DrFermento.Net

Local beer is making the news more these days than it has in the past.  This is important.  Beer and alcohol get a bad rap because it seems that the media rarely focuses on the positive aspects of social alcohol consumption and instead can’t seem to avoid looking at every tragedy from the standpoint of whether or not alcohol was a factor. 

I was very jazzed that Kodiak Island Brewing Company showed up on MSNBC with a story about it’s Russian imperial stout being a benefactor in preserving Russian history on the island with a dollar from every growler of beer sold going to the local historical society.  Baranov Bicentennial Russian Imperial Stout is a nod to the oldest Russian structure that’s still upright in the state. 

I got a lot of email traffic on the subject and I forwarded some to Ken Pajak over at Café Amsterdam knowing that he’d get on the horn and try to score us a 1/5 bbl of the dark elixir.  He’s doing just that.  The stuff is black, brooding at reasonably potent at 8 percent alcohol.  Knowing Kodiak Brewing, it’s delicious, but the jury’s out until we can wrest our ration from the island down south.

What’s bugging me, though, is that I know that breweries all over the nation donate a lot of time and resources to using beer for a good cause, but get scant credit for it.  Hopefully this is all starting to change.  You folks need to be my eyes and ears out there.  If you discover beer being used for a good purpose (other than just making YOU feel good) let me know; I’m sure it’s blog worthy. 

But the big news this week seems to be the dissolution of Alaska Distributors (AD) and the sale of the Brown Jug Liquor Store empire to a Canadian outfit.  Without going into the long, gory, boring details that really don’t matter anyway, the bottom line is that the distribution and retail of some of our favorite beers is changing, but all of this should be invisible to the consumer.  Alaska Distributors was bought out by another distributorship in Seattle (Alaska Distributors was based in Seattle, by the way) and the new company isn’t interested in the

I’m told by the beer guru at Odom, John Burkett, that not only is it Odom’s intention to retain the beer that AD was bringing in, but to bring in additional brands.  This is indeed good news. 

I’m sorry if I’m not providing the level of detail that would make all of this interesting, but as far as I’m concerned, none of this meets my writing objective of making you thirsty for good beer, so I’ll dispense with trying to figure it out and regurgitate it.  Much of it’s online, so Google out if it really interests you. 

Can you say honey, Honey?  Say it with a smile.  If you ferment it you get mead.  And if you’re Mike Kiker and Celestial Meads you make mead.  And if you like mead, plan on attending and open house on Saturday, August 2^nd from noon to 5:00 pm to celebrate National Mead Day.  In his usual hospitable way, Kiker’s not charging for the event, the samples or the snacks he provides. 

Mead Day is organized by the American Homebrewer’s Association out of

Some of the meads have been around and some are new.  The second batches of Rubyfruit and Odin’s Gift will be released at the event.  Cinnamon Girl is new. It’s a methyglyn made with gallberry honey from

This event will also celebrate the launch of the meadery’s new Special Reserve Series of meads.  The first release is Persephone’s Fate, a pomegranate melomel. It’s a knee-knockin’ 14 percent alcohol mead that’s been gracefully aging for over a year. 

I had a quick chat with Glacier Brewhouse brewer Kevin Burton the other day.  We have this game where we pick on each other for not being in touch more regularly.  He says I never come by and I tell him to find me parking.  That’s usually as far as it goes.  He concedes that it’s been incredibly busy with scarce time to crank out any specialty brews. 

Burton says he’s buried to the point where it’s tough to keep up with even the flagship beers at the brewery.  The immensely popular tourist destination keeps the taps wide open most of the time and

Burton and his assistant brewing double batches of beer almost every day.  He sounded tired.  I told him to have a beer.  “We’re catching up,” said

Burton.  “The Fourth of July week killed us.  I’m keeping up with the IPAs though, because that’s what I like to drink,” he said.  So, fight the hoards, get down there, fight for parking, fight your way in and fight for your shot at local beer.  Fight for

Burton’s attention in the brewery and shake his weary hand.  There may be some expansion plans in the works that could ease the burden on the under-horsepowered, over-utilized brewery.

The venerable La Bodega liquor store in the University Mall continues to provide you with the best in fermented goods, so drop by occasionally to see what’s new.  Featured this week is the return of Leffe Blonde an Abbey ale from Abbaye de Leffe of

Beer tastings have dropped off of late at the Tap Root Café, but good beer continues to abound, along with good music.  Currently on tap (as of Tuesday July 22) include a

If you want to go to the biggest beer party in the nation, the dates for this year’s Great American Beer Festival have been announced.  The event runs between Thursday, October 9^th and Saturday October 11^th.  Except for a special members-only session on Saturday, October 11^th, the gig runs between 5:30 pm – 10:00 pm.  The members-only session runs between 12:30 – 4:30 pm.  The event takes place at the

I’m one to talk.  I’ve yet to attend this festival.  I’ve also yet to attend Oktoberfest or visit

Everyone I’ve talked to that’s attended GABF says it’s a lot of fun, and much of that fun happens outside of the festival itself. Blog and Press followers know that I’ve been to

