My son Scott, who is in the Air Force and currently stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado, is headed for Iraq. The date is uncertain as he returns to the desert for his second tour as a security forces specialist; it’s just certain that he’s headed back over. He called this week with a special request. He wanted Ms. Fermento and me to get him a Moose’s Tooth tye-dye logo T-shirt. Easy enough, I thought, that he might order this online himself and have it delivered possibly quicker than we could procure it and send it his way, but it’s all too easy to head to the midtown pub and pizzeria and enjoy a pint, salad and pizza while we obtained the goods. Scott didn’t mention that he wanted to take the shirt to Iraq but rather that he wanted to have his picture taken while wearing it locally at Garden of the Gods Monument in Colorado. He wanted us to post the picture of him boasting the shirt on the Moose’s Tooth bulletin board. Easy done, but I think he’s taking the shirt to the desert too. I digress
While at the pub, I enjoyed September’s 1st Tap beer, Piccadilly Pale Ale. This was good enough that I was surprised there was some left from the beginning of the month, but I didn’t complain too loudly. The beer was served with an overall fruity nose with light floral accents. The underlying malt was a bit tough to discern given a slightly cold pour, but the menu boasted of Maris-otter floor malts and some caramel malts 
along with American-grown British malts (whatever that means). The malts came out nicely in flavor along with a fresh yeast character, some light fruitiness and just balancing bitterness in this slightly cloudy, medium amber beer. Elevated, but perfect C02 added a nice snap to the low-hop-flavor, dry-finishing beer. This beer provided the perfect contrast to the healthy dose of feta cheese on my mixed green salad.
Another beer piqued my interest, the Eagle River Red, but I ate quickly, dashed for the shirt and headed out. Other beers on the menu included mostly regulars such as Klondkike Golden, Northern Lights Amber, Moose’s Tooth Hefe, Saison Nite Life, Hard Apple Cider, Raspberry Wheat, the XIIth Anniversary Ale (saison), Pipeline Stout, Prince William Porter, Midtown Brown, Bear Tooth Ale, Fairweather IPA, Moonflower ESB, Polar Pale Ale and Spenard Nite Life.
Don’t forget that the big Equinox Mead Competition hosted by Celestial Meads and Great Northern Brewers (homebrew club) is this Saturday, September 27th. Entries are being accepted on Friday, September 26th between 5-7 pm at Celestial Meads, which is located at 600 W. 58th Ave, Suite B. Judging will take place the next day, on Saturday, between 2:30 – 4:30 pm. If you’re entering, note that you’ll need to give up two 22-ounce bottles of mead or one 750 ml bottle for judging. If you’re interested or even just willing to judge, contact Breck Tostevin, the event organizer by email at keegan@gci.net. You can contact the meadery at (907) 250-8362 for additional details.
I keep bugging Glacier Brewhouse brewer Kevin Burton for details on upcoming brews and news. The answer is a consistent “not much is going on.” That’s not Burton’s fault because actually, the opposite is true. There’s TOO MUCH going on, sucking up all his discretionary creative beer making time just keeping the fermenters full with stuff to satiate the remaining tourists. Still, Burton managed to squeak out that he’d brewed a double IPA “just to keep me sane,” he said. The brewery’s Beam Bock Oktoberfest is also out and expect the brewery’s classic Imperial Pumpkin Ale early in October. He looked ahead. “We have lots of shit planned, space permitting,” he said.
If you want to catch Burton in a more relaxed stance (or perhaps in the sitting position), join him on the Saturday October 4th 4:00 pm Glacier Brewhouse/Alaska Railroad Oktoberfest Train that runs to Portage and back featuring fine Glacier Brewhouse beers and food. You can get tickets directly through the Alaska Railroad online or at the railroad Depot in Ship Creek. This is a lot of fun and you’re bound to get wobbled as you clickety-clack down the rails, letting the swaying of the train cars camouflage your buzz.
If our current spate of less-than-desirable weather does anything for us, it allows us to look forward to winter. C’mon, it’s not so bad! If you don’t like winter, you don’t belong here. Groan all you want, but think ahead to crisp, dark nights with the northern lights dancing overhead, a nice cross-country ski on a moonlit night with a warm cabin and cold beer waiting, an aggressive snowmobile run across open fields to a waiting bonfire at a friends nearby cabin, or even downhill skiing or snowboarding. That’s why we live here, right?
If you want to get even more in the mood, plan on attending the October 2-3 Friends of the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center’s movie nights at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium at the University of Alaska here in Anchorage. Okay, so you really don’t ski a lot and ski movies don’t really get your ya-yas out. With names like “The Pact” a telemark sky film by Powderwhore Productions and Harmless, a ski film by Tough Guy Productions, why not? The films show at 7 and 9 pm respectively and the price is $10, or $7 for UAA students. To support the effort, there will be seven kegs of beer from various local breweries including Alaskan Brewing, Midnight Sun Brewing Company and The Moose’s Tooth, the proceeds of which will go to the non-profit organization that will help fund their safety-oriented activities this year. Look for Alaskans IPA, Amber and Summer Ale. How about some Midnight Sun Sockeye Red IPA or Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter? From the Moose’s Tooth expect Fairweather IPA and Pipeline Stout. Note that all of these beers will be at Humpy’s, NOT UAA. The information center’s purpose is to allow the Chugach National Forest rangers to focus on Avalanche forecasting in the winter to help both skiers and snowmachiners stay safe out there. They have funded a ranger position in the past and there are a lot of skiers and machiners who like beer, so why not come and support a good cause?
