So, what do you do for Thanksgiving? Okay, forget that. Let’s cut to the chase. What do you drink over the Thanksgiving holiday? Do you drink special beers or is it the same old thing? Everyone reacts to the holiday differently, but if you’re reading this blog, you have an interest in beer, so let’s focus on that. At this time of year, there’s no shortage of good seasonal beers to choose from. Do you choose from them, or stick with your tried-and-true?
This isn’t an advice column, so if you’re looking for Mr. Bah Humbug’s suggestion, don’t expect enlightenment. I don’t go out of my way to ferret out the perfect Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years perfect beer; I drink what I find. I’ll give you some broad generalities, but that’s about it. For Fermento, sometimes it’s new, sometimes it’s old. Sometimes it’s vintage. It’s always mixed with the tried-and-true. But it’s always good. Beer is no bigger part of the holidays to me than it is any other time of the year, but I’m not immune to the fermented gifts of the season.
If you’re giving thanks, then give it to our local brewers first. If you are one of the types that go out and look for that perfect beer to match the perfect table setting and the perfect occasion, the look locally first. Our local brewers are going to need all the thanks they can get in the coming economic doom and gloom that’s forecasted ahead, so thank them first.
The good news is that you can score a growler from just about every local brewery and it’s bound to be a hit among beer lovers and the run-of-the-mill peers and family folk you encounter over the holiday. By doing this, you’re making a profound statement about yourself. You’re a respectable beer lover first, and you care about your community. With any luck, your goodwill will infect others that might find charm and allure in what you serve and go out and make profound local discoveries on their own. This bodes well on you and well on our community.
See if you can score some of the Sleeping Lady Brewing Company’s Grand Cru for your gathering. This Belgian-esque golden strong ale will warm guts and hearts at any gathering because it’s so easy to drink. High carbonation lends a celebratory note to the ass-kicking elixir 
that might best be served as a pre-dinner social lubricant. Get granny to crank off a snifter of the stuff and she just might loosen up and re-live bygone days that are more spicy than boring. High-end malts and Belgian yeast twist the brew into a big, drinkable celebration that few would turn down if put in front of them. Spicy and dicey, but refined and dry; that’s the byword with this beer, so make it work for you.
Over at Glacier Brewhouse, you can find plenty of the “tried-and-true,” but there are more noble offerings if you ask. The brewery’s Pumpkin Ale is an obvious dead ringer and might clap the trap on Aunt Sarah’s standard pumpkin pie offering, but it shouldn’t insult if you serve it right. After dinner’s a good time to bust a cap on a growler of this one; the subtle, but defined spicing on top of a nice amber-ish malt foundation will please anyone at the table. There’s another choice from Glacier: The Black Rye Bock is a fleeting dark lager that’s full of plenty of good body borne of swirling chocolate, dry rye, chocolate, toast, biscuit and other hearty elements that are sure to soothe and calm after a heavy meal.
There’s no shortage of imminently local choices from Midnight Sun Brewing Company. The selections range from the edgy side of mainstream to the astronomically bizarre, and a growler of something from this top notch brewery is sure to please. The nice thing is that you can go smaller with any of many 22 ounce bomber selections available from most better than average liquor stores, and you can buy a combination of beers to satiate throughout the evening. Start with something as light (but sneaky) as Panty Peeler, a Belgian-style lighter beer with a formidable punch. The nice thing about this beer is that it packs a sucker punch; most people won’t know what they’re getting into when you serve it. If you want to stick seasonal, there’s the eclectic, elusive, heavy Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter, or the not so bodacious, but just as seasonal Humpback Jack Pumpkin Ale (growler only) to choose from. And, if you really want to go ugly/go early, start pouring tall boys of Berserker Imperial Stout. This oily boy wonder will compliment your richer fare and/or provide a fitting after dinner wobbler that might send your guests into a food coma early. There are countless other offerings from Midnight sun ranging from light to dark and from thick to thin; some are available in growlers only, others can be had at your favorite grog shop.
The Moose’s Tooth Brewery’s growler only service shouldn’t limit you either. Bring home a jug of Fairweather IPA and you’ll probably find some brand recognition with this popular cult classic that’s probably as unpredictable, but as good as the bird coming out of the oven. On the darker side, Prince William Porter is a good choice for a contemplative, conversational after-dinner sipper. There’s also lots of other choices in between to choose from.
It’s too bad we don’t get growlers or bottles from down on the Peninsula including selections from Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop (a growler of the award-winning Caribou Kilt Strong Scotch Ale would perfectly complement the main dish of ham or turkey on the table), Kenai River Brewing Company, Homer Brewing Company, or Ring of Fire Meadery. Some of Ring of Fire’s fine fermented honeys are available here in town.
There’s still some Silver Gulch Brewing Company Oktoberfest around and this zesty selection would dress up the table nicely were in offered in bottles.