Still I’ve heard the festival itself can be fun.  There’s a You Be The Judge Booth where the public can judge a beer with a GABF judge or brewer.  Here you can match up impressions about a beer and learn a little bit about what goes into professionally evaluating a beer.  For the more experienced beer lovers, there’s the Pro-Am Competition and Pro-Am Booth.  This is a special professional/amateur competition that will be judged by th same judge panel that evaluates all GABF entries and the public can sample the entries during the festival.  There’s an Inside the Brewer’s Studio feature where interviews/podcast with beer luminaries in attendance at the event take place.  And, just for me, the GABF Silent Disco!.  Yup, you heard it right.  Get tanked upstairs, then enter this room, don headsets and twist under the disco ball while everyone around is listening to the same song on headsets as well.  Sounds like a hoot.  I’ll pass. 

This might be a good year to get the event off your list of things to do.  With the price of fuel and everything associated with it escalating, beer travel is getting more and more expensive.  Attendance prices haven’t been announced yet, but keep your mug to the wall and I’ll keep you in the loop.

Don’t forget the 12^th Anniversary Party at the Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria on Saturday, July 27^th starting at 5:00 pm and running into the wee hours.  Featured will be the anniversary Saison that I helped brew. Again, I can take scant credit for this beer; I pretty much stood around like an imbecile and distracted brewer Tyler

Here’s the Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse lineup for this week, as of Wednesday, July 23^rd.  Note that a limited version of the annual Christmas in July celebration is taking place until the goods run out.  There’s nothing really formal about the event other than that Humpy’s has this great habit of stashing bigger, heartier and lasting winter seasonal beers to be released in the summer.  This is sort of the modern-day equivalent of lagering beer, which means “to store” and came about before the advent of refrigeration when beers were brewed in the winter and spring to be released in the summer when it was too hot to brew.  I’m not sure that’s Humpy’s intent, but it sounds good, doesn’t it?  Pay attention to the bottom of the list and note that

Wheats / Fruits

(Local)             Alaskan Raspberry Wheat Ale

(Local) Moose’s Tooth Wild Country Raspberry Wheat

           Pyramid Apricot

           Pyramid Hefeweisen

           Lindemans Framboise ####

           Wittekerke Rose ##

(Local)             Celestial Meadery Southern Heat

            $13.50 for an 8 oz Glass

Golden Ales / Pilseners /

(Local)             Alaskan Summer Kolsch

(Local)             Midnight Sun Goldstrike Kolsch

(Local)             Silver Gulch

           Pilsner Urquell *

           Stella

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

(Local)             Alaskan Pale Ale

(Local)             Moose’s Tooth Polar Pale Ale

           Lagunitas ‘Censored’ Rich Copper Ale

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

(Local)             Humpy’s Sockeye Red I.P.A by Midnight Sun

(Local)             Moose’s Tooth Fairweather I.P.A.

           Elysian ‘Immortal’ I.P.A.

           Fish Tale Organic I.P.A.

           Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale

Belgian Ales

(Local) Alaskan Witbier Ale    

(Local) Midnight Sun Mercury Belgian Small Ale #

           Blue Moon Belgian White Wheat Ale

           Unibroue Blance De Chambly #

Strong Belgian Ales (Alcohol by Volume over 7.5%)

(Local) Midnight Sun ‘Panty Peeler”

            Belgian Triple # (8.5%)

           Avery Collaboration not Litigation Ale ## (8.72%)

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

           Delirium Tremens #### (8.5%)

           Dupont Foret Organic Saison #### (7.5%)

           Koningshoeven Quadruple #### (10%)

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

Barley Wine

(Local)             Alaskan Barley Wine # (10.4%)

Amber Ales / Bocks / Dopplebocks / Scottish
(Local)  Alaskan Amber Ale

(Local)             Midnight Sun Ooisk Amber

(Local)            

           Mac Tarnahan’s Scottish Ale

Brown Ales

(Local)             Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown Ale

           Full Sail Nut Brown Ale (Cask Conditioned) *

Porters / Stouts

(Local)             Kassik’s

(Local) Midnight Sun Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter

           Deschutes Black

(Local) Alaskan Oatmeal Stout

           Guinness Stout *** (on Nitro)

           Young’s Chocolate Stout ** (on Nitro)

Christmas In July

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

            Sierra Celebration

 Dr Fermento Beer Calendar

07/25/08         

07/26/08          GNBC/Humpy’s Golf Tournament        Moose Run Golf Course                                                           7:00 am        $350/Team

07/26/08          Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria           12^th Anniversary Party (Whipsaws/Wilco)                                 5:00 pm       $35.00

08/01/08          Riverboat Discovery II  (

08/02/08         

)        13^th Annual Summer Beer Festival                                            6:30-8:30 pm   $20.00

08/11/08         

08/12/08         

08/15/08         

08/16/08         

08/15/08         

08/17/08          Café Amsterdam                                  Anchortown Invitational Homebrew Competition Judging            10:00 am          Free

08/17/08         

09/20/08          Zymurgist Borealis Septemberfest         Chena Pump Campground (

09/26/08