There will be some prices awarded that are too numerous to mention but for teasers, but it’s all choice garb. The prizes will be given out at the movies. Remember, Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse is on board and will donate a portion of the sale of each of the beers that are sold those nights at the pub. Do your part to make your back yard safer for everyone.
Another great benefit needs your support. Alaskan Brewing Company’s support of the nonprofit initiative, The Costal CODE (Clean Oceans Depend on Everyone) brings an event to Southeastern Alaska on September 28th. Alaskan Brewing worked with Surfing Magazine to sponsor four passionate surfers from the L48 to travel to Alaska and surf Yakutat and participate in a multi-day cleanup of local shores. This 
is taking place in part with the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation and The Alaska Oceans Film Festival. Yeah, it’s unlikely you do a lot of surfing up here (I could be wrong), but everyone enjoys Alaskan Brewing Company’s fine products. If you happen to be in Juneau on September 28th, scuff on down to the Hangar on the Wharf between 7-10 pm and enjoy Alaskan’s fine products on tap. All proceeds of Alaskans IPA sold during the event will be donated directly to the Coastal CODE fund. Surf’s up and so are the suds, so hang 10 in support of this great initiative.
I finally got a coveted bottle of Full Sail Brewing Company’s “21”, their 21st anniversary dopplebock. I love the label which proclaims: “They say your 21st birthday is a rite of passage. The milepost that marks your evolution from child to adult with all the attendant privileges and responsibilities. We say it’s a great excuse to brew a killer Dopplebock, celebrating 21 twenty-onderful years of beery goodness. Since I was of age, I took the beer for a spin.
Aromatically, the beer comes across as fruity and zesty in the hop department rather than rich and malty as I expected. The Pacific Northwest hops dominate the nose, but this isn’t a defect and I suspect that with 8 percent alcohol by volume, letting it lay a year or so will push the hops into the background and let the malt emerge even more. The overall sweetish-smelling brew pours clear and deep amber, approach brown with a solid, tight tan head.
Flavor-wise, the beer seems bigger than its britches in booze which hits my palate first. Big, rich, sweet malt follows with some obvious kettle carmelization which is a nice touch in this beer. Swirling dark fruits add complexity. Hop flavor follows, along with even-keel bitterness that fades just before the finish where the beer rounds out and cleans up some. Twelve weeks of lagering really smoothes the beer out. Alcohol flavor and warming add a nice sensation and everything blends really nicely. The beer scores big in the mouthfeel department with a luscious, silky smoothness and a creamy finish. I’m going to get some more and lay it down.
A couple of sassy, saucy twin sisters have blown into town. From Left Hand Brewing Company of Longmont Colorado, look for Crystal and Liberty, a couple of ales that were born on May 19 th, 2006. According to the brewery, “Crystal hated her name and now wants to be called Sorachi Ace, and Liberty wants to be called Willamette.” According to Left Hand brewer Papa Ro, “…it’s driving me downright hoppy.”
Fast forward to the present and the beers’ real names. Twin Sisters Double IPA (9.7% abv/77 IBUs) provides a big hop blast in the aroma and flavor, hunchbacked by a huge malt base. The malt is big enough to artfully disguise the sneaky 9.7 percent alcohol by volume in the delicious Rocky Mountain beer. The evil twin? Oktoberfest Marzen Lager (6.0% abv/25 IBUs), a true German style festival beer, is aged 
for a full eight weeks to feature the beer’s zesty hop compound, but with a clean, refined lager finish.
Both beers were named after the Rocky Mountain National Park Twin Sisters peaks in Colorado and you just have to love the brewery’s interpretation of the relationship. “I’m just getting myself ready for that day when one of the Twins will be marring some Prince Ludwig, and this will be the beer we will serve at that celebration,” says Ro. The twins are here in town and need some “exchange student” status in your refrigerator.
Perhaps one of the strangest brews to emerge in recent history actually has 45 million year old roots. Scientist Raul Cano obtained a piece of amber that encased a Lebanese weevil, and inside of that he discovered dormant yeast. Cano contracted with the Kelley Bros. Brewery of Manteca, California to rouse the yeast and use it to produce a beer for his own Fossil Fuels Brewing Company. Pale ale and German style wheat beer was made (and continues to be made) with the yeast. What’s unique (other than the one-of-a-kind strain of yeast) is that unlike conventional brewer’s yeast which can consume just about any type of sugar to metabolize it and turn it into alcohol and carbon dioxide, the ancient yeast is restricted to a very narrow band of carbohydrates, so it’s selective in what it chews up and spits out. No, it’s not likely that we’ll get any of the rare beer up here in the land of mastodons, so I had to poke around to find out what others thought of it. Apparently the wheat beer is appropriate for style with requisite phenols and esters in a beer that’s a bit clear for style, but tasty nonetheless. Hints of coriander accent the sweet-balanced beer that weighs in at 4.2 percent. It’s an easy drinker and obviously fresher than millions of years.
