DrFermento.Net

If my blog seems a little unorganized and choppy this time, don’t blame the tryptophan or my post-prandial narcolepsy, or even booze-induced sloppiness.  I had a great run on this week’s piece with Pulitzer-winning commentary and literary style, but I lost the thumb drive with the blog on it and had to start over.  The loss of the thumb drive may or may not be alcohol-related. 

 

The holidays are here and just for the record, I’m a real bah-humbug kind of guy.  I’m working on it, but up until now, holidays have been nothing more than an interruption in my flow.  I’m too close to a computer to keep my fingers off the keyboard, and too close to the 9-5 job to stay away.  I’m one of those Type-A animals that feels guilty when not doing something.  Another factor is that I don’t watch TV, and holidays usually equate to a ton of couch time, so I avoid that by getting on the computer and writing or working.  Can you get a sense of the downward spiral?  Sometimes I combat the malady with good beer.  I do use the flex time to visit local bars and breweries, so that’s a plus.  Then, when I get home and get on the computer, voila!  You get blog material.  It’s not all bad, then, I guess. 

 

An article in the November 21, 2007 Anchorage Remaining Daily reminded me that there’s a program for the more mobile over-imbibers that get behind the wheel not because they want to drive home drunk but because they can’t dream of parting with their precious hunk of status symbol: their automobile.  The Alaska Cabaret, Hotel and Restaurant Association (CHARR) launched a hugely successful program last year called the Off The Road Program.  Here’s how it works.  You end up getting faced at a participating establishment (listed below) and know you’re looking at slammer time if you try to drive home.  Instead, you hit up the barkeep for a cab, but make it clear you want your vehicle to get home as well.  The barkeep notifies the cab company of this and the cab company sends a cab with two drivers; one for you and one for your precious ride.  The driver of your ride drives you and your vehicle home, and the other one picks up the driver at your place when you arrive.  This costs the bar an additional $10.00.  CHARR, along with the other sponsors very graciously pick up the tab.  Service is broad, but don’t abuse it by trying to get someone to drive you to Seward or even the Valley.  The service extends  between Rabbit Creek road to the south and Ft. Richardson to the North.  It’s available 7 days a week between the hours of 10:00 AM (just in case you pulled an all-nighter or brown bagged your way to work) and 3:00 AM, which is after most legal establishments close down anyway.  Kudos to CHARR and the participating bars.  And, if you’re a bar or establishment owner that  serves alcohol and doesn’t participate in this program, shame shame.   Here are the establishments:

 

Al’s Sports Bar, The Avenue bar, Bear Tooth, Bernie’s Bungalow Lounge, Blues Central, The Bradley House, The Buckaroo Club, Carpentier’s Lounge, Casa Grande, Chilkoot Charlie’s, Club Oasis, Crossroads Lounge, Darwin’s Theory, Eddie’s Sports Bar, F Street Station, Gaslight Lounge, George’s Homestead, Glacier Brewhouse, Great Alaska Bush Co., Hacienda, Jen’s Restaurant, Longbranch Saloon, Moose’s Tooth, Office Lounge, Orso, The Petroleum Club, Pioneer Bar, Reilly’s, Romano’s, Rumrunners, The Panhandle, Time Out, The Shed, Anchorage Moose Family Center, American Legion Post 28, Fraternal Order of the Eagles 4207 and VFW posts 10252 and 9981.

 

 

Kenai Penninsula beers continue to migrate north to Anchorage.  Kassik’s Kenai River Brew Stop is now on tap at Tap Root Café in South Anchorage.  This is noteworthy from the standpoint that brewer Frank Kassik and his wife Debra self-distribute and drive up from Kenai to service their accounts.  Adding more lines in Anchorage means more time in town, but the beer lover comes out ahead.  On Monday afternoon, Kassik “installed” Roughneck Stout and Beaver Tail Blonde.  This will help round out an increasingly local selection at Tap Root.  While chatting with Frank, he mentioned a Christmas event on the Peninsula if you happen to be reading from there or are headed that way over the holidays.  Kasskik’s beer will be featured at a December 21 Christmas party at the Rainbow Bar in Kenai.  “We’ll be serving the beers,” explained Kassik.  “It’s come as you are or come as your favorite Christmas character or Christmas present.”  I can see a lot of room for creativity at this gig.  It’s casual, there will be live music and there’s no cover charge. 

