It’s time to squash a rumor. Given the chaos surrounding last year’s Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival, rumors were circulating that there might not be an event this year. I’ll just cut to the chase. That ain’t true. Yes, things were somewhat in disarray last year, but you might not even know this because regardless, the show in the back was invisible to the consumer and that’s the way it should be. All of our local distributors and breweries are on board for this year’s event which is on the organizational stages at this point. The gig is slated for January 16th and 17th (Friday/Saturday) 2009.
As is the norm, the Great Northern Brewers homebrew club (GNBC) will be sponsoring and setting up the actual barley wine competition where entrants will vie for medals. If things go as they have in the past, expect tons of local beer all under one roof, perhaps a Connoisseur’s Session on Saturday afternoon, plenty of good music and the heavily anticipated announcement of the winning barley wine.
Tentatively, this year’s dignitary will be Joe Sixpack, (Don Russell) a beer columnist from the Philadelphia Daily News. Not only does this great satirist write about our favorite beverage, he’s a big advocated for craft beer in his community and beyond. If you want to check him out, hit http://www.joesixpack.net/ to see his goods. He was recommended by Tom Dalldorf, the publisher of The Celebrator Beer News, and if you know Tom, this guy’s got to be good, or at least goofy. 
As always, the event will be pulled off by volunteers and your help is already being solicited. More will follow as things shape up, but volunteering to help pour beer, proctor the judging or otherwise helping in the event will be rewarded by getting you in to the gig for free. Preliminarily, if you are interested in helping out, contact the event organizer, Aurora Productions at (907) 562-9911.
Mead lovers rejoice! The first ever all-mead tasting is taking place at Subzero Microlounge on November 19th at 6 pm. This tasting features six Celestial Meads samples paired with Humpy’s/Subzero fine cuisine artfully prepared by Master Chef Tim Farley. Here’s the evening’s line up:
1st Mead: Virgin mead from Celestial Meads’ base stock collection
2nd Mead: Burning Sappho, a semi-sweet mead (11 percent alcohol) paired with a Pear and Chevre Salad featuring fresh pears and roasted sugar beets with baby spinach, arugula and watercress tossed in Burning Sappho Vinaigrette and finished with Chevre cheese.
3rd Mead: Miel Noir, a Special Reserve release, a sweet melomel at 12 percent alcohol, paired with a Black Currant Crepe. This French crepe is stuffed with Miel Noir plumped black currant whipped cream. It rests in a pool of black currant coulis and is finished with fresh blackberries. Can you say “Yum”?
Palate Cleanser: Celsetial Meads Apple Cyser. This is paired up with baked green apple slices with Cambazola cheese on sliced baguettes.
4th Mead: Starry Night. This will be paired with a Classic Duck Phon Soup, which is roasted duck soup with parsnips and root vegetables.
5th Mead: Scheherazade, a semi-sweet spiced melomel (12 percent alcohol) which is paired with the tasting’s entrée: succulent fennel crusted lamb chops finished with Scheherazade mead sauce and served with a braised fennel and potatoes gratin.
6th Mead: Trebuchet, another Special Reserve, aged sweet mead (14 percent alcohol) served with dessert consisting of Trebuchet Crème Brulee, a creamy mead custard with crystallized cane sugar.
Meadmaster Mike Kiker will emcee the event, discussing the origins, history and influence of mead across history and will explain the meadmaking process and discuss each sample. Make no mistake about it, this is no beer tasting. If you want to impress a date or take a friend to something truly exclusive, upscale and unique, this is it. Mead is not wine and it’s not beer, and despite it’s reputation as a Norseman’s victory drink, mead, and especially good mead like the crystalline liquid that pours from Celestial Mead’s cellars is electrifying in flavor and finish. Call 276-2337 for more details and reservations. If you want to know more about the meads, call MeadMaker Mike directly at (907) 250-8362 and surf out to www.celestialmeads.com to learn more.
