Fairbanks imbibers are threatened by a proposed 100 percent increase in the tax on alcohol. What’s interesting about this initiative by Fairbanks Mayor Steve Thompson is that there’s no attempt to hide behind using the tax to pay alcohol’s way and Thompson openly admits that the increase from 5 percent to 10 percent would be used to fund the 2008 general budget. There’s a $2 million shortfall in the budget and booze seems an easy tax target to help catch up. Still, Thompson couldn’t help citing the city’s chronic alcohol problem in defending the tax that’s really aimed at fixing some financial woes at City Hall. Because Alaska state law mandates that alcohol taxes can’t exceed the highest tax rate levied on any other economy, the proposed increase would require the cities current 8 percent bed tax be ratcheted up to 10 percent as well. Naturally, in a tourist-based economy, the proposal is meeting some resistance, but it may not be enough to fend off the increase. Public meeting response has been typically spotty because for some reason, those opposed to the tax think someone else will speak their mind for them, or are afraid to come out of the closet and openly spit on the increase. Maybe Anchorage and Fairbanks drinkers have more in common than I originally thought. Still, we shouldn’t let this overshadow Anchorage’s own recent proposal to hike booze tax that awaits 7,000 signatures to put the initiative on the 2008 ballot. Pay the fuck attention!
I wandered in to Humpy’s on Monday night and found a dazzling selection of beers I hadn’t tried before, but settled first on the Pike Brewing Company’s St. Monks Uncle.
The crystal clear, golden tripel-style with a thin-ish white head slowly came to life, but the nose didn’t provide much entertainment initially slave what I thought was a slight vegetal scent on top of light grain. The flavor revealed an initially hop-bitter beer. The bitterness extended deep into the finish and well beyond the swallow. The sweet-balanced beer boasted some aggressive Belgianesque character in the flavor which is rounded out by some light pear/cider notes. The light grain notes in the nose followed. I thought the beer could be a bit more peppery/spicy, but I like my tripels that way and this one was well within the style. The beer definitely improved with warming and by the time I was done, I was well warmed up for something different. I followed the Monk’s Uncle with Avery’s The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest beer (‘tis the season, you know), and paired it up with a side of Humpy’s Southwest Egg Rolls. These were some spicy critters and the almost cloying heaviness of the O’fest beer was a nice offset.
I missed a great Oktoberfest dinner at Humpy’s on Sunday night (10/21). Sources say it was well appointed, rich in food and with that fun, liberal pour we’ve all grown to love at these gigs. The Alaska Blaskapelle was booming out the tunes and there were a couple of instances of hard-core chicken dancing. Spaten Pilsner and Oktoberfest Marzen were served, along with Paulaner Hefeweizen, Oktoberfest Marzen and Salvator. Locally, Silver Gulch’s Oktoberfest Marzen was served. What really stole the show, however, was the Hecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Maerzen. Chef’s Randy Barry and Tim Farley whipped up six courses to pair with the beer. Just for the record, I’m not a huge German food fan for some reason, but since Ms. Fermento isn’t a big German beer lover, I usually get all but a few sips of her samples, so she’s always the designated driver.
Mead Master Mike Kiker has some new stuff available at Celestial Meads, Anchorage’s only meadery (700 W. 41st Ave, Unit H, 907-250-8362). I enjoy, but don’t understand mead like I should, but one thing I truly appreciate is Kiker’s mastery of naming convention for his excellent products. Available at the meadery now are Burning Sappho, Belgique, and Gingerly. Burning Sappho is an 11 percent semi-sweet traditional mead made with 100% black locust honey. Belgique is a bit bigger at 12% ABV. It’s a sweet methyglyn made with a floral blend honey, coriander and bitter orange peel. If it sounds like a wit beer, there’s a reason for that. Gingerly is a 10 percent sweet methyglyn that also uses a floral bend hone, but with the addition of ginger and hand picked Alaskan red currants.