 

Kodiak Island Brewing Company has a Belgian-style wit perking away.  Shelikof Imperial Stout is on tap at the brewery, as is the Oktoberfest and some delicious-sounding Imperial Sunshine (similar to a double IPA).  “We’re offering that in both regular and Hop Infused with a Randall-like hop filter,” explained brewer Ben Millstein.  Other beers that are pouring at the brewery and surrounding areas include North Pacific Ale (Scottish) and Sweet Georgia Brown.  We’ve been lucky to get a little of the Sweet Georgia Brown on tap at Café Amsterdam and I hope the trend continues.  It’s great to get beer from out of town.  I tried to get to Kodiak this fall, but couldn’t pull it off.  The next beer waiting for a handle down there is Island Fog Barley Wine.  Millstein will be busting out a couple of different vintages for comparison sake.  Hopefully we’ll see some of this at the January 2008 Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival

 

There’s more great news from Southeastern Alaska.  Quietly, in the background, Skagway Brewing Company is rising from the ashes, thanks to the efforts of Mike Healy, the new owner/operator of the establishment.  I don’t have details on the brewery’s history, but by 2003, the summer-only brewery closed down and the tanks remained scuttled until Healy’s recent interest.  The previous owner kept the idle brand alive through T-shirt and other brewery nomenclature items all the way up until 2007 when Healy bought the brewery name, and most notably the 4 bbl. Elliot Bay equipment that was installed as far back as when our own Dawnell Smith (beer columnist for the Anchorage Daily News) brewed there during the summers.  Everything was eventually relocated from the original establishment to Healy’s place on 7^th and Broadway in Skagway and the typical brewer’s bane of construction, permitting and countless other fettering delays held the brewery’s re-open until Fourth of July this year.  That’s hardly fatal, but it’s late in a tourist-driven, finance-infusing short season.  The first beers to delight locals and tourists alike didn’t show up until mid August and included Red Star Amber  and  Sprucetip Ale.  A pale, brown and porter followed.  Although Healy’s intentions are to make the brewery establishment a year-round operation, the brewery is currently closed while Healy and his staff tweak things with a late March 2008 opening. 

Skagway is rich in Alaska’s defining history which undoubtedly included beer to water the thirsty miners as they arrived here with intentions of crossing Chilkoot Pass (out of Skagway) into the rich gold fields of the interior (Alaska) and Canada’s Yukon.  My first visit was in 1993 or 1994 when I attended the very first Haines Brewer’s Festival and jerked the kids out of school for a Memorial Day (770 mile one-way) jaunt from Anchorage to Haines with a diversion to Skagway.  We put our little 20’ motorhome on the ferry and took the short jaunt from Haines to Skagway.  I remember having a beer between my legs when I drove both ON and OFF the ferry and listened to the ass end of the rig scrape when I made the incline from dock to boat and vice versa.  Once settled in to a not-so-quiet campground in town, we took off and explored the small confines of this rustic town.  I’d pay big bucks today to have all of the names of the historic bottles of beers prominently displayed in a store front close to the docks.  It reminded me of not only how rich, but tenuous defining beer history is in Alaska. 

 

Not to digress, but I wandered the town and was amazed that behind the façade of tourism that defined the place even back then, just one block off the main street in either direction peeled back layers of history and historic, ramshackle cabins and buildings remained much as they were at the turn of the century.  I took the kids out to the graveyard where Soapy Smith and other notorious notables of the time are buried.  From there, it got hazy and indistinct because I was invited to a private party outside of town with then Inlet Distributors and owner Illya Pekich.  I’ve never been back, but long to revisit, and now that there’s an operating brewery again, the bait is even more tempting. 

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Alaskan Brewing Company refuses to rest.  We hear a lot of local accolades for their beer, but their glory has been and continues to be global, especially when it comes to Alaskan Smoked Porter.  On November 15^th, the smoked porter pulled a bronze medal in the smoked beer category in the European Beer Star Awards in Nuremberg, Germany.  What’s noteworthy is that Germany is the undisputed cradle of rauchbier and our own local beer beat out many other local and international contenders.  The 2007 version is on the shelves now and on draught at select locations.  For the first time, if you’re savvy, you can pit this beer against a world benchmark, Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen from Bamberg, Germany because it’s on tap at both Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse and Café Amsterdam.  The beers are distinctly different, but both are hallmarks within the rauchbier style.  Alaskan’s smoke character rests on a darker porter where Schlenkerla’s is on a Marzen.  One’s an ale and one’s a lager.  Both have different roots and intentions, but they’re similar because the old-world technique of smoking grain over open fire is used to define each.  Alaskan’s example is heavy, oily and robust in smoke.  Schlenkerla’s is more subtle and balanced, but this is no indictment on Alaskan’s part.  Aggressiveness is never a defect as long as it’s intended, featured and the base beer finds its way to the palate. No matter.  No one can argue that Alaskan Smoked Porter is the most award-winning beer in the history of the Great American Beer Festival and pulled TWO awards this year at that event.  Alaskan’s 2004 version pulled a bronze medal in the aged beer category and 2007 version pulled a silver in the smoked beer category.  The way I look at it, the age-old adage of “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em” applies, and with two world-class beers on tap in town, you’d be remiss if you didn’t take up the habit. 