New brewery update: The guys down at the Easy Hooker Brewing Company in Sitka, Alaska, continue to get the brewery in place and going. It’s going a little slower than they anticipated. “The process is moving slower than we wanted but we’re still making progress,” said brewer James Steinson (“Jamie”). “We have acquired a building and hope to be moving equipment in there soon. We are in process with the city for a conditional use permit,” he said. Anyone in the brewing industry that’s gone through the permitting process knows its daunting at 
best, and it’s got to be tougher down in Sitka. Still, they’re optimistic. The good news is that “We still continue to brew and this winter should be productive and fun,” he said. With any luck, maybe we’ll see them up here at this year’s Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival. They came up last year and it was a big surprise to me, but that’s how we met. I’ve been wringing my mug in anticipation of their beer ever since.
Here’s an update on the Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop beer tasting on Wednesday, November 19th. The gig, featuring Kassik’s Imperial Spiced Honey Wheat, Caribou Kilt Strong Scotch Ale, Dunkel, Dolly Varden Nut Borwn Ale and Morning Wood IPA starts at 6:30 pm. The music will start at 7:30 pm and the gig is pay as you go. A sampler flight will be available or you can buy full pints. As best I can tell, this is the biggest line up of Kassik’s beer on tap thus far in Anchorage. It should be a hit.
Café Amsterdam’s got some new, tempting selections at the midtown brown café. Look for the tried and true including Chimay Cinq Cents, Brouwerij Huyghe’s Delirium Tremens and Magner’s Irish Cider, but treat yourself to the likes of Alaskan Brewing Company’s Baltic Porter Ale and this year’s Winter Ale, Paulaner Salvator, Harp Lager, Celestial Meads Razerry Cyzer, Bridgport Brewing’s IPA, Sleeping Lady Brewing Company’s Chocolate Cherry Wheat, Unibroue’s Maudite (back by popular demand), and the surprising reappearance of Brouwerij St. Bernardus’ Grotten Brown.
And, while there, don’t forget that Café also offers select high-end brews by the glass. This is a great program because you don’t have to shell out the bucks for an entire bottle if you’re there by yourself or just want to shop around some with your liver. For example, a featured beers this week is Brouwerij Het Anker’s Gouden Carolus Grand Cru of the Emperor (2005). On Tuesday, November 18th, Café will featured a vertical offering of Alaskan Brewing Company’s Smoked Porters from 2006, 2007 and 2008. And the featured event on Saturday, November 22 is the banging home of a firkin of Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s Obliteration IV. Remember, the firkin events usually happen in an hour or less due to huge demand. Be there on Saturday, November 22th no later than 6 pm to get your share.
Another great plan is to get to Café early on a weekend morning and enjoy eggs Benedict with a draft selection from the bar. This is one of my favorite gigs because I love the reaction of some of the snobbery at other tables that think that early morning drinking is a vice. I’d like to invite them all over to my garage some Sunday morning for a little hair of the dog party.
Glacier Brewhouse is gearing up for the annual liver-bending 12 Days of Barleywine celebration that will take place in December. Brewer Kevin Burton is wallowing through sampling upwards of 50 different selections to see which will make the cut for this year’s soiree. Tough work, I know, but someone has to do it and Kev’s just the guy. In the interim, look for the long-anticipated release of one of his fruit lambics that has been four years in aging on oak. He didn’t have much to say about next week’s release (Thursday, November 20th) other than “Oh, it’ll make you pucker. In fact, it’s a motherpucker,”he said in his usual, endearing, charming way. The beer features two different wild yeasts and two different bacteria…the good stuff…Lacto and Pedio, so expect a ton of funk.
Other interesting beers soon to be released at Glacier include the venerable Black Rye Bock (hopefully by next Thursday), a new Red Ale and in a couple of weeks, a new Brown Ale. Until then, reach for two cask beers on right now: Glacier’s IPA and Double IPA.
Congratulations are due Glacier as well. The brewery’s Oak Aged Imperial Stout just pulled a bronze medal at this year’s Oak Aged Beer Festival in Chicago. I’m guessing this is going to be a dead ringer as a selection for the 12 Days of Barleywine celebration.