Next week, look for Luz Del Sol, a 12 percent semi-sweet traditional mead made with 100 percent orange blossom honey, Desire, a 12 percent swmi-sweet traditional mead made with desert wildflower (mesquite, acacia and cat’s claw) honeys and Gunnlod’s Tears, a dry traditional mead aged on oak.
Sometimes I have to pause and call Mike Kiker and get him to share how he comes up with the names for these meads. It’s better to visit the meadery and do the same over a sample of something alluring.
The accolades for Midnight Sun Brewing Company continue to manifest themselves in more far-reaching corners of the beer community. Look at any populist website that proclaims beer and you’re bound to find reference to Anchorage’s most prolific suds factory. This is well deserved. I don’t want to come across as placating, so I’ll let you do your own research, but suffice to say, these cats have got it where it’s at. If you want to revel in their greatness, there’s ample opportunity to do so with a Brewhouse Tour (7329 Arctic Blvd) every Friday night. On Saturday, November 03 at 6 PM, Café Amsterdam (530 E. Benson) will offer a firkin of CoHoHo, an immensely imperial IPA that overshadows its older Sockeye IPA brother, but at least to me offers more balance. Midnight Sun always says be at these events at 6 PM SHARP. That’s good advice, although “SHARP” is a relative term when it comes to punctuality with the crew.
Pencil in the Thursday, November 15 Midnight Sun dinner/beer pairing at Kinley’s Restaurant (3230 Seward Highway) at 6:30 PM. Expect five MSBC beers and four Kinley’s food courses for $50.00 a seat. Call 644-8953 for reservations.
On November 23 at the brewery, the long awaited, heavily anticipated Arctic Devil Barleywine will be released, followed by a pre-release of Pride (Belgian-style Strong Pale Ale) at SubZero and the November 30th release of the same beer at the brewery. December will feature the release of Lust, a Belgian-style dark strong ale with sour cherries and lots of Brett. The pre release is at SubZero on December 13th and the brewery release is on December 14th.
The next McGinley’s Irish Pub First Taste is slated for November 2nd from 5-9 PM. This month, Canada’s Unibroue brewery is featured. Unibroue produces some of the most authentic Belgian ale clones in the universe and at this $8. sampling, you’ll enjoy Maudite, Trois Pistoles and the forever interesting Quelque Chose, a beer that will be served mulled (hot).
My first experience with mulled beer was in the mid 1970’s in San Francisco. A couple of friends of mine and I used to frequent the (then) awesome laser light show at the Planetarium in San Francisco. We’d pre-load, of course, then after the show, head the short distance to the beach. This was usually about midnight. We’d build a fire and rage for a while. I’d heard about mulling beer and had a pewter mug, so one night, I partially filled the mug with Anchor Old Foghorn Barley Wine, stuck a piece of rebar into the fire and got it red hot, then set the mug in the sand and gave it the hot poker. I didn’t realize how explosive beer could be. I don’t think I mulled the beer as much as I scorched and caramelized it, so through experimentation and a lot of wasted beer, I finally achieved the right combination of temperature and time and successfully mulled the beer. Just for the record, Anchor’s Old Foghorn isn’t the best mulling beer. Stick with something designed to be mulled like the aforementioned Quelque Chose or even Gluhkriek from Lindemans.
As we approach Halloween, there’s plenty of good Pumpkin Ale to liven things up at your perennial gatherings that celebrate the season of debauchery. Locally, get your fill of Glacier’s Pumpkin Ale, Midnight Sun’s Humpback Jack Pumpkin Ale, or the exclusive Midnight Sun Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter, if you can find any of it left. Elysian’s Night Owl is also on the shelves as is Blue Moon’s Pumpkin Ale and Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale. Although I suspect that Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale is brewed elsewhere, my first experience with the style was at Buffalo Bill’s Brewery (brewpub) in Hayward, California in the mid 1980’s. Ironically, this was the first brewpub I probably visited and at the same time, the first time I picked up the then much smaller Celebrator Beer News, a publication I now write for.