Back to mead. Mead is the up-and-coming, more interesting alternative to wine around more tables these days and you should consider it. With great selections from both Ring of Fire and Celestial Meads, you won’t have a problem picking something out that will add allure and interest at the table and can be served before, during and after the meal with equal effectiveness. Your guests will marvel at the stellar, burning clarity of Celestial’s products in the glass and the wine glasses just seem fitting. But, then again, so does a growler or a 22 ounce bomber, depending on your mood and crowd.
Maybe you should take advice from the experts. Pamela Hatzis at La Bodega Liquor Store in the University Mall has some recommendations. She recommends any saison to go with the festivities including Saison Dupont, North Coast Brewing Company’s La Merle and others from around the world. For darker selections, she recommends a Franziskaner Dunkel Hefe or Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale.
This year La Bodega has instituted gift cards for the holiday season. This replaces the former paper system. If you need my address, email me and I’ll provide.
I would be remiss if I didn’t warn you that you’re under increased scrutiny from here through New Years because there will be increased Alaska State Trooper and Anchorage Police Department forces on the road specifically looking for people that are driving impaired. This is the time of year where task forces are set in place looking for anyone over the line. Regardless, you don’t want to be the bad example not only among your friends and family but in the responsible beer drinking community as a whole. Don’t become a statistic. And when I say “statistic,” I don’t necessarily mean a death statistic, but even something less. Don’t give good beer drinking a bad name. As a craft beer and good beer aficionado, you’re charged with drinking responsibly. Work it out. Find a way home other than behind the wheel. Don’t toss a bunch of abuse at those nearby; that’s just as bad. Remember, an “alcohol related incident” is anything reportable that involves a BAC of .05 or more, so think AS you drink, or as the populist media says, BEFORE you drink.
Tap Root Café is closed for Thanksgiving, but on tap this week are selections from:
Midnight Sun Brewing Company
Sockeye Red IPA
Oosik Amber
Coffee Porter
Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter
Panty Peeler
Sleeping Lady Brewing Company
Harvest Rye
Scottish
Kassiks Kenai Brew Stop
Caribou Kilt Scotch Ale
North Coast Brewing Company
Old Stock Ale
Gulden Draak
Avery Brewing Company
Old Jubilation Ale
Omegang
Grand Cru Rouge Flemish Red Ale
Gouden Carolus
Christmas Belgian
And, over at Café Amsterdam, here’s the line up through the T-Day weekend, with some obvious modifications as you drink the good stuff dry: (note the incredible line up of Alaskan Smoked Porter). Café’s closed on Thanksgiving day, but open regular hours before and after
Chimay Cinq Cents
Grotten Brown
Alaskan Baltic Porter
Alaskan Winter Ale
Alaskan Smoked Porter ‘06
Alaskan Smoked Porter ‘07
Alaskan Smoked Porter ‘08
Celestial Meads Razerry Mead
Silver Gulch Pilsner
Magners Apple Cider
Unibroue Maudite
Huguhe Delirium Tremens
Newcastle Brown Ale
Sleeping Lady Chocolate Cherry Wheat
Bridgeport IPA
Coming soon (this week sometime)
Kassik’s Kiltlifter Scottish
Kassik’s Imperial Spiced Wheat
Holiday beers (bottled):
Lurgashall - Christmas Mead (glass)
Mahr’s - Christmas Bock
Nøgne Ø - God Jul Winter Ale
De Dolle - Stille Nacht 2005
Ridgeway - Seriously Bad Elf
Ridgeway - Criminally Bad Elf
Ridgeway - Insanely Bad Elf
Ridgeway - Santa’s Butt
G. Gale & Co. - Christmas 2002
G. Gale & Co. - Christmas 2003
Brasserie d’Achouffe - N’ice Chouffe 2005
Midnight Sun Brewing Company cult crazies will be happy to learn that the sixth Planet Series beer, Venus was released on November 14th and is around town for local enjoyment. This big Belgian style Quad has a liver-shattering 14.3 percent alcohol by volume and is silky smooth and dosed with a hint of star anise.
Obliteration IV is also out, having been released on November 21. This version is billed as a double-wheat beer with gobs of Amarillo, Chinook and Simcoe hops. On Friday, November 28th, if you can get off the couch, forget the mall and head to the brewery and be one of the first to score this year’s Arctic Devil Barley Wine 2008. The following Friday, on December 5th, the next Planet Series beer, Uranus will be released at 6:00 at the brewery. Never a dull moment at Midnight Sun Brewing Company, eh?
A couple of weeks ago I bashed an article that I discovered on MSN.com that kicked beer around as an unhealthy drink. Okay, here’s one to credit the popular website. A post by “Eating Well” touts some of the newly discovered healthful benefits of moderate consumption of beer. Among other things, the right combination of beer with the right hops has proven to reduce hot flashes in menopausal women, thwarts the growth of prostate cancer and that the antioxidants in hops help soothe chronic inflammation. It’s also recently been touted to promote healthy bones and contains a lot of B vitamins.
