In the blue-grey prelude to evening, I sat in my little cabin and glanced outside while I contemplated my beer. This was a re-visit beer because I discovered suddenly that I like Redhook Winterhook more than I thought I would. My first go-round with the brew revealed a nicely balanced winter ale that wasn’t cloying with hops or malt and didn’t trip all over itself while showing off its under-bodice. Still I hadn’t pinpointed something that was contributing to the overall experience and this time I found it. Cinnamon. Somehow, I missed a delicate dose of the sweet-spicy element that helped round out this beer. Maybe having a whole six pack to play with helped out; before I just tried a single beer. I could be wrong, but without internet, it’s hard to bank on product descriptions and the like that I rely on to validate my senses. Just the same, I can sum up the experience as very enjoyable. You might do the same. Palates and sensory ability changes over time and where before I had problems with an omnipresence of what I perceived to be diacetyl in Redhook products has vanished, at least in this beer. So, I’ll drink more.
Next across the palate was Great Divide Brewing Company’s Fresh Hop Pale Ale. With a simmering pot of corned beef and cabbage perking away in the background on the wood stove, I wasn’t so sure I could trust my evaluation of the nose on this beer, 
but the fresh, almost bold leafy green hop element was easy to find on top as it climbed out from underneath a full, uneven just off-white head. But the aroma wasn’t over the top, bleeding with Simcoe and Amarillo hops like so many other big hop beers, and I found this to be rewarding. The label proclaimed “grassy” and “citrusy,” but I didn’t’ find those characters nearly as much as in other beers. Light biscuit and caramel malts were also discernable. I found the beer to be just right in hoppiness for a Pale Ale and appreciated the fact that the bitterness didn’t extend deep into the finish, which might have toppled it over to the IPA side of the fence. Upon warming, the 6.1 percent alcohol made itself known. The beer was sweetish overall in character, but not cloying. The 22 ounce bomber bottle afforded two big samples that I was glad to have on that snowy evening.
I continue to worry about how our local breweries are going to do in the economic crisis that’s deepening as the days pass. Unless a brewery is firmly entrenched in multiple, sustaining markets, it could be a tough go for them as they depend on a finicky local market to stay afloat. But they persevere, and I admire them for that. Still, I can’t emphasize enough hop important it is to spend your disposable beer income with local beer in mind. Booze as a whole is an interesting thing from the standpoint that it has equal appeal in good times or bad, but consumers tend to buy down, sacrificing quality for quantity in tough times. Let’s not do that. Rewarding to the smaller craft breweries is the fact that statistically, at least so far, craft beer consumers are bucking the trend to revert to bland beer to save a buck. I think once infected with the desire for good beer, a beer aficionado will never turn back. “Give me flavor or give me death” seems to be the catch phrase for now and I hope it stays that way.
I revisited another tried-and-true local friend this last weekend. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a fresh Alaskan Amber. There for a while, it just took a back seat to other more “unique” beers vying for my attention. There was a time when Alaskan Amber was my favorit-est beer in the whole wide world.
My recent experience had me mentally recount and experience when I’d first discovered the brew. I was at a party with some tried-and-true Budweiser drinkers and was bubbling over with joy at my recent, full-flavored discovery. I decided to do a little 
witnessing with my beer. Like a fully charged religious convert, I went around foisting my beer on anyone with a willing mouth. A good military friend of mine was in the mix and if there was ever a tried-and-true Bud man, Steve Christiansen was the one. At one time I had devout reverence for that same beer, but after learning to homebrew and expanding my horizons, Bud became a thing of the past. I poured Steve a sample and he willingly engaged my offer to give Alaskan Amber a try. He took one Bud-like gulp and literally turned to the side and explosively spit the beer out. Now I’d heard of such a visceral reaction to an offensive sensory assault, but had never witnessed this before. At the same time, somehow, I wasn’t too surprised give the person I was dealing with.
Time went on and somewhere along the line, I coaxed Steve into homebrewing. Homebrewing is a life changing event. People that have zero tolerance for anything other than the tried-and-true in beer suddenly blossom like a flower and espouse any new flavor profile they come across. Steve was no different. Within weeks, he’d proclaimed himself as the “Original Dark Man” putting all of his homebrewing efforts into dark stout beers. “The blacker the better, baby,” he’d always say as he’d foist his latest creation on me.