While on the subject of beer rags, have you ever stopped to consider the amount coverage on Alaska beer there is? There’s 52 columns a year in the Anchorage Press. The Anchorage Daily News has 26 columns written by Dawnell Smith and another handful of specialty columns every year devoted to the subject. The Celebrator Beer News has six columns a year that feature Alaska’s suds. So does the Northwest Brewing News The Great Northern Brewers Homebrew Club’s monthly newsletter,
The Northern Brewer, is published monthly, so there’s another 12 publications that cover beer up here. Finally, there’s this weekly blog (that sometimes gets published twice a week). Add all this up and you have a conservative 154 chances a year to read up on our beer. Add the occasional outside coverage of beer up here and the number goes up.
The October/November issue of the Northwest Brewing News is out. It’s a freebee too and boasts a section on Alaska. Grab a copy of this great publication and at one of your Halloween gigs, read the accounts of reputedly haunted beer establishments around the Pacific Northwest. Our own Kevin Tubbs (of the formerly Yukon Yacht Club and Yukon Spirits) writes the Alaska piece.
Also in this edition of the Northwest Brew News is the voter ballot for the Best of the Northwest Reader’s Choice Awards. Now’s your chance to help stuff the ballot boxes with nominations from Alaska. Conveniently, if you can’t locate a free paper around town, you can vote online at www.brewingnews.com/northwest/. This is a great way to show our support for our local beers and establishments. Get on it!
Personally, I find no excuse for any brewing establishment or fine alehouse not to stock The Celebrator Beer News to give to patrons for free. Understand that I’m not saying this because I write for the paper. If you’re reading this blog, there’s plenty more information here about local Alaskan beer than there is in the Celebrator and Press combined.. The Celebrator is free if the establishment pays shipping to get the bundles of papers up here, and at the bulk book rate, this isn’t too expensive. Humpy’s plays the game, as does La Bodega, and sometimes there’s an errant copy or two around at the Brown Jug Warehouse. If you’re not familiar with the Celebrator, for me, it’s akin to our own Alaska Milepost because it covers beer and destinations from around the United States, and if you’re traveling with a thirst, this is your best, free guide to all of the good suds in our great nation.
Session Premium Lager by Full Sail Brewing Company remains one of my favorite beers. I first discovered the beer when wandering the streets of Seattle during the Seattle International Bierfest one year. I kept bumping into the stubbies on the shelves in the local liquor stores, but gave them no neither-nor. Full Sail’s logo isn’t prominent on the label and being largely unfamiliar with brands outside of Alaska, I have to admit, I thought I was seeing some sort mass produced gimmick. It wasn’t until I ducked into the historic Triangle Pub in the old section of Seattle and plunked down on a bar stool right in front of the stuff that I took notice. I asked the barkeep what the big deal about the beer was and who made it. Naturally I took interest when she said it was a Full Sail beer. I had to try one and I was instantly in love. The beer’s light, bright and crisp flavor with just the right hop snap was just what I needed after wandering around for a couple of hours on a rare, hot day in this typically rainy city. The all malt beer affords a savory light-grain flavor with just enough hop spiciness to kick it out of the mainstream. The two-row barley foundation is easy to pick out and that cleansing tart twinge at the end comes from a light dosing of wheat in the beer’s manufacture. Absent is the dimethyl sulfide (corn-like) flavors that the mass produced lagers always seem to impart. I was so enamored with the beer that I hauled a half rack of it back to Anchortown with me on the return.
