alcohol, I’d navigate my lawn mower with it.
It was a big beer week for me, at least in the beginning. Ms. Fermento returned from another session with her ailing mother in Denver. Ms. Fermento never fails to pursue the local grog shops for things fermented and interesting. Denver has some pretty large liquor stores and my impression is that except for a few of them, just like up here, the beer is not very well cared for and is left on warm shelves and exposed to both artificial and natural light, both of which cause premature aging and the ultimate demise of beer. So, I’ve been in the habit of having her ferret out the increasing number of craft beers that are being produced in cans these days.
If these beers don’t do anything for you, stay tuned because true to form, Rob Weller at Specialty Imports has been cloistered away in his little attic space at the distributorship and has been incredibly busy hauling in some incredible beers. The list he recently sent me includes an even mixture of 101 new and returning very trick beers. How about Eisenbahn Defumada Smoked Beer? Ever heard of Mikkeller Big Bad Worse Barleywine, Jackie Brown, or Stateside IPA? How about some Sudrack Eisenbahn Lust? A little bit down the road, another phenomenal shipment is due in including the rare return of one of my all time favorite beers, Peche Mortel from Brasserie Du Ciel, a small pub/brewery in Canada, just outside of Quebec. Also in that shipment will be another Mikkeller beer, the incredible Mikkeller Black, a 17.5 percent stout. This is some crazzzzzeeeeee stuff, kiddos, so stay tuned for more good news!
Although I’ve been to the brewery before and had samplers of all of the beers, Ms. Fermento brought me back two more canned beers from the Oskar Blues Brewery in Lyons, Colorado. I am the happy recipient of cans of both Oskar Blues Gordon and Old Chub.
Gordon is self described by the brewery as “Big. Red. Sticky.” The can also proclaims that “If you knew Gordon Knight, this beer needs to explanation. If you didn’t, we’re sorry.” So much for pointing to a style. No matter, the minute the can was opened and decanted into a glass there was no question. The “Big” part means boozy, the “Red” part means caramel-y, and the “Sticky” has to mean big, fresh, aromatic hops. This is no less than an imperial IPA and the canned presentation guaranteed freshness. I was not disappointed.
The aroma is nothing but pure, fresh, hugely aromatic hops of the Pacific Northwest genre. A combination of citrus, floral, earthy (pine) and even some perfume-y hops make their way to the senses in this one, all of which is followed by evidence of a big malt backbone with mega-caramel notes, all in a very nicely balanced big beer. The 8.7 percent alcohol is all but lost in this concoction, so I’d easily tuck this one in the “dangerous” classification. The beer drinks almost sweet overall, but with a lot of character and again, the balance is superb. I would say that our own versions of Imperial IPAs up here are quite a bit drier and not as balanced in the center of the sample. 
Old Chub is an over-the-top Scottish wee-heavy style ale. This is a thick, very dark brown, potent (8.35 percent) beer with all of the right Scottish-like stuff in it including big, aromatic peated malt (evidenced in the nose) with a big mixture of sweet caramel, dark malt, light smokiness, and some roastiness and even some chicory notes in the finish. Mine was a little cold, but it was definitely a slow sipper. The mouthfeel is full and brooding. I’d tell you to take a sip, close your eyes and let your mind wander to the misty moors, but we don’t get the beer up here, so forget that. Maybe some day; it’s worthy enough in my opinion and we do have a good, well established feed of Colorado beers coming our way.
Feedback surrounding the recent Ring of Fire Meadery mead dinner at Café Amsterdam was all positive. Ken Pajak reports that his Decadent Chocolate Brownies topped with aged Rembrandt Gouda cheese and a Bread Pudding infused with Ring of Fire Meadery Orange Blossom Mead and topped witn an orange hard sauce were big hits as was the incredible array of the meadery’s awesome elixirs.
Here’s the line up at Café Amsterdam, at least as of Monday, April 7th:
Chimay Cinq Cents, Sierra Nevada Big Foot Barley Wine, Midnight Sun Sockeye Red, Grotten Brown, Alaskan Summer Ale, Homer Broken Birch Bitter, Unibroue Ephemere Apple, Unibroue Maudite, Delirium Tremens, Rogue Dead Guy, Ayinger Brau Weisse, Ring of Fire Cider Mead (not to be confused with their “Local Apple Cyser”), Avery Collaboration not Litigation , and Guinness. Not to rub it in if you missed it, but Café also had Homer’s China Poot Porter, but it sold out in 1.5 days.