Oktoberfest is just around the corner (it’s actually in full swing in Germany where it’s typically celebrated across the last week in September and first week in October) so select O’fest beers are showing up on tap and in the bottle around town. As mentioned above, Glacier Brewhouse’s Imperial Pumpkin Ale should be out next week. Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s Humpback Jack Pumpkin Ale releases Friday, September 26 at 6 pm at the brewery, followed by the long awaited Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter at the brewery at 6 pm on October 10th. The Midnight Sun beers should show up at select locations around town on draught. From Avery Brewing 
Company (Colorado), look for Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest both in bottles and on tap at select locations as well as Elysian Brewing Company’s Night Owl Pumpkin Ale in both bottles and on draft. Aw mentioned above, Left Hand Brewing’s Oktoberfest is available in bottles at select grog shops and on tap around town. And, what would this time of year be without six packs of Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale to haul around to your favorite haunts? I consider the Buffalo Bill version the “original” revivalist pumpkin ale in America and have had it years and years before I tried any other. Naturally, all of the O’fest beers are good, and the entire spate of authentic German selections also tempt your palate including offerings from Spaten and Pluaner (among others), so it’s a rich, zesty world out there right now, but our locally produced beers always seem to be the best.
You can also get Midnight Sun’s Humpback Jack Pumpkin Ale starting Friday (9/26) at The Tap Root Café on the southside across from Carr’s on Huffman. In addition, enjoy a pint of Midnight Sun’s Sockeye red IPA, Kodiak Brown or Oosik Amber. Another healthy selection is Beavertail Blonde from Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop or Green Dragon Pale Ale, Braveheart Scottish Ale or Portage Porter from The Sleeping Lady Brewing Company here in town.
Finally, this just in from the Associated Press: A 21 year old guy was nabbed after heisting a beer truck in Fargo, North Dakota. Apparently, he drove it off, perhaps wringing his hands in anticipation of the fermented bounty in the back only to discover the truck empty. Buh-MER! So, he ditched the truck along a river and went and joined with friends where he bragged about the useless heist. A “friend” tipped him off, probably because he showed up empty handed.
The views expressed on the Dr. Fermento blog site are not necessarily those of the drunks he associates with, but rather the exclusive byproduct of his self-inflicted liver degradation and delusional inebriate lifestyle
Dr Fermento Beer Calendar
09/26/08 Carlson Center (Fairbanks) 1st Annual Farthest North Import and Craft Beer Fest 6-9 pm $25.00
09/26/08 Celestial Meads Entries accepted for Equinox Mead Competition 5:00 -7:00 pm Free
09/26/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Humpback Jack Pumpkin Ale release at the brewery 6:00 pm Free
09/27/08 Celestial Meads Equinox Mead Competition Judging 2:30- 4:30 pm Free
10/03/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Berserker Oak-Aged Imperial Stout release at the brewery 6:00 pm Free
10/04/08 Alaska Railroad Glacier Brewhouse Oktoberfest Train 4:00 pm $149.00 pp
10/04/08 Celestial Meads 2nd Anniversary Celebration Noon – 5 pm Pay As You Go
10/04/08: Café Amsterdam Midnight Sun CoHoHo Firkin Release 6:00 pm Pay As You Go
10/10/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter release at the brewery 6:00 pm Free
10/14/08 Alaskan Brewing Company Judging for S.E Alaska Autumn Pour Homebrew Comp. 5:00 pm $3 per entry
10/04/08 Kenai Chamber of Commerce Oktoberfest featuring Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop beer 6:30 pm $50.00
10/12/08 Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse Oktoberfest Celebration 6:00 pm TBD
10/17/08 Lyon’s Club Eagle River Eagle River Brew Festival TBA Pay As You Go
10/18/08 Mykel’s Restaurant Soldotna Kassiks’ Kenai Brew Stop Beer Tasting 6:30 pm TBA
10/18/08 Juneau Arts and Culture Center 5th Annual Autumn Festival (think BEER GARDEN) TBA TBA
10/08/08 Café Amsterdam Midnight Sun Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter Firkin Rel 6:00 pm Pay As You Go
10/19/08 Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse Oktoberfest Celebration 6:00 pm TBD
10/31/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Planet Series beer Saturn release at the brewery 6:00 pm Free
11/01/08 Café Amsterdam Planet Series beer Saturn Firkin Release 6:00 pm Pay As You Go
11/09/08 Café Amsterdam BJCP Program Begins Noon – 3 pm TBD
02/22/09 Café Amsterdam BJCP Exam 10:00 TBD
Entries (RSS)