Apparently, I’m not alone in my love for the brew. The beer was just named “The World’s Best Premium Lager” at the World Beer Awards in Europe where the beer not only competed with homies from the United States, but also against some of the lager benchmarks in Europe. A good lager is tough to make right because due to the beer’s light, delicate flavor, it’s very unforgiving and flaws stick out like a turd in a punchbowl. Session Premium Lager also ripped a gold medal at the North American Beer Awards in Idaho this summer, a silver medal at the 2007 L.A. County Fair and a silver medal in a New Zealand international beer competition. It always makes me feel good when I discover something before it gets big, like it, and then watch it flourish around me.
There’s some talk that we might see some on draught, but I haven’t heard anything official yet. Currently the beer is only presented in 11 oz. stubbies and only available in half racks on the retail side. What I loved about bringing it to Alaska before it was available here and out on the common market was walking around and gunning it down straight out of the bottle. The stubby bottle is an instant conversation piece. When people would see me drinking it, the most common reaction was “What the heck is that you’re drinking?” Perfect! I pulled back and the hook was set. I’d usually tell the all-malt story, but hold back on divulging that it’s made by Full Sail, because that’s what seemed to bring even the most wiggly beer fish over the gunwales and into captivity. Almost always, I’d boast how the little retro wonder even had some Olympic roots as the bottles were cast in the same molds that made the classic Olympia Brewing’s Oly stubbies. When I got my convert really salivating at this point, I’d usually hand them one of their own and watch them wander off and bait others. What great fun. Breweries have shot a lot of creativity at labeling, but it’s not as common when a brewery takes on a bottle design that’s out of the ordinary. That comes at great cost. I’m tipping my mug to Full Sail and Session as I type.
Closer to home but from further way, Ed Cowger of the Brown Jug Liquor Store on 88th and Old Seward brought in more of the incredible Nogne 0 Dark Horizon from Norway. This 18 percent swirling, brooding, dark wonder is one of the most fascinating brews to grace my lips and it’s my recommendation that you get one because the supply is limited. Get two at least because these are awesome lay-down beers and I’ve tucked a couple of my vintage collection for graceful aging and sharing at a later date.
Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop released a new and improved version of their Caribou Kilt Strong Scotch Ale. I sampled the cleaned up version recently and was pleasantly surprised at the beer’s balance and cleanliness. I discovered a swelling Euro-malt nose on top of decent traces of noble hops, all in perfect balance. Way in the background is a slight peated element, but I can’t finger the source. Otherwise, the aroma is as clean as it should be. What hits the palate first is balance, and that’s crucial in a style that’s easily overdone across the thin fence rail of malt supporting hops. Did I mention the perfect balance? This needs to be repeated because Kassik’s managed to keep all of the major elements within a complex and unforgiving style of beer in check. Maybe because I’ve had two full glasses of this stuff, I’m enamored. I’d pull another pint of this before some of the more recognized examples from across the pond. Unfortunately, as is the norm with disparate, increasingly scattered local breweries across Alaska, this one’s fleeting. What’s here is here and when it’s gone it’s gone.
Consistency is another issue with smaller breweries, and Kassik’s is not exempt. Versions of the Otter Creek Amber have mutated during their cameo appearances in Anchorage, but one beer that sticks out as consistently good is Kassik’s Moose Point Porter. My recent sample again revealed that there’s still a place in America (and even Alaska) for porters that reach back to historic underpinnings rather than experiment with unpredictable and often distracting hopping schedules. This is all evident in the nose, but with the addition of a light vanilla compound and even lighter traces of a smoke character. The beer’s dark for style (in color), but clear if you can find your way through the opaque pour. I always look for ruby highlights in a true brown porter, but this one was black. Good head retention adds to the eye candy. I appreciate the Moose Point’s chocolaty malt introduction, savory light-roast spotlight and only balancing hop bitterness. The beer runs the gamut from sweet to dry across the sample. This allows some of the biscuity-toasty elements get some attention in a beer that finishes respectably dry in the end. The mouthfeel is oh-so-creamy and delicious in this medium bodied beer. Kassik left a growler of it with my name on it at Café Amsterdam and I couldn’t wait to tear into it, so I demanded glasses and proudly shared samples not only with familiar faces in the bar, but other patrons that looked worthy. Growlers are meant for sharing (well, not always) and I couldn’t resist.