Although ancillary to this story, one I came over to his house and he proudly held out a coal black stout for me to sample. Before I could even get it close to my lips, it occurred to me that I’d never seen a black stout with a paper white head. Suspecting some heretofore un-discovered brewing secret, I mused upon his creation and asked him how in the hell he could make a black beer with a white head. “It’s only three days old,” he said. He couldn’t’ wait to get at it, and the second it finished fermenting, he bottled it up, even before it was done and popped caps the very next day. I don’t know how he managed to get enough carbonation and ample had in such a short maturation time, but he did and overall, the beer was okay. Back then, any homebrew was okay because there was just something communal about sharing a hand made product, friend with friend.
Back to Alaskan Amber. It was my mainstay beer at one point, and getting it on draft was a real treat. I drank it with abandon. Back then, the only decent tap line in Anchorage was at Harry’s Restaurant in midtown and I spent a lot of time in there nursing my cups. Alaskan Amber was prominently featured, along with other entrants in the craft beer market that could be had in the then somewhat beer-lonely outpost of Alaska. If memory serves me right, Alaskan flowed through local taps before even Budweiser 
did. But, over time, not because the beer was lackluster or defective, it faded into the background in deference to an increasingly wild attack on my palate with emergent obscure styles from around the world and from my own kitchen where I strived to emulate styles that were tough to find up here.
So, my revisit wasn’t just a blast from the past, but a rediscovery of a tried-and-true old friend. The malty sweetness in nose and flavor, along with a fabulously clean finish were welcome in this benign, easy drinker. I was suddenly glad I bought a whole six pack for the weekend.
I also bought a sixer of Alaskan IPA. I got a lot of shit when I reviewed the beer so positively in an Anchorage Press and Celebrator Beer News piece some time ago. I continue to staunchly defend my position that Alaskan’s IPA is a salute to what American IPAs used to be. There was a time that the only distinction between an American and English IPA wasn’t the quantity of hops but rather the type. Americans, wanting to emulate the popular English style did so by infusing their beers with American varieties of hops that were more plentiful and affordable than the noble European varieties. Somewhere along the line, more became better and the American style convoluted to not only distinctly American hops, but tons more of them. An awakening palate in America thirsted for bolder, bigger beers and American IPA’s found sudden favor with beer lovers across the nation. Then it became an obsession. It seemed that brewers competed with each other to see who could pack the most hop punch in a beer. Big hop beers morphed through 50, 75 and 100 international bittering units (IBUs) and beyond. Suddenly, 200 IBU double and imperial IPAs became commonplace. Long gone was balance and even, to some degree, sensory appreciation, in deference to big fatty hop-smelling, hop-tasting and especially hugely bitter beers. I fell off that cart somewhere around 75 IBU’s. I wanted to enjoy the hops like anyone else, but I didn’t want to have to wash down a pint of beer with a glass of water to keep my mouth from turning inside out, then hit the urinal and piss green “just because.” It got to the point where I got on my soap box and challenged 
the brewers to just go ahead and obtain pure hop oil, distill it, package it and get it over with. Someone PLEASE make the end-all hop bomb and then maybe we could go back to focusing on balance again. That’s started to happen, at least due in part to the recent hop scarcity scare, but regardless, brewers continue to produce big, hoppy beers. That’s great news to the hopheads in the kingdom, and of course there’s a place for these huge hoppy beers, but Alaskan continues to find favor with me mostly because of huge balance and cleanliness. No, I’m not saying Alaskan IPA is the best in the universe, but I firmly respect it for what it is. Pick your poison and let me drink mine, thank you very much.
I don’t understand why more people aren’t signed up for tonight’s (Friday, December 05, 2008’s) La Bodega Liquor Store’s 2nd Anniversary Party at the Tap Root Café starting at 7 pm. Tickets are on sale at La Bodega in the University Mall and the $20.00 price covers the band, one beer and some food. The rest is pay as you go. La Bodega has been a stalwart supporter of local, craft and upscale international brands of beer (and wine) and remains fiercely independent from the larger liquor chains in our state. Does this give proprietor/owner Pamela Hatzis any advantage? Probably not, but she’s not looking for an advantage; she’s looking for a niche. Being independent comes with its costs but affords Hatzis the luxury of full freedom of choice of what she stocks and how she sells it, free of undue pressure from the mega-breweries that shape so much of what we know in beer today. She’s supported us thus far so it’s time to join her in celebrating the start of her third year of helping us chart the foamy seas with beers from near and far.