And, on deck at Café includes tempting treats such as Midnight Sun Sloth, Midnight Sun Pride, Kenai River Brewing IPA and Alaskan Heritage Coffee Brown Ale. If that’s not incentive enough to visit, duck in at least to say “hi” to Café’s newest Beertender, 
Jessica Brown. If the name sounds familiar and you’re a craft beer fan, it’s probably because she worked at Tap Root prior to Café. She’s got good beer in her blood and under the awesome tutelage of both Ken Pajak and Will Miller, she’ll be whippin’ out pints in no time and rattling off styles, IBUs, ABVs and other beer geek technobabble that turns us all on so much. And, starting next week, the bar will be staying open until 11:00 pm. The biggest issue is having some late night munchies available and Ken’s thinking about some sausage sandwiches, akin to the kind that you can get next door to the Toronodo in San Franciso (and undoubtedly Ken did during our recent visit).
Elysian Brewing Company sent us up some of their seasonal Avatar Jasmine IPA, at least in kegs. This delicate, easy drinking 5.6 percent beer uses German, Munich and English Pale malts and a touch of German Carahell and Crystal malts for the foundation and is dosed with Chinook, Glacier and Amarillo hops. The most interesting addition is dried jasmine flowers. The flowers are detectable in both the aroma and flavor with an expected floral and slightly perfume-y essence. The sweet-centered beer rides smoothly on the palate despite the formidable hop presence. Elysian’s Bifrost, a winter seasonal specialty, is on tap at Humpy’s, at least as of Wednesday April 9th.
Deschutes Hop Henge, the latest release in the brewery’s Bond Street Series of small batch seasonal beers is inbound as well. If you’re expecting this favorite to be exactly like it was last year, prepare yourself for a more amped up version of the same basic beer. Hop Henge is an imperial IPA and you’ll note this in the re-formulated, bigger IBU (95 IBU) beer and it will be tough not to notice the 8.75 percent alcohol by volume. The beer’s only available between now and June (or until it runs out) so get it if you dig it. It’s available on draught and it bottles and Deschutes products are never hard to find up here.
Anheuser Bush’s Sun Dog Amber Wheat Ale is on the market and is one of the latest in the mega brewery’s infusion into the craft beer market. I bought mine at La Bodega in the University Mall because there, I only had to buy one. I still have my suspicions, although AB has manufactured some passable craft-beer style entrants in the market.
The unfiltered Sun Dog pours hazy orange/golden and tops up nicely with a frothy just off white head that sticks around for a while. Ample carbonation is visible and races to the top of the glass. The aroma is decidedly benign with some fresh wheat and grain notes, along with a small bit of tartness reminiscent of the wheat beer style. The Cascade, Willamette and imported German Hallertau hops are well in the background in the aroma of this one and if nothing else, the beer smells clean and fresh all the way though.
The flavor is sweet, citrus and tart at the same time, but evenly balanced. The wheat is evident and a light background bitterness rounds things out nicely and only lingers slightly in the finish. The beer’s 5.3 percent alcohol is just slightly detectable about mid-sip. Sun Dog rinses light and slightly airy on the palate, no doubt helped by the ample carbonation. The beer finishes on the thin, but not watery side.
AB’s saying this is an American amber wheat ale, and I have no problem with that. The label proclaims St Louis Missouri, but the beer is actually produced at the Ft. Collins, Colorado plant. It’s available in six packs and on draft around town. 
The much more familiar Pyramid Hefe Weizen seems to be the benchmark for American wheat beers, but I don’t think Sun Dog’s chasing this particular tail. The amber essence adds some body, a little more sweetness and it’s own distinguishing character, so comparing Sun Dog to Pyramid’s Hefe would be like comparing apples to oranges. In all, Sun Dog stands up on its own and would make a refreshing summer beer that leans toward the subtle side, but that’s just fine if that’s what you enjoy drinking.
According to AB, Sun Dog is augmenting the hugely successful Spring Heat Spiced Wheat, a beer that I actually rather enjoyed last year. This beer has been renamed Shock Top Belgian White as it becomes a year-round selection. Obviously, this is working well for AB.
The Brewer’s Association released the Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies By Beer Sales Volume list on April 7th. This list is based on 2007 sales numbers. Let’s cut to the chase. Alaskan Brewing Company came in 11th place beating out other legendary breweries including Stone Brewing Company (20th Place), Gordon Biersch Brewing Company (18th Place), Rogue Ales (21st Place) and Bridgeport Brewing Company, to name a few. Just for the record, Boston Beer Company, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, and New Belgium Brewing Company came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Those are some sweet statistics for Alaskan, but as any brewery/brewery would tell you, it’s not all about volume. And, when you toss in the rest of the breweries in the Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies, it should be no surprise that by sales volume, Anheuser-Busch comes out on top, followed by Miller, Coors, and Pabst for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places respectively. A number of other recognizable breweries pushed Alaskan down to 21st place in this category.