This is all good news if you need to defend your consumption of alcohol as healthy. I don’t. Although I don’t fire for effect and fire for flavor instead, some good things in life come at a cost. If you’re a greenie and you want to attend a pro-eco rally across town, my guess is that you’re going to drive or use some other conveyance that consumes fossil fuel and belches non-green substances into the atmosphere. Sometimes that big, fatty burger’s taste outweighs the calories. The taste and experience of beer, at least for me, outweighs any potential health risks at this point and it’s just a bonus that scientists are pointing to some benign effects.
In other news, at least in Denver, the current economic shithole isn’t affecting the average drinker. According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, alcohol consumption is actually up. Consumption of alcohol is actually up 20 percent between September of last year and this year. Just in October and November of this year, the state’s doled out 200 new liquor licenses for bars, breweries and liquor stores. This probably doesn’t bode well with the alcohol naysayers and should provide some testimony that regardless of escalating costs and declining disposable income, people are always going to want their cups. So, what does this say about taxation as a tool to curb alcohol consumption and alcohol-related incidents? Again, probably not what the naysayers want to hear.
Lovers of the dark side will rejoice in the early release of Deschute’s Brewing Company’s The Abyss. It’s out fully 2 months earlier this 
year than last. Ask, and ye shall receive, I guess. This is the third year for this amazing, brooding dark wonder. If your friends like it dark, this is the stuff. Expect a rich mixture of coffee, toffee, molasses, licorice and chocolate in a thick concoction to suck you in. The beer is aged in French oak and bourbon barrels for enhanced complexity. This is definitely a slow sipper and at 11 percent alcohol, plan on sharing it with friends over the holidays. The bottles make nice gifts as well, with the handsome lable and wax-dipped top. The beer just reeks of mystique and sophistication. Hey, if nothing else, the 22 ounce bomber would make a good stocking stuffer.
If one of your favorite seasonal from Deschutes is Buzz Saw Brown, it’s slated for release in January in Oregon, and will wander up here soon thereafter.
Another one of my favorites, Lagunitas Brown Shugga is also back on the shelves. This twisted barley wine wannabe is hugely malt forward with an ample compliment of hops to balance it all out. Oh, and did I mention the unmistakable presence of brown sugar? You might think this would make a sappy mess, but the beer’s incredibly well balanced for what it is and hugely drinkable despite it’s viscosity and potency.
The winter seasonal beers are starting to show up in increasing numbers in Alaska as evidenced by the selection at Café Amsterdam above (and mirrored at the La Bodega Liquor Store. Examples from Ridgeway Brewing Company provide ample testimony of what’s around. I’ve always wanted to do a comprehensive survey of every winter seasonal that shows up here, but it’s a daunting task and I only have one liver. Still, there’s a great selection to choose from and I’d bet that you could drink a different seasonal ale every day between here and Christmas, and probably New Years and beyond.
I’m not a big Redhook fan. I find a signature flavor, which many aficionados blame as diacetyl, in most of the beers. It disagrees with me. I’m not calling the beer bad. I made that mistake once and was contacted by some pretty high ups at Redhook inviting me and Jason Ditsworth down for a sampling and discussion. I was afraid of concrete shoes and high bridges that adorn Washington State, so I declined. Just the same, when shopping at the Brown Jug Warehouse the other day, Redhook’s Winter Ale just kind of jumped out at me. Maybe I was in a blue mood because the beer has a light blue lable. I don’t know; does packaging sell beer? If so I guess I’m a sucker.
I brought home a six. I poured it straight up in my favorite drinking glass and held it high. I was instantly enamored by the clarity and chestnut color of the beer, and even the head rocked up nicely and hung around. A surprisingly fresh hop aroma wafted off the top, followed by a 
busty caramel-malty nose. I sniffed again searching for the telltale butter sense that signals diacetyl. It’s not there. The sweetish-smelling beer smelled, well, clean. The flavor mirrored the aroma with the addition of some interesting fruitiness, edgy bitterness that extends into the finish and some alcohol that makes itself known. Light toasty flavors emerge as well and this adds balance. It’s not a particularly big beer at 5.9 percent, so it could be me. All in all, this beer commands some respect. It doesn’t have the breadth and depth of say Deschutes Jubelale or Full Sail Wassail, but there’s plenty of character to make me reach for it again.
Watch for more seasonal releases roll off the brewery trucks in the coming days. Remember, think globally but drink locally.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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
11/28/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Arctic Devil 2009 Release 6 pm Free
12/05/08 Arctic Brewing Supply Entries accepted for Bigfish Homebrew Competition Noon – 6 pm Free
12/05/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Uranus 100% Brett Beer Release 6 pm Free
12/05/08 Tap Root Café La Bodega’s Novemberfest 2nd Anniversary Party 7 pm $20 (in advance)
12/06/08 Turkey Red (Palmer) Trappist Beer Tasting by Specialty Imports 7-9 pm Pay As You Go
12/06/08 SubZero Microlounge Humpy’s Bigfish Homebrew Competition Judging 10 am Free
02/22/09 Café Amsterdam BJCP Exam 10 am TBD
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