While you’re at the store, pick up La Bodega gift cards for your beer loving friends and family. Classy new personally designed plastic cards are available in virtually any denomination, and these little gems will make perfect stocking stuffers, along with 
perhaps a single beer that’s easily bought through La Bodega’s single beer pricing scheme (you don’t have to buy a whole sixer to try something new or get something you want to try but aren’t sure of). Read below for my suggestion for a stocking stuffer (Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo Marron), but consider as well two new beers that just arrived: Rogue Brewing Company’s Yellow Snow and beers from the He’Brew line up.
In addition to a couple of specialty beers that will be floating around Tap Root Café in celebration of La Bodega’s 2nd Anniversary party, the predominantly local tap line this week features:
Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s
Sockeye Red IPA
Oosik Amber
Imperial chocolate Pumpkin Porter
Panty Peeler Tripel
Sleeping Lady Brewing Company’s
Fish On! IPA
Scottish Ale
Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop’s
Beavertail Blonde
Roughneck Stout
Imperial Spiced Honey Wheat
National and International Brands
North Coast Brewing Old Stock Ale
Brouwerij Van Steenberge Gulden Drak
Ommegang Grand Cru Rouge Flemish Ale
And, just ‘cuz ‘tis the season…barleywine season, that is…don’t forget that Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s Arctic Devil Barley Wine 2008 has been released for you imbibers and collectors out there. I get a case of this stuff every year. I drink some and lay some down. This multiple-award winning beer is good bartering material a couple of years down the road as age improves the beer and increases the value. And, for you Planet-watching Sun Freaks, On Friday, December 05, Uranus is being released at the brewery. This is the brewery’s first 100 percent brettanomyces-fermented beer. Danger is obviously no stranger to the Midnight Sun Ranger! Anyway, you can imagine the amount of fun the brewery had with this beer, especially considering the creative things that the average smart-assed beer drinker can do with the name. I wonder how many times the brewery was asked how many Klingons circle Uranus.
And, what pops up in the middle of all the happy chaos at Midnight Sun? Son of Berzerker! Where the hell did THIS come from? No matter, it’s the 8 percent ABV, unknown IBU, second-running bastard prodigal son of the wildly popular Berzerker Imperial Stout. The brewery’s calling it a “ small beer,” the name typically associated with a second runnings beer. Eight Percent? Small? Well, okay, I guess. The beer is “malt-centric” according to the brewery, which is their twist on describing a “malt-forward beer that features the luscious rather than the bitter. And, at $12.50 a growler, it’s fetching a junior price in a big beer world so get it while it grows teeth.
And, the brewery has announced the next lively series beer set up. The brewery, in between planning a major relocation, is 
planning the Crew Brew Series of beers. Each of the nine key brewery members will create some weirdsy-excentric twisted beer for a scheduled release over the months. Who cares what it is; with a track record that includes the Seven Deadly Sins and Planet series of beers, it’s got to be good. So, stay tuned for news.
Oh, and I’ve got to plug the source of all this good news. If you’re not on the Midnight Sun Brewing Company newsletter emailing list, contact barb@midnightsunbrewing.com and get Uranus on it!
The final spate of Christmas beers has arrived at La Bodega, including Midnight Sun’s latest, so Pamela’s fully stocked with all of your Christmas favorites. Shop early, of course, for the best selection.
Mead lovers, pay attention! Ring of Fire Meadery is having a five course mead dinner at the Homestead Restaurant at mile 8.2 on East Road. The $65 (tax and gratuity included) Saturday, December 6, 6:30 pm event is being billed as “Dinner at the Vineyard.” Chef Brett Custer is artfully pairing ROFM meads with his exquisite dishes prepared exclusively for this event. The first course will feature a Spiced Pumpkin Bisque described as roasted kabocha squash bisque drizzled with red pepper coulis. This dish is paired with ROFM’s Hamlet Honeymoon Mead. The second course is Chrizo stuffed quail finished with a honey-chili sauce. The Homestead is offering a meatless alternative: Melazano eggplant pate for the vegetarians in the bunch. This course is paired with ROFM’s Rhubarb Mead.
A Blood Orange Frisee Salad follows the quail. This dish consistes of Frisee with blood orange segments, toasted pine nuts and white cheddar with a whole grain mustard dressing. This dish is paired with ROFM’s Orange Blossom Mead.
