Ramblings of Beer Travelers
The latest episode of One Pint at a Time, “Alaska in January?”, is available for viewing.
In our first “Year in Beer” episode, we traveled to Anchorage, AK for the Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival. As you probably could gather from our posts about the trip, we had a great time in the 49th state and hopefully this episode captures the spirit of the weekend.
So please enjoy “Alaska in January?”.
For all the episodes of One Pint at a Time go to beergeekTV.
We posted a new a new episode of “One Pint at a Time” last weekend but I delayed in blogging about it because I was hoping to also include a link to one of our three radio interviews that we did on Tuesday. The station hasn’t posted the interview yet so it is time to move on…
The latest video from our December trip to Europe is now available for your viewing pleasure.
Despite chilly temperatures, the holiday season might be our favorite time of year in Bavaria.
So please enjoy “Weihnachten in Bayern”.
For all the episodes of “One Pint at a Time” go to beergeekTV.
We will have some Year in Beer news to post later in the week…
On the homefront news
If you are on the Monterey Peninsula, check out Bottles-n-Bins on Lighthouse Ave in New Monterey for a great selection of beers… especially Belgians. We picked up some awesome beers today.
It is already February and the Year in Beer is gearing up for San Francisco… After the great time we had in Alaska, we are looking forward to the YiB’s second installment.
San Francisco is special for a number of reasons. First of all, a significant event in craft brewing industry history happened in San Francisco in 1965; Fritz Maytag purchased the failing Anchor Brewery.
But on a more personal level, this trip is a homecoming. The Bay Area, specifically Oakland, was home for ten years. It is where we went to University and, more importantly, it is where our craft beer education began. So, it was only natural that the YiB would stop in San Francisco.
We will be joined in San Francisco by a host of people; our friend Rowdy who, as you know from my bio, is yoda in our beer story. Also, our friend Chris Devlin makes his YiB debut… the first of at least three… maybe four appearances. And some of our new friends from Alaska are coming down. Plus, there will be a whole cast of characters from our years living there.
We will be in the City February 14th-18th. The week is collectively known as “Beerapalooza” and this is how our schedule is looking right now:
In between, I want to check out a couple of new breweries… hit some of my old favorites like Triple Rock… check out the 3 new Belgian beer bars… and… and…
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that on top of all I mentioned above, February is Strong Beer Month in San Francisco. Put on by 21st Amendment Brewery and Magnolia Pub and Brewery, each will be pouring 6 different strong beers during the month (or more likely, until the beers run out). Drink all 12 and get a commemorative glass.
With everything else happening, I seriously doubt I will drink all 12 over the four days we are in San Francisco, but there are few a definitely I want to try. So, I’ll have to settle for buying a commemorative shirt instead of earning the commemorative glass.
Saturday began slowly, as we needed to recover from the night before. Plus we didn’t really have anywhere to be until the festival began at 2pm.
We took a walk with Matt and Michelle checking out some of the sites of downtown Anchorage. I also wanted to go to this one liquor store so I could buy some Alaskan beer for our tasting.
Merideth was able to do some birdwatching and saw what she was looking for; a waxwing.
It was a mostly clear day, so I have to say that the view from the Captain Cook monument was quite impressive. Your history lesson for the day… Captain Cook is credited with first exploring and describing the Anchorage area in 1778.
For lunch, we made our first visit to Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse, the famous beer bar in downtown Anchorage. Opened in 1994, Humpy’s was the first champion of Alaskan beer and has an impressive selection. Merideth says forget the highly recommended halibut tacos and get the crab roll. Moreover, one of the owners, Billy Opinsky, had the original idea to hold an Alaskan beer festival.
With a few beers and some food under our belts, it was time to get back to the festival.
There were two sessions on Saturday… we only went to the afternoon “connoisseurs” session where there were special beers not available at the other sessions. The most notable was a 1996 Smoked Porter from Alaskan.
Again, we hung out with Matt, Michelle, Jason and Kristina… and met up with our new Alaskan friends as well. And of course, we hobnobbed with all the beer people.
As for the beer…
Served from a firkin, the Anacortes Fresh Hop Imperial IPA might have been the best beer at the festival…
Other notables….Oaked Yeti from Great Divide, a Belgian Dark from Homer, Milk Stout from Left Hand, 2005 Darth Delerium from Moose’s Tooth, 2005 Epic Ale from Roots. And all the stuff from Midnight Sun, especially the seven deadly sins series.
As for the 1996 Alaskan Smoked Porter, it was being served way too cold [The brewery representative said they did it to keep down foaming] so it was difficult to get any flavors out of it. There was more smoke aroma than flavor. I had a 2005 recently that I enjoyed much more.
Now it was time to volunteer, though instead of bread cutting, we filled water pitchers and wiped down the tables between the sessions. All told, we did about 45 minutes of work; well worth it for the free admission.
Our final thoughts on the festival .. wow! A lot of credit has to go to Annie Chavez and Aurora Productions plus the Great Northern Brewers Club for putting on almost flawless events.
We finished up the night back at Humpy’s, drank a few beers and did something really strange; we decided to call it an early night.
Sunday, my birthday, began with a brewers breakfast at Café Amsterdam, the newest and best beer bar in Anchorage. Café Amsterdam is amazing… The best Alaskan beers plus a great selection of lower 48 craft beer and Belgians. We spent several hours there with Matt and Michelle, shooting the breeze with our Alaskan friends. Thanks to Ken and Shauna, the owners of Café Amsterdam, for their hospitality.
For my birthday dinner, we returned to Glacier Brewhouse and Merideth was nice enough to let we wallop her in scrabble. It was my birthday after all.
We would like to thank the following people for making the first trip of the Year in Beer a memorable one… Matt and Michelle… Jim aka “Dr. Fermento”… Annie Chavez… Mike from Celestial Meads… Don and Tracey… Ken and Shauna Pajak… Jason and Kristina…
When we were leaving the house yesterday at 3am, we saw a mountain lion a quarter of mile from our house. While mountain lions are common where we live, seeing one is not. Ever the optimist, I took this as a good omen that our Alaska trip was going to be something special. And if our first day is a good measure, it will be.
We arrived in Anchorage safe and sound around 1pm yesterday and by 2pm, we were happily ensconced at the Glacier Brewhouse enjoying some great beer and food.
I have to admit my whole concept of pacing myself and taking it easy went out the window fairly quickly. With our taster set done, my first pint was a cask version of their Double IPA. I’m sucker for anything on cask. Between the sampler and pints, we tried 8 different Glacier Brewhouse brews; all good and several brilliant.
The staff was quite friendly and we learned a lot about growing up and living in Alaska from our bartender, J.C., who is a 4th generation Alaskan. His great grandparents came to Alaska early last century during one of the gold rushes.
With renewed energy and a slight buzz, we walked around downtown Anchorage a bit. The cold limited our walk to a short one and the low cloud cover obscured the mountains that surround the city. Hopefully, there will be a clear day coming up so we can really see the natural beauty of Anchorage.
The double highlight of the evening was at Snow Goose Restaurant/Sleeping Lady Brewery which is conveniently a block from our hotel.
Prior to coming to Alaska, I contacted Jim Roberts, who covers the Alaska beer scene for the Celebrator Beer News. Besides providing a load of helpful information, he also invited us to the events that we went to last night.
The first event was the unveiling of special beer…. an imperial stout that was dedicated to the memory of Jim’s son-in-law who died in Iraq last January 20th. Proceeds from the sale of the beer go to erecting a memorial to 53 soldiers from the local army unit who died in Iraq. To say that this was a powerful and sobering moment is an understatement.
Following the beer unveiling, we went downstairs for a meeting of the Great Northern Brewers Club. If you have never been to a homebrew club meeting… find one and go because they are loads of fun. Last night, the GNBC members brought snacks and their latest homebrews, making it a great big beer and food potluck.
We met a very nice couple, Don and Tracey who were lower 48ers until a job brought them to Anchorage. Besides being homebrewers, they also made some great caribou summer sausage and moose salami.
The featured speaker was Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head. He gave a spirited and entertaining account of the history of Dogfish and their beers.
As the meeting was winding down, the long day finally caught up to me and realizing we were here for four days, I decided it was best to call it a night.
I want to thank all the friendly Alaskans we met yesterday… J.C. the bartender and Kevin the brewer from Glacier Brewhouse, Don, Tracey, Mike from Celestial Meads and especially Dr. Fermento himself, Jim.
So, the Year in Beer is off and running and if the first day is any indication, the year is going to be a great and wonderful journey.