Here’s the Humpy’s line up for this week, at least as of Wednesday, April 9th.
Wheats / Fruits
Moose’s Tooth Wild Country Raspberry Wheat
Pyramid Apricot
Pyramid Hefeweisen
Lindemans Framboise ####
Spire Mt. Apple Cider #
Celestial Clarity Mead
Served in an 8 oz glass for $11.25
Golden Ales / Pilseners / California Common
Midnight Sun Goldstrike Kolsch
Silver Gulch Coldfoot Pilsner
Anchor Steam California Common
Harp Lager *
Pale Ales / E.S.B.’s (medium hop bitterness)
Alaskan Pale Ale
Moose’s Tooth Polar Pale Ale
Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Elysian E.S.B.
India Pale Ales (med - high hop bitterness)
Humpy’s Sockeye Red by Midnight Sun
Kassik’s Brew Stop Morning Wood I.P.A.
Midnight Sun Obliteration III Double IPA ## (7.6%)
Moose’s Tooth Fairweather I.P.A.
Avery Maharaja Imperial I.P.A. ?? (9.78%)
Fish Tale Organic I.P.A.
Rogue Brutal Bitter
Belgian Ales
Homer Belgian Ale
Sleeping Lady Belgian Wit Bier
Blue Moon Belgian White Wheat Ale
Unibroue Chambly Noire #
Strong Belgian Ales (Alcohol by Volume over 7.5%
Kodiak Belgian Triple / I.P.A. # (8%)
Brasserie Dupont Avec les Bons Voeux #### (9.5%)
Chimay Cing Cents Triple ##### (8%)
Delirium Tremens #### (8.5%)
Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre # (8%)
Deschutes 19th Anv. Belgian Golden # (8.7%)
La Chouffe Belgian Golden Ale #### (8%)
Ommegang Ommegeddon Funkhouse Ale ### (8%)
Seasonal Ales
Deschutes Jubel Ale
Elysian Bifrost
Pyramid Snowcap
Amber Ales / Bocks / Dopple Bocks / Scottish
Alaskan Amber Ale
Midnight Sun Oosik Amber
Kenai River Skilak Scottish Ale
Mac Tarnahan’s Scottish Ale
Silver Gulch Winter Rye Bock
Paulaner Salvator Doppelbock ** (7.9)
Porters / Stouts
Moose’s Tooth Smokin’ Willie Smoked Porter
Silver Gulch Pick Axe Porter
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
Full Sail Imperia Stout * (8%)
Guinness Stout ***
Brown Ales
Alaskan Heritage Coffee Brown Ale
Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown Ale
Barley Wine
Alaskan Big Nugget Barley Wine ### (9%)
2003 edition
Stone Old Gaurdian Barley Wine ## (11.26)
Dr Fermento Beer Calendar
04/12/08 Snow Goose Restaurant National Homebrew Competition Judging 10:00 am Free
04/13/08 Snow Goose Restaurant National Homebrew Competition Judging 10:00 am Free
04/18/08 Princess Hotel: Fairbanks Ring of Fire Mead Dinner 6:00 pm TBD
04/24/08 Glacier Brewhouse Spring Grillin’ Big Beer Dinner 6:00 pm $70.00
05/01-05/08 Arctic Brewing Supply Goblets of Gold Mead Competition Entries Accepted 10:00 am Free
05/03/08 Chena Pump Campground (Fbx) Zymurgist Borealis Nat. Homebrew Day/Big Beer Celeb. Noon Free
05/03/08 Jade Street Brewery (John Craig’s) Brewathon 2008 8:00 am Free
05/16-17/08 Andrew Mellon Auditorium (D.C.) Savor Craft Food and Beer Event Sessions $85.00
05/23/08 Haines Senior Center(Haines) Brewmaster’s Dinner (Haines Brewer’s Festival) 7:00 pm $??
05/24/08 SE Alaska Fairgrounds Great Alaska Craft Beer and Homebrew Festival) 1:00 – 5:00 pm $??
05/25/08 Pelican (SE Alaska) Pelican Boardwalk Boogie ?? Pay As You Go
07/12/08 Silver Gulch Brewing Company E.T. Barnette Homebrew Judging 10:00 AM Free
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