Stone Brewing Company fans will be pleased to learn that Double Bastard is back for it’s limited seasonal availability in both 22 ounce bottles, and if you really loved me, you’d buy me a 3 liter bottle of the few that will be available. Port Brewing Company’s Wipeout IPA and Old Viscosity continue to make waves up here along with siter brewery Lost Abbey’s Devotion Ale and Red Barn Ale. Dogfish Head’s Festina Peche (a no-shit neo Berliner-Weisse) and Palo Santo (a brown ale aged in Paraguayan Palo Santo wood) provide a fascinating twist.
Some of the seasonal beers are starting to run thin. For example, if you haven’t had or haven’t obtained your share of Left Hand Brewing Company’s Twin Sisters Double IPA or Imperial Stout, you might want to grab some. Elysian’s Night Owl Pumpkin Ale got some good reviews in a recent issue of Beer Advocate, so reach for this one, along with Glacier Brewhouse’s Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Midnight Sun Brewing Company’s Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter (get some 22 ouncers to lay down) and their Humpback Jack Pumpkin Ale. And, just for comparison’s sake, shake down a sixer of Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale because this is the brewery that revived the style in America since it was lost to as far back as colonial times when George Washington had a thirst for it and brewed it himself.
Here’s another chance to use beer to indirectly benefit a worthy cause. Long time Great Northern Brewers Homebrew Club Member Ted Rosenweig is part of a band called Last Train. This American-style rock band is playing a benefit gig for The Alaska Center for the Environment at the Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewing Company on Friday, November 21 from 8 pm to midnight. The proceeds of the gig will be split with the Center. Jared Woods is also performing as part of the benefit which costs $12 to attend or $10 if you bring along and donate a can of food to the pub’s ongoing food drive. Beer isn’t really involved other than the charity event is a great (albeit truly unnecessary) reason to head to the Goose for a pint of good, locally produced beer along with good, locally produced music to benefit a good, local organization.
This morning when I went to post this blog, I glanced across a piece on MSN Health and Benefits by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding of Men’s Health that cites beer as one of the 20 unhealthiest drinks in America. They do so from the standpoint of caloric intake only and don’t consider the other touted benefits of moderate alcohol (and specifically beer) consumption. Without spending lengthy time defending the beverage, I’ll only highlight that these two less-than-informed dissidents point to Samuel Adams Light as the “Worst Light Beer,” pointing at it’s 124 calories per 12 ounce serving and Sierra Nevada Stout as the “Worst Beer,” citing that it’s a “…full flavored beer, no doubt, but one that packs a hefty caloric wallop.” There are certainly “fatter” beers out there than Sierra Nevada Stout. I don’t think these guys did their homework very well. I’ll easily forgo a couple of handfuls of pork rinds for another beer. 
Here’s the Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse lineup as of Thursday, November 13, 2008. A couple of beers you might want to pay attention to include Gulden Draak Dark Triple Ale, a bodacious, sassy big beer at 10.5 percent and rare in these parts and Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop’s Caribou Kilt Strong Scotch Ale. The Caribou Kilt is a reserve keg of the 2008 World Beer Cup winning scotch ale (bronze medal). Rare indeed; get it while it lasts. Both the 2007 and 2008 versions of Alaskan Brewing Company’s Baltic Porter bait a linear tasting as does the incredible pairing of the 2006 and 2008 versions of the Midnight Sun Brewing Company Berserker Imperial Stouts. Get these while they last….fleeting moments of sudsy, local beer glory.
Wheats / Fruits
(Local) Alaskan Dunkelweisen
(Local Moose’s Tooth Wild Country Raspberry Wheat
Pyramid Apricot
Pyramid Hefeweisen
Lindemans Framboise ####
Golden Ales / Pilseners / California Common
Anchor Steam California Common
Full Sail LTD #1 (Live The Dream)
Kona Longboard Lager
(Local) Midnight Sun Goldstrike Kolsch
Pilsner Urquell **
Pale Ales / E.S.B.’s (medium hop bitterness) 
(Local) