Here’s the opportunity of a lifetime. What’s better than being great friends with a hot chick that owns a liquor store? How about being her roomie? Pamela Hatzis, the energetic, fun-loving highly contemporary owner of our favorite La Bodega Liquor Store is looking for a roommate. You heard me right, our favorite purveyor of great local, national and international suds has an ad out on Craigslist soliciting only serious inquiries about sharing the rent on a conveniently located downtown pad with a fabulous view. You couldn’t find a more perfect roommate from the standpoint that she’s hardly ever home affording you plenty of privacy in the two-bedroom, two bathroom apartment. Note the “two-bathroom” part; this means you have your own and nary will your cosmetics mingle. Pamela’s not looking for a short term roommate, but rather wants someone that will be around for the long haul; going through multiple roommates is like hauling empties to the curb: it’s depressing and it gets old after a while. I’m posting this to my blog because similar interests are a plus and this classy lady’s a beer lover after all!
If you’re seriously interested, check out her Craigslist posting at http://anchorage.craigslist.org/roo/774112950.html. I’ve been appointed Ms. Hatzis unofficial godfather/bodyguard in this matter and I have some big, beer drinking buddies that are on call to re-arrange the anatomy of anyone that messes with her, so don’t even think about it.
The sun came out yesterday (Thursday, July 31, just for the record) and I ducked into Café Amsterdam for a fermented treat on the way home. I was greeted with the typical warm and welcoming atmosphere, the belly laugh of Ken Pajak and Will Miller’s typical witty sass. I warmed right up with good, beer-y conversation with friends. I came in hankering for a healthy dose of one of my all time summer favorites, Ayinger Brau Weisse but was immediately distracted with a sneak preview of Avery Brewing Company’s new Ale to the Chief, a double or imperial pale ale that’s not on tap at Café just yet. Ken Pajak just couldn’t resist sharing a sampler with me. This beer’s a beaut in the glass, pouring crystal clear chestnut amber under an off white head that reeks of uber-fresh citrus hop aroma and a dash of pine essence, swirling around in big hints of the beer’s solid malt substructure. A big, bold initial hop rush greets the sipper right up front, but the bitterness is throttled back lending incredible balance to this beer. The formidable 8.75 percent alcohol is disguised well under the beer’s complexity, but 
it’s easy enough to find, especially in the swallow. What is it about
The original beer was named Extreme Polar White Bier, but somewhere along the line got re-named to E’Pluche-culotte which is the French translation of Panty Peeler. This name stuck as the beer became part of the Belgian-inspired beers that have made the brewery quite famous both locally and in wider circles around the
Actually, I thought that the name “Panty Peeler” for this beer may had more local roots. Although the meaning of the phrase remains the same, a long time ago, a local homebrewer named Bill Keas made an incredibly drinkable 14 percent raspberry mead. Although the bottles were 
innocuously labeled “#2″, Keas’ circle of peers came to know the formidable batch of seductive, sneaky, pink, too-easy-to-drink fermented honey beverage that was adored by the girls “Panty Peeler.” I’m not sure if the is the brewery’s origin for the name, but Keas was a big part of the brewery and eventually died, his wake being held at Midnight Sun. I still have two coveted bottles of the mead left. For years, I “drank down” the stock of a half rack of the stuff that I recovered from his apartment after his passing by sharing one with his tight circle of friends annually at either the GNBC Christmas party or other special gatherings. With only two left, I’ve slowed the pace to a standstill for now.
But I was wrong. According to La Femme de Marketing (that’s the “marketing chick” for the language challenged) at Midnight Sun, Barb Miller, the roots are even deeper. According to Miller:
“Our beer was originally called Extreme Polar White Bier, created by Mark and based on a wonderful beer I discovered at GABF in
When we created our year-round Belgian line several years ago, I renamed Panty Peeler and Monk’s Mistress to French names. Over time, the Panty Peeler recipe got “dumbed down” to include less and less orange peel and coriander. When I decided to rename these beers in English[American], I wanted to bump up the spice aspect once again. I am a coriander freak so enough is almost never enough. Although the new-is-old-is-new-again recipe is smoother than the original, it reflects the bolder citrus/spice of the original.
I gave the French names six or so years but they never caught on. Alaskans are not really a French-speaking group so these beers always faced a language barrier. Now I see folks excited to say their names and try them. Of course, once tried these beers are hits. And I am happy to report that the new label/recipe on the Panty Peeler is regaining its cult-like following.
Digs or no digs, the Panty Peeler works! [But on a guy, I call it The DeBriefer.]”
Shortly after that, brewery co-owner Mark Staples weighed in, adding more clarity to the research task:
“I believe the Panty Peeler nick name started at a Ryan’s party. I believe Pete and maybe Doug or someone else did a striptease on chair after I showed up late with a Keg of the stuff and everyone had already had quite enough. This was in the days before really high octane stuff was the norm as it is today. Folks where not use to it. I am not sure who started calling it that but after that party it seemed like everyone was. Very likely it was Bill.”
And Miller is right; it’s great that the beer is back on the shelves again, and on tap at select locations.
If your haulings-around of friends and family involve a trip to the Kenai Peninsula, don’t miss taking them to Ring of Fire Meadery in Homer (178 Bunell Ave). The tasting room is open seven days a week between Noon and 6 pm. The meadery’s natural products are always featured including fermented honey delights made with local raspberries, rhubarb, red and black currants, birch syrup and believe it or not, local cherries. check out a Fireweed honey mead called Endless Summer. Rachel Livingston of Ring of Fire concedes that perhaps the mead should have been named The Summer That Never Was. Ring of Fire not only procures the best of the best in local honey and ingredients, the mead masters are also beekeepers and are in the second year of producing their own honey for their own local meads. The meadery is beautiful in old town Homer and worthy of a visit.
While on the
A new beer is available from one of my favorite L48 breweries, Lagunitas Brewing Company of
Ale to the Chief pours dense and rocky and depending on how long it’s been sitting, can pour clear or slightly cloudy and orange to amber in color. The beer smells and tastes hugely citrus-y which isn’t a bad thing. There are plenty of hops in this well-balanced beer. The nose is fresh hops which is mirrored in the swallow. The booze is just slightly evident in the way background. It’s an easy, well-balanced drinker with plenty of malt to prop it up.
I reviewed the tap line once again and on the way to the Brau Weisse got distracted once again by Meantime IPA. How could I resist? Meaintime IPA is one of my all around favorite IPA’s and seeing on tap was just too much to pass up. Meantime is an English IPA which means that noble European hops are featured in moderate amounts. I say this in deference to the style’s bigger American counterpart where any more it’s not so much what KIND of hops but rather how MUCH. I love the balance and distinguished, refined character of Meantime’s interpretation of a well-researched, historical style of beer.
On my way down the tapline to the Ayinger I learned that once again this year, Café Amsterdam is hosting the Beer Judge Certification Program. If you want to get savvy on beer, this is the program that will forever change the way you experience the beloved beverage. It’s also one of the most grueling things I’ve ever been through from the standpoint of what I had to master to pass the exam at the end of the course. I’ll dispense with the gory details about what’s involved in the course and what it takes to get through it. Suffice to say, it’s a meaningful experience that requires dedication, commitment and a lot of study, not to mention the critical evaluation of as many benchmark beers that you can find in
If you want to learn more about the contents and objective of the program, go to the source at http://www.bjcp.org/index.php. The BJCP course will run on Sundays between November 9th 2007 and February 22, 2008 at Café Amsterdam between noon and 3 pm. There will be five “out” Sundays (no class) to accommodate the various holidays between November and February. The course will be administered by The Great Northern Brewers homebrew club and you’ll need to contact them to sign up, not anyone at Café Amsterdam. Café is just graciously affording their convenient location for the course. Monitor the club’s website at http://www.greatnorthernbrewers.org/ for upcoming detail and registration information.
Other beers on board (tap) at Café Amsterdam as of Friday, August 01, 2008 include:
Delirium Tremens
Unibroue Maudite and Ephemere
North Coast’s Red Seal Amber
Wittekerke Wit
Magner’s Irish Cider
Chimay Cinq Cents
Ayinger Brau Weisse (current DISP beer)*
Bittburger Pilsner
Avery 15th Anniversary Ale
Kenai River Brewing Company Skilak Scottish Ale (local)
Meantime IPA (current DISP beer – replaces Fairweather IPA for now)*
Houblon Chouffe
La Choulette Blonde
*DISP = “Desert Island Six Pack,” my pick of six beers I’d want with me if stranded on a desert island.