 

Alaskan Brewing Company is also preparing to release it’s Alaskan Barley Wine in January, 2008 in conjunction with the Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival.  Did the name catch you off guard?  Did you want to correct me and say “No, Fermento, that’s Alaskan’s Big Nugget Barley Wine?  I was corrected by Alaskan after a recent blog called the beer Big Nugget.  The two beers are different.  Still, media releases cite earlier accolades such as the silvers garnered 2003 Great American Beer Festival and the 2004 Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival and a first place at Toronodo this year in February.  I don’t know what to expect in January, other than continued, spruce-inspired greatness, so the jury is out.  Anticipation is always a good thing.  This year, for the first time, the “whatever” Alaskan Barley Wine will emerge not only wrapped in steel, but wrapped in convenient 22 ounce bomber bottles, something that will allow vintage aging for the first time.  I’m excited about this because I collect barley wines just like I collect Alaskan Smoked Porter.  It will be nice to finally amass a collection of year-after-year greatness in my coveted high-alcohol cellar. 

 

The heavily anticipated Tap Root Café Christmas Beer Tasting looms ahead and the featured beers have been announced.  On November 26^th (Monday) at 7 PM expect Dupont Apple Cider (4.5 percent), Ridgeway’s Bad Elf (7.5 percent), Delirium Noel (10 percent), Dupont Saison (9 percent), and a “Brown Bag Special” that weighs in at 12 percent.  Does this sound like a designated driver event?  Good call. Plan ahead.  Santa’s going to visit the event and you can guess that the gifts might be beer related.  The cost is $30.00 and well worth it. 

 

I ducked into Café Amsterdam on Wednesday night for a quick pint (three) before a business meeting.  Whatever happened to the two cocktail lunch, anyway?  The meeting was at 5:00 PM at a bar anyway, and although it was business-oriented, this particular type of meeting usually involved a couple of pitchers of beer, so preloading wasn’t a problem.  Why am I defending myself.  I enjoyed an Elysian Night Owl Porter,  a Homer Brewing Company Harvest Rye Ale, and a quickly tapped Scaldis Noel.  Each was noteworthy in its own respect.  I found the Elysian pumpkin porter evenly balanced and not overdone for the style, which I think is a plus.  Regular readers understand that I don’t think it’s spicing alone that makes a good pumpkin beer; the base beer has to show its true colors and I think Night Owl did this admirably.  The Homer Harvest Rye was a very interesting beer.  Distinct tart notes emanated forth in both the nose and taste.  The overall fruity beer was pleasant and contrasting to the other beers on the line.  The best part is that it was from Homer Brewing Company, an establishment that has the compassion to share their fermented riches with Anchorage only because they care to haul the beer up this way when someone’s caring enough to bring it along for reasons other that marketing and distributorship.  Thanks Homer! 

 

The Scaldis Noel was formidable.  While sitting at the bar with an impromptu collection of great friends including Ed and Cyndi Harrington, James (one of the Specialty Imports drivers, and therefore a true purveyor of great beer), Dr. Jim Hitchcock, a valley resident with a true penchant for great beer, Debbie Grecco, my beer confidant and co-researcher and Mike Kiker from Celestial Meads, Scaldis was put on tap and Ken Pajak poured small samples for everyone to try.  It was a defining moment that all of us commented on.  The 12.5 percent knee-knocker made its presence immediately known in both the boozy aroma and throat-warming booze wash on top of the rich flavors that only Scaldis can provide.  I hate to quote myself, but I recall saying “I didn’t know I’d need a HAZMAT certification and a (fuel) tanker endorsement to drink this beer.” The sensation was fleeting, however, and a second, full glass revealed a rich compendium of malt, spice, fruit and dangerous warming alcohol that was lost in the center of the beer. 