On to some seafood. The salad will be followed by fresh, Kodiak hazelnut scallops on a bed of red pepper polenta with a raspberry béchamel. This dish is paired with ROFM’s Raspberry Vanilla Mead.
For dessert, chocolate bread pudding consisting of a light and fluffy bread pudding studded with chocolate and cherries and topped with a cherry mead sauce and freshly whipped cream will top off the evening. This final dish will be paired with ROFM’s Tart Cherry Reserve. 
This event sold out pretty quickly last year, so you might want to contact Ring of Fire Meadery quickly to see if any tickets are left. Contact them at (907) 235-2656 or at ringoffiremeadery@alaska.net for reservations.
If you can’t make the gig, but are hankering for something new, Ring of Fire Meadery has just released a Holiday Raspberry Vanilla Mead and their Lehua Hawaiian Honey Mead. I haven’t had a chance to sample these yet, but I’m sure they’re as good as everything out this fantastic little meadery kicks out. I hope they throw us a bone and get some up Anchor-way!
In other mead news, Celestial Meads is holding another open house this month. This one is slated for Saturday, December 6th between noon and 5 pm at the meadery located off Arctic Blvd at 600 W. 58th Ave, Suite B. There is no charge for this event and Celestial will have at least 14 meads to sample, in addition to various cheeses, crackers and smoked salmon. Mead makes a great gift for the holidays so drop by and sample before you buy. Belgique, Miel Noir and Razzery Cyser are all available again, in addition to three Special Reserves; Persephone’s Fate, Raizin d’Etre and Trebuchet. For those who have been waiting, the meadery now has Razzery Cyser on tap, so bring your growlers! Check out our website (www.CelestialMeads.com) for more information, or call Meadmaster Mike at 250-8362.
At the Moose’s Tooth Pizzeria, expect seventeen beers on tap this week two of which are nice surprises:
Klondike Gold
Northern Lights Amber
Moose’s Tooth Hefeweizen
Williwaw Winter Warmer
Hard Apple Ale
Raspberry Wheat
Smokin’ Willie Porter
Pipeline Stout
Prince William Porter
Midtown Borwn
Bear Tooth Ale
Fairweather IPA
Moonflower ESB
Polar Pale Ale
Spenard Nite Life
Dark Star Lager
Joe The Steam Beer
The Dark Star Lager and the Joe the Steam Beer were my selections during a recent visit. Dark Star Lager is a perennial favorite for me and paired nicely with my Mixed Green Salad. It was dark enough, but with it’s rather benign nose and clean finish after a clean mixture of dark malts including chocolate and others, it contrasted the feta cheese in the salad but didn’t fight with anything. I look forward to this beer every year.
Joe the Steam Beer is this month’s First Tap offering. The crystal clear amber beer was sweetish overall in the nose with very little hop aroma and more malt presence than anything else. The flavor followed almost perfectly with nice biscuit and light toast notes. The hops in the beer are just for bitterness. Slight hop flavor emerges in the center of the taste. They’re there, but fade quickly for a smooth, slightly carbo-spicy finish. The quite full mouthfeel in this beer made it a bit heavier than anticipated, but it was enjoyable overall.
Glacier Brewhouse’s line up includes:
Blonde
Amber
IPA
Hefeweizen
Oatmeal Stout
Imperial Blonde
Nut Brown
Red
Black Rye Bock
Oak Aged DIPA (aged a full year in American oak Silverado Winery barrels)
Raspberry Beam Lambic (Aged FOUR years in retired Beam barrels)
Cask Conditioned IPA
Check out this month’s Northwest Brewing News that reveals that according to the Reader’s Poll, Glacier was voted as the Best Brewpub in Alaska! Also, the brewery’s Imperial Blonde was distinguished as the best beer in the Strong Ale category. I’ll be excited to see who takes the remaining categories. In the line up above, the Black Rye Bock stands out as my personal favorite, as it is every year. This is a pseudo-Schwarz beer done right. Three distinct beers can be found in every sip, so although the beer’s complex, it should never be confusing; it’s just a dark beer lover’s sensory wonderland.
I finally located a stash of Widmer Brewing Company’s new winter seasonal Release, Brrr. I have to admit that this was a beer where the name sucked me in. I like Widmer products plenty, but found myself a little more anxious to give this one a run through the liver. The label invited me to “warm up with a cold one,” and that sounded good.