One of the toughest beers to get (as a distributor or retailer) is Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA. This incredible testimony to extreme brewing made a cameo appearance when Dogfish head was more or less a regular product, but the beer was in such demand that even the distributors were being shorted as a semi-shell game took place with the coveted brew. So, consider us lucky to have this beer back again. Before going into huge amount of detail about WHY you should get it, I know for a fact that it’s back at La Bodega, our favorite boutique liquor store in the University Mall, for as long as it lasts.
Dogfish Head Brewery is located in
Then and now, brewers are rethinking big hop beers not because they want to but because they can’t afford not to. Calagione’s 120 Minute IPA is the ultimate “fuck you” to the crisis. The beer is boiled down for two straight hours. Sixty minutes or an hour and a half would be the norm in most breweries. The wort is concentrated through th extended boil, making the beer bigger and stronger. But it’s what Calagione does with the hops that makes the difference. Brewers dose their beer with hops with three distinct objectives in mind. Early kettle additions add bitterness to the beer, but the more subtle hop flavors and aromas are boiled off over time. So, typically, brewers will add mid-to-late kettle additions of hops to add flavor. Final additions, just before the boil is done add hop aroma, the most delicate of contributions to the beer. After that, dry hopping, which is adding raw hops to the conditioning tanks teases the rarest of aromatic elements out of the leafy bud and into the final product.
120 Minute IPA is CONTINUOUSLY hopped for the entire duration of the two hour brew. The crew throws hops at this beer until it bleeds green. Then, rather than one dry hop addition, every single day that the beer is in the fermenter, more hops are tossed on top to lend the intense hop flavor and aroma that define the beer. Few beers can achieve the hop intensity of this one-of-a-kind brew. You might argue that there are hoppier beers out there if you measure by International Bittering Units (IBU’s). Right here in town, Midnight Sun’s Gluttony contained a whopping 200 IBUs, but remember it isn’t just about IBU’s. The other thing that makes this beer gonzo is the fact that it weighs in at a pounding 20 percent alcohol. Get this beer just for the intensity and curiosity.
Have a great weekend and upcoming week. Enjoy the little dose of summer we’re finally getting. I’m sure it’ll be gone by Monday. Pray for snow.
Dr Fermento Beer Calendar
08/01/08 Riverboat Discovery II (Fairbanks) Chena River Brews Cruise 6:30 pm $50.00 (online)
08/02/08 Ketchikan (420 Spruce Mill Way) 13th Annual Summer Beer Festival 6:30-8:30 pm $20.00
08/11/08 Mt. View Boys and Girls Club Entries Accepted for AK Sate Fair Homebrew Comp Noon – 8 pm ??
08/12/08 Mt. View Boys and Girls Club Entries Accepted for AK Sate Fair Homebrew Comp Noon – 8 pm ??
08/15/08 Alaska State Fair Grounds Entries Accepted for AK Sate Fair Homebrew Comp Noon – 8 pm ??
08/16/08 Alaska State Fair Grounds Entries Accepted for AK Sate Fair Homebrew Comp 10 – 6 ??
08/15/08 Arctic Brewing Supply Entries Accepted for Anchortown Invitational (below) 11:00 am $3.00/Entry
08/17/08 Café Amsterdam Anchortown Invitational Homebrew Competition Judging 10:00 am Free
08/17/08 Alaska State Fair Grounds Judging for Alaska State Fair Homebrew Competition 11 am – 6 pm Free
09/20/08 Zymurgist Borealis Septemberfest Chena Pump Campground (Fairbanks) Noon - ?? BYO/Potluck
08/20/08 Bernie’s Bungalow Lounge Sake Tasting in the top secret upstairs room! 5-8 pm $20
09/06/08 Widmer Brewing (Portland) Fourth Annual Widmer Octoberfest 3 – 11:30 pm
09/26/08 Carlson Center (Fairbanks) 1st Annual Farthest North Import and Craft Beer Fest TBA $25.00
11/09/08 Café Amsterdam BJCP Program Begins Noon – 3 pm TBD
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