There’s something about good friends drinking good beer in a good establishment where you feel welcome and respected through the common bond of a beverage that defines our collective lives.  I guess what I’m getting at is that I knew I was going to be late to the meeting, but I didn’t care.  In the end, I was only five minutes late and the key player was later than I was with a lesser excuse, so all was good.  The remaining tap line at Café as of Wednesday (November 21) included:

 

Chimay Cinq Cents

Grotton Brown

Alaskan Brewing Company  Winter Ale (awesome this year)

Midnight Sun Brewing Company CoHoHo Imperial IPA

Full Sail Wreck The Halls

Full Sail  Topsail Imperial Porter

Ring of Fire Meadery Razz-Pome Cider

Magner’s Irish Cider

Elysian Brewing Company Night Owl Pumpkin Porter

Homer Brewing Company’s Harvest Rye

Scaldis Noel

Unibroue Ephemre (Cranberry)

 

Just in case you don’t notice it on the calendar below, Café Amsterdam’s added another event worthy of your palate.  On December 01 from 6-9 PM, drop in and dip into the featured firkin of The Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewing Company’s Cask Conditioned American Strong Ale.  The beer will be served with “light, tasty foods.” 

 

Look for a full compendium of Celestial Meads at Café Amsterdam including Belgique, a sweet mead with coriander and bitter orange peel; Desire, a semi-sweetmead with desert flower honeys (mesquite, acacia, and cat’s claw); Gunnlod’s Tears, a dry mead; Gingerly, a mead made with fresh ginger and red currants; Burning Sappho, a semi-sweet mead made with pure, raw black honey; and Luz del Sol, a semi-sweet mead made with puere orange blossom honey.  These artfully brewed meads are carefully aged and simply beautiful in the glass and across the palate. 

 

Are you a home mead maker?  Then you should probably know about the 2008 International Mead Festival and the International Home Mead Maker Competition.  The festival is slated for February 8^th and 9^th in Denver, Colorado.  This is the biggest mead competition in the world.  The two day event features public, private and connoisseur tasting sessions and both a commercial and home mead competition.  This is the third year of the event and every year, it grows by leaps and bounds, attesting to this ancient beverage’s resurgence into the modern world.  Just here in sparsely populated Alaska, we have to commercial meaderies cranking out the goods on a daily basis.  Ring of Fire Meadery in Homer and Celestial Meads in Anchorage are making products that are finding their way on to the liquor store shelves, into restaurants and increasingly into our hearts.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not personally crazy about mead myself, but have tasted some mighty fine meads from both establishments.  Maybe I just need to find my niche in the product line because I do enjoy some of the stuff. But I digress. 

 

The deadline for entering your home made mead in the competition that’s associated with the festival is December 15, 2007.  To obtain the full details on how, when and where to enter, visit the competition website at www.hmmc.meadfest.com.  Plan ahead to both enter the competition and attend the festival.  This is something you can take your honey to. 

 

I had the somewhat unique opportunity to make beer in a commercial brewery on Friday (11/23).  I say “somewhat” because even as a mere mortal, it’s easy to participate in brewing commercial beer.  All you have to do is ask; breweries enjoy sharing the passion of their life.  Amazingly, I’ve passed up many opportunities to do so, but it finally happened thanks to The Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewing Company and under the tutelage of brewers Clay Brackley and Greg Mills.  Here’s the deal.  A year ago on January 20^th, during the Great Alaskan Beer and Barleywine Festival (GABBF) I learned that my son in law, Jeffrey Bisson, was killed in action in Iraq.  Fast forward to now, and the gal with the biggest heart in the universe, Lisa Urban came up with the idea that we needed to do a memorial beer in Jeff’s honor.  Dennis Urban (the creator of the Goose’s Urban Wilderness English Pale Ale) designed the recipe and Gary Klopfer, owner of the Goose honorably donated the ingredients and his brewer’s time to make it happen.  It became very quickly apparent that this big beer needed to honor not only Jeff but all of the fallen soldiers from his unit, the 425^th Infantry Brigade (Airborne).  When Jeff graced my daughter’s life, he wasn’t much of a beer drinker, and by that I mean he hadn’t yet discovered “real” beer.  But, the man drank Guinness (and I’m not implying that Guinness isn’t a real beer).  He had potential.  In the short couple of months before he deployed to Iraq, I twisted his liver into submission with increasingly diverse and high-quality beers.  I demonstrated that Guinness, despite being Mother’s Milk, wasn’t the only name in stout.  I assaulted his palate with an armada of selections including Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s Mammoth Stout, The Moose’s Tooth’s Pipeline Stout, Glacier Brewhouse’s Oatmeal Stout, Alaskan Brewing Company’s Stout and other national and international brands.  Jeff became bigger in beer and to commemorate him, we brewed an Imperial Stout at the Goose.  This huge beer (it should exceed nine percent alcohol) is in the fermenter and the only thing left undone is naming the beer. 