The beer pours lively and fresh, revealing a deep amber brew under a light tan, lasting head. Nice carbonation works the glass and 
keeps the head alive. The nose reveals a substantial pine-y/citrus hop element that I’d suspect comes from artful dry hopping in the finish. Malt, a little spiciness (could be more of the hop’s contribution) and a hint of alcohol waft up after. A quick perusal of the label revealed that indeed, the booze would be present at 7.2 percent alcohol by volume.
The beer’s decidedly bitter with the initial sip and ol’ Mr. Booze makes himself known as well. Rich, fresh Pacific Northwest hop character follows, then steps aside momentarily for sweet malt character that includes hints of crystal and other medium malts and a bit more spiciness. The late flavor sensation includes more booze and a bitterness that extends deep into the finish. The beer is produced using pale, caramel, Munich, Carapils and dark chocolate malts and is spiced with Simcoe and Cascade hops for the aroma and Alchemy hops for the bitterness. I found the beer enjoyable for the most part, but it seemed just slightly coarse around the edges for my taste. I’m wondering if this one would improve with a couple of months of aging, so I stashed the rest of my six pack for the season.
According to the brewery, this beer will only be around until January, so I wouldn’t wait too long if you want to try it for yourself.
Another beer I scored during that visit was Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo Marron, an unfiltered brown ale aged in handmade Paraguayan Palo Santo wood. Not just is the wood exquisite and rare, so is the size of the barrels produced from it. The 10,000 gallon barrels constructed specifically for the beer are the largest beer barrels produced since before prohibition.
Aromatically, the beer is intensely rich and fruity with twinges of chocolate, light raisin notes, and other dark fruit character. A light, sweet spiciness seems to come from no where and comes and goes with each passing waft. For a brown ale, the beer is 
quite dark. It’s almost opaque, but what little light finds it’s way through reveals clarity from within. The beer is also intensely fruity and sweet across the palate. This fades to reveal more chocolate, very light roast character and even a slightly burnt edge which is not at all a defect considering the drying balance it lends to the almost cloying beer. The hops in the beer don’t contribute much in the flavor department and the bitterness is just shy of balancing. Again, this is no defect. Oak and dark wood character along with some distinct vanilla and obscure sherry notes also accent the brew. If I forgot to mention it before, the 12 percent alcohol is almost lost in the beer’s complexity and heavily-full mouthfeel, but it’s easy to detect in the warming swallow.
Calling this beer a brown ale is a misnomer, unless of course, it’s brewed at Dogfish Head. This is more akin to an imperial porter because it’s certainly imperial all the way around. This would be a superb single-beer stocking stuffer for Christmas for that special beer-swillin’ Santa in your life. Milk and cookies? Bah Humbug! I’ll tgak Palo Santo any day! A six pack of this is definitely going into my vintage collection.
Three Skulls Ales, a subsidiary of Baron Brewing of Seattle Washington, has released Black Bonney Porter. I haven’t seen the beer up here yet, but according to style sheets provided by the brewery, the beer is named after Anne Bonney, the famous, albeit fierce woman pirate that’s best known for spitting on her own captain during an attack when he surrendered and kept on fighting herself. The brewery’s calling the beer an English porter on the hoppy side with plenty of dark character including color, and armas of roasted coffee, dark chocolate, toffee and caramel. A whole compendium of dark (some roasted) malts lend a rich, powerful impact to the beer.
If your travel plans include Seattle over the 11th of December, Three Skulls’ Black Bonney, Pillager’s Pale Ale and CutThroat Red will be featured at the Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle starting at 7 pm.
And, for the stoners out there (Stone Brewing Company fans), Stone’s Double Bastard is back along with some residual oak aged Double Bastard I chanced across the other day at the Brown Jug Warehouse.. Good stuff. Lagunitas’s Brown Shugga, an original failed attempt at a barleywine is back this year along with Avery Brewing Company’s Old Jubilation. Big Sky Brewing Company’s Powder Hound is another winter warmer as is Elysian Brewing Company’s Bifrost. There’s no shortage of good beer to choose from this week, kiddo’s, so mix up that Christmas shopping with a little sudsy fun.
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
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 Homestead Restaurant (Homer) Ring of Fire Meadery 5-Course Mead Dinner 6:30 pm $65
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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