Also on tap at Café Amsterdam includes Chimay Cinq Cents, Delirium Tremens, Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop Amber and Oktoberfest, Paulaner Marzen/Oktoberfest, Midnight Sun’s Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter and Humpback Jack Pumpkin Ale, Celestial Meads’ Razzery Cider, Alaskan Brewing Company’s Winter Ale, Anchor Steam Brewing Company’s Steam Beer, Magner’s Irish Cider, Lagunitas Brewing Company’s Imperial Red Ale, and Kenai River Brewing Company’s Hefeweizen.
Mark your calendar for the November 03, 2007 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Firkin Saturday event at Café Amsterdam featuring CohoHo, one of the state’s signature IPAs. This stuff is great running solo, but with cask conditioning softening the beer’s aggressiveness, this is a real treat. The gig runs from 6-9 pm, but recent timed trials reveal that the cask releases at Café only pour for about 40-60 minutes; I’d suggest an early arrival.
Here’s the most recent Humpy’s beer list:
Wheats / Fruits
Moose’s Tooth Wild Country Raspberry Wheat
Paulaner Hefe-Weizen *
Pyramid Apricot
Pyramid Hefeweizen
Pyramid Imperial Hefeweizen ** (7.1%)
Lindemans Framboise ###
Spire Mt. Dark & Dry Apple Cider #
Golden Ales / Pilseners / California Common
Midnight Sun Gold Strike Kolsch
Paulaner Premium Pilsner*
Spaten Munich Pilsner *
Pale Ales / E.S.B.’s (medium hop bitterness)
Alaskan Pale Ale
Moose’s Tooth Polar Pale Ale
Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Alaskan Boogie Best Bitter
India Pale Ales (med - high hop bitterness)
Alaskan Icy Bay I.P.A.
Humpy’s Sockeye Red by Midnight Sun
Moose’s Tooth Fairweather I.P.A.
Stone I.P.A.
Belgian Ales
Blue Moon Belgian White Ale
Rodenbach Flemish Sour Ale ###
Unibroue Blanch de Chamble #
Strong Belgian Ales (Alcohol by Volume over 7.5%)
Midnight Sun Wrath Belgian Double I.P.A. # (8.2%)
Chimay Cing Cents Triple #### (8%)
Delirium Tremens ### (8.5%)
Gouden Carolus Classic ### (8%)
Koningshoven Quadrupel Trappist Ale ### (10%)
Pike St. Monk’s Uncle Triple # (9%)
Seasonal
Silver Gulch Oktoberfest Marzen
Sleeping Lady Colonial Pumpkin Ale
Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (Original Smoked Marzen)
Avery ‘The Kaiser’ Imperial Oktoberfest Lager # (9.37%)
Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen *
Spaten Oktoberfest Marzen *
Barley Wines
Ipso Facto Barley Wine 2002 ed. ### (10.5%)
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barley Wine # (9.6 %)
Amber Ales / Bocks / Dopplebocks / Scottish
Alaskan Amber Ale
Mac Tarnahan’s Scottish Ale
Sleeping Lady Espresso Bock
Rogue Dead Guy Maibock
Paulaner Salvator Dopplebock ** (7.9%)
Brown Ales
Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown Ale
Rogue Hazel Nut Brown
Porters / Stouts
Homer China Poot Porter
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
Rogue Mocha Porter
Deschutes Obsidian Stout
Great Divide Yeti Oak Aged Imperial Stout # (9.5%)
Guinness Stout *
Christmas Special Ales
Midnight Sun Cohoho Imperial I.P.A. # (8%)
Deschutes Jubel Ale
Full Sail Wassail
Full Sail Wreck the Halls
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