 

The 425^th’s Brigade name is The Spartans,” so this has to factor in.  We lost a lot of soldiers out of this unit, so something along the lines of “fallen” or “lost” should factor in.  Seems grim. It is.  I don’t know if it’s exclusive to Jeff, but the saying that was repeated time after time after his passing was “Blue Skies Forever.”  I can’t even come up with names for my own weekly Anchorage Press column, so I need help on this as well.  Any ideas?  Let me know.  The beer will be released in conjunction with the 2008 Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival so there’s some time. 

 

The experience of brewing commercially is memorable.  I’ve brewed (literally) hundreds of batches of homerew on a medium-sized, ramshackle brewing system, but I was unprepared for scaling a beer up 300 percent for commercial production.  Dennis Urban created the recipe and is familiar enough with the Goose’s system to adjust a homebrew recipe that would work.  Just for the record, scaling up a homebrew recipe for commercial production isn’t as simple as doing the math.  The conversion is beyond being simply logarithmic  Hops, for one, work differently in bigger batches.  And, rather than use a garden hose to fill the hot liquor tank, feed the brewkettle and enable the sparge, a complex system of pipes, valves, pumps and electronic controls watered the monstrous beer.   Clay and Greg handled this with the ease of an orchestra conductor.   I tried to keep up but even my eyes couldn’t keep pace with their adept hands as they pulled and twisted hoses, clamped and unclamped connections  and fiddled with the controls.  We brewed an imperial stout.  The sacrifice of our soldiers is far more than imperial, but I deem this a fitting beer.  Anticipate it’s release. Proceeds will go to the Spartan Memorial, which is an edifice that is being designed to anchor the 425^th’s souls that didn’t come back with the rest of the Brigade. 

 

While at the Goose, I got a pre-release sample of a braggot designed and brewed by Clay and Greg.  I’m not a mead kind of guy (re: a couple of paragraphs ago) and braggot falls within the broad diversity of mead substyles listed within the BJCP categories.  I didn’t have high hopes for the sample, but I was immediately smitten. I haven’t decided yet what’s going to be kicked out of my Desert Island Six Pack (DISP) for this, um, well beer(??), but something will.  Look for coverage of this beer in Thursday’s Anchorage Press.

 

Ms. Fermento is always looking out for my professional interest and when she finds something “beer,” she buys and brings it to me for evaluation.  Recently, she was at the grocery store and chanced across Kettle Brand Chedder Beer potato chips.  Usually, I’ll take my time and critically evaluate products, but this would be the first time I had to devote my Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) palate to potato chips.  Using the disciplined approach to evaluation that I learned in the BJCP, I worked through the chip’s aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression.  Only, I didn’t get that far. Suffice to say, without wasting any more of your critical eyeball life, these chips suck.  Just don’t go there.  There’s nothing at all about these chips that would remind you of beer.  In fact, it’s worse than that.  This shit gives beer a bad name.  Boycott it.  ‘Nuff said.

 

It’s a bit dated, but here’s the Hump’s  lineup as of November 20^th:

 

Wheats / Fruits

        Moose’s Tooth Wild Country Raspberry Wheat

        Pyramid Apricot

        Pyramid Hefeweisen

        Lindemans Framboise ###

        Spire Mt. Apple Cider #

       

Golden Ales / Pilseners / California Common

        Kassik’s Brew Stop Beaver Tail Blond

        Midnight Sun Gold Strike Kolsch

        Kona Longboard Lager

        Oregon Honey by Portland Brewing

        Strubbe Pilsner Lager *

       

Pale Ales / E.S.B.’s (medium hop bitterness)

        Alaskan Pale Ale

        Moose’s Tooth Polar Pale Ale (by 6 pm)

        Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

        Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

        Homer Kings & Wings E.S.B.

       

India Pale Ales (med - high hop bitterness)

        Humpy’s Sockeye Red by Midnight Sun

        Moose’s Tooth Fairweather I.P.A.

        Avery I.P.A.

        Dogfish Head 90 Minute I.P.A. # (9%)

        Elysian Avatar Jasmine I.P.A.

