The Week In Beer
The only sports that are good sports are those sports that can be combined with beer. Oh, sure, I can postulate that any sport is a beer drinking sport because there’s no sport that can’t be watched while drinking a beer, but I’m not talking about spectator sports. I’m talking about physical things that you can actually participate in while drinking beer. This is crucial to me because as a whole, I hate sports.
Loyal readers of my weekly Anchorage Press beer column already know this. They also know that there are two sports that I consider beer drinking sports, but for different reasons. One sport is golf. I detest the entire concept of golf, but I participate in the sport because it’s a beer drinking sport. Beer drinking seems to be encouraged on the golf course, so it’s okay with me. That doesn’t mean that I would actually participate in the sport, but I’ll damned-straight (or not so straight) drive the beer cart, and that’s exactly what I’ll be doing on August 4th at the combined Humpy’s/GNBC Golf Tournament. Yeah, I know we’ve covered this ground in a previous blog, but it’s worthy of mention again. I’ll make it short. There are four beer beer carts. There is a Bloody Mary Hole sponsored by Stoli and Alaska Distributors. There may even be a Miller Girls hole. Pray for rain and we could get an impromptu wet T-shirt contest. Oh, sign up with a team of four or solo and you can golf if you want to. I’ll be serving beer. I love this because this is one of the only events where drinking and driving is encouraged. Email me or call me and I can get you registration crap. ‘Nuf said. Oh, just for the record, the other sport that so far I’ve acknowledged as a beer drinking sport is bowling. My score hits the top of the bell curve at two pitchers.
Homebrewers – Ira Edwards is moving and needs a hand. He’s baiting you by calling to your most basic instincts and chanting “Come eat my food and drink my beers!” The gig is on July 21 starting at 1 PM at Ira’s OLD house. I stressed that because any time I’ve been involved in a moving scenario that offers free beer, someone always shows up at the NEW house and wonder’s where the beer is. Someone help me out. Is moving a beer drinking sport? With Ira involved, I’m sure it will be. The nice thing about helping people move is that you don’t need a functioning brain. You just need a strong back and the ability to understand a few basic guttural commands like “Over there,” “ Careful!,” “Easy on the walls,” and stuff like that. The worst thing about combining the act of helping someone move and the act of actively consuming beer is that the risk of losing your beer is logarithmically greater than in any other sport because you have to set a beer down before you pick up a refrigerator or a drawer full of someone else’s undergarments.. Ira swears there are no stairs at either the losing or gaining dwelling. He’s going to feed you too. He’s boasting moose and elk steaks, moose and elk sausages and his own Irish Stout, Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, IPA Rye Ale, Oak Aged Rye Ale and others on tap. Hey, his crawl space has to be evacuated and you KNOW there are some good fermenteds down there. This guy makes a ton of fermented cider. Need I say more? Show up at 1500 Beaver Place off of Debarr (between Boniface and Turpin) around 1 PM (ample time to sleep off Friday night’s buzz) and work up a thirst. Ira says that if you have a truck, that would be great. I guess if you have a semi or other tractor-trailer rig and a forklift, that might be better, but that’s my assumption, not his. The after party at the new place (8800 Solar Drive) should rock, but don’t be lame and not help move and crash the party, although I’m sure that would be fine with Ira. Call him at 440-9112 and RSVP your back and your liver.
I was jazzed to see the return of the beer dinner in Anchorage this spring with both Tap Root and Kinley’s tossing out a gig, but beer dinners have tapered off of late. Some aspiring culinary artists have taken matters into their own hands with a loosely organized gathering of folks that like to host such gigs at various homes around town. Julie McDonald is a seasoned epicurean that’s hosted beer dinners at her house and then enticed others to open their homes for the same. Roughly once a month, you can sign up to bring a dish and beer and gather with other (primarily) homebrewers and share your wares at these informal, casual theme food parties. The dinners are limited to a dozen or so people and are 100 percent RSVP for planning purposes. This month’s gig is at homebrewer Kerri Canepa’s house. The theme is Beers That Pair with Hot and Spicy Foods. According to McDonald, “…this doesn’t mean that spicy has to equal hot. There are some awesome spicy dishes out there that have no heat at all. Be creative. Beer choices can be anything you feel compliments, cuts or contrasts well with your chosen dish.” Email Julie at juzy@gci.net to get involved. There are currently six spots left at this month’s event.
Over at Midnight Sun Brewing Company, the Double IPA is out, as is the Double Wheat. I can’t figure out where this little beehive of a brewery finds the time and cooperage to keep cranking out all this interesting stuff. Don’t forget that the Midnight Sun Poker Run is this Saturday at 1 PM starting at Humpy’s. Get yer tickets at Midnight Sun (or Humpy’s, Platinum Jaxx, the Avenue Bar, The Goose or McGinley’s) to participate. Cool prizes and a cool stroll around downtown Los Anchorage on a hopefully sunny afternoon. No matter the weather, good Midnight Sun beer will temper even the heaviest of downpours. Call (907) 344-1179 for details. Look for news about the next Firkin Saturday at Café Amsterdam later in the blog.
The hot news is that the Lagunitas Brewery (Petaluma, California) is inbound and should be here next week, and will more likely show up on shelves around the first of August. Look for the deput of Lagunitas IPA, Censored (copper ale) High Gravity Cream Ale, Maximus (imperial IPA) and Lucky 13 Anniversary Ale. John Burket over at ODOM continues to procure the goods for us and among others, twist your liver into submission with the likes of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, Great Divide’s Old Ruffian Barley Wine and Oak Aged Yeti (imperial stout), and the heavily anticipated Stone Brewing Company’s 7/7/7 Vertical Epic (Belgian-Style). Avery’s Samael’s (oak aged English Old Ale) is back and I see that Avery’s Karma is fixing to go on tap over at Café Amsterdam. Another note on Stone. Stone’s IPA is now available in six packs at our better grog shops. This enhances portability, which is big in my book since I prance around the state a lot on the weekends.
Did anyone get a chance to sample the Leipziger Gose when it made a brief appearance in the state recently? This is a top-fermented wheat beer accented with coriander, salt and some lactic acid. For the uninitiated, that probably sounds nasty, and although I haven’t tasted Leipziger Gose yet, I know better. This stuff only went out to La Bodega, Gold Hill Liquors in Ester (near Fairbanks), the Brown Jug Warehouse and Café Amsterdam. What sort of asses me up is apparently the neophytes out there bought it because of the killer-cool flattish, bulb-bottomed long neck bottles which prevented the true beer geeks like you and me from getting a sample. Rob Weller over at Specialty Imports thinks there may be more coming in the fall. I just got word that there are 10 remaining bottles in town, all of which reside over at Tap Root Café. This is obviously a byproduct of the collusion between Rebecca Mohlman and Pamela Hatzis at La Bodega, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m on my way. The other good news concerning Tap Root is that the café is projected to add 8-10 new tap lines in the next month or so. Woo Hoo! This stubbornly local café is destined to feature more great beer from around the state and that’s good news for the Hillsiders and others that are proximal to the Huffman road café or willing to make the trek for healthy organic food, good live tunes and of course great beer.
I visited Café Amsterdam last night, riding on Ms. Fermento’s coattails as she attended another Humpy’s/GNBC organizational meeting. I sat at the bar. I drank the venerable Avery 14 Anniversary Ale, a Belgian-style dark strong ale. This fruit-bomb’s genealogy shows in the dominant influence of the yeast which shows with big esters and the telltale Belgianesque nose. Delicate noble hops command equal attention under the beer’s frothy brown top hat that diminishes but holds. The brown lacing that’s left behind as the beer’s consumed is a sexy spider-web. Everything in the beer blends well, save a light dustiness that’s not at all inappropriate in the beer. It’s getting rave reviews and I’m sure it’s dripping away fast. It’s available in bottles as well, but the draught version is infinitely more interesting in my opinion. The other delight is Ayinger Brau Weisse on tap at Café. This style benchmark hefe was a dead ringer at 72 degrees in midtown last night and I downed the tall, perfectly poured sample in quick fashion. There were zero defects in this beer and if you go after it, don’t ruin it with a lemon. That may be appropriate in the source country and the practice has been immortalized by American barkeeps, but you’re better off drinking at least the first one naked (the beer that is, unless you’re entirely risqué). On the event horizon is the July 28 (6 PM) Firkin Saturday at Café Amsterdam featuring Midnight Sun’s Double Wheat. I don’t know who came up with it, (I suspect Barb Miller at Midnight Sun) but the reader board described it as “Not your grandfather’s Weisse Bier.” Gotta love that ‘tude, boys and girls!
Also on at Café are Chimay Triple, MSBC Greed, Alaskan’s Raspberry Stout, Hennepin Farmhouse Saison, Manger’s Irish Apple Cider, Delirium Tremens, Alaskan’s Boogie Bitter, Ring of Fire mead (didn’t see which one, sorry), Avery 14 Ale, Avery Karma and Avery Collaboration, Not Litigation Ale.
Christoff over at Humpy’s must have some good shit going because no update this week so far. I’ll slam out another blog if I hear from him later in the week. No news from the Goose or Glacier either. The Moose’s Tooth is posting a lot of “OUT” stickies on the menu board at the Pizzeria, which indicates to me that they’re struggling for fermenter space again. I drank Jack Straw Rye and Fairweather IPA there on Monday night.
If anyone can loop me through Silver Gulch, Haines, Kodiak Island, Great Bear and the remaining AK breweries, I’d love to share news with you and get it on the blog! If any of you cats from any of these places are reading this, get in touch!
BNC Fermento
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