        Fish Tail Organic I.P.A.

       

Belgian Ales

        St. Bernardus Grotten Brown ###

Strong Belgian Ales (Alcohol by Volume over 7.5%)

        Midnight Sun Sloth Belgian Imperial Stout  ### (10.2%)

        Chimay Cing Cents Triple #### (8%)

        Delirium Tremens ### (8.5%)

        Gouden Carolus Classic ### (8%)

        Pater Lieven Triple ### (8%)

        Pike St. Monk’s Uncle Triple # (9%)

        Unibroue Maudite ## (8%)

Seasonal / Special

        Homer Holiday Rye Lager

           Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier ## (Smoked Marzen)

        Rogue’s Dad’s Little Helper Malt Liquor # (8%)

        Stone’s Double Bastard Ale ## (10%)

Barley Wines        

        Deschutes Mirror Mirror Barley Wine ## (8%)

        Ipso Facto Barley Wine 2002 ed.  ### (10.5%)

Amber Ales / Bocks / Dopplebocks / Scottish
        Alaskan Amber Ale

        Midnight Sun Oosik Amber

        Silver Gulch Copper Creek Amber

        Kassik’s Brew Stop Caribou Kilt Strong Scotch # (8.5%)

        Mac Tarnahan’s Scottish Ale

       

Brown Ales

        Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown Ale

        Newcastle Brown Ale *

Porters / Stouts

        Moose’s Tooth Smokin’  Willie Smoked Porter

                           (GABF Bronze Medal Winner)

        Deschutes Black Butte Porter

        Sleeping Lady Russian Imperial Stout (7%)

        Pike St. 5X Extra Stout (7%)

        Guinness Stout *

Christmas Special Ales  

        Alaskan Winter Ale

        Midnight Sun Cohoho Imperial I.P.A. # (8%)

        Avery Old Jubilation # (8%)

        Blue Moon Full Moon Winter Ale

        Full Sail Wassail

        Pyramid Snowcap

        St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel 2005 ### (8.5%)

                                 8 oz glass $6.50/ 13 oz glass $9.50

Dr Fermento Beer Calendar

 

 

11/26/07          Tap Root Café                                     Christmas Beer Tasting                                                             7:00 PM          $30.00

11/29/07          SubZero Microlounge                           MSBC Pride Pre-Release Party                                                7 – 9 PM         Pay As You Go

11/29/07          Brouwer’s Café (Seattle)                      Big Wood Festival                                                                    ??                     $$??

11/30/07          Arctic Brewing Supply                          Bigfish Homebrew Competition Entries Due                              10:00 AM        $$ Per Entry

11/30/07          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Pride Belgian Style Strong Pale Ale Release                              6 – 9 PM         Free

12/01/07          SubZero Microlounge                           Bigfish Homebrew Competition Judging                                    10:00 AM        Free

12/01/07          Café Amsterdam                                  Sleeping Lady Brewing Company’s American Strong Ale          6-9 PM      Pay As You Go          

12/07/07          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Release of  MSBC Pilsnere                                                       6:00 pm            Free

12/07/07          Tap Root Café                                     Homer Brewing Company Beer Release                                   8:00 PM           $$??

12/08/07          Snow Goose Restaurant                       GNBC Christmas Party                                                            7:00 PM            $10.00

12/10/07          Glacier Brewhouse                               12 Days of Barleywine (12/10 – 12/21)                                    Daily                Pay As You Go

12/13/07          Sub Zero Microlounge                          MSBC Lust Pre-Release                                                          7 – 9 PM          Pay As You Go

12/14/07          Midnight Sun Brewing Company           Lust Belgian Style Dark Strong Ale Release                             6 – 9 PM         Free

12/15/07          2008 IMF Entries Due                          International Mead Maker Competition                                     Mail In             Per Entry

12/15/07          Café Amsterdam                                  MSBC Firkin Pilsner Party                                                       6:00 PM           Pay As You Go

12/29/07          Tap Root Café                                      MSBC Seven Deadly Sins Party                                              8:00 PM            $$??

01/18/07          Eagan Convention Center                     Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival                             4:00 PM            $30.00

01/19/07          Eagan convention Center                      Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival                             5:00 PM            $30.00

02/08/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Fur Rondy Homebrew Comp. Entries Accepted                        11:00 AM        $$ Per Entry

02/09/08          Snow Goose Restaurant                       Fur Rondy Homebrew Competition Judging                              10:00 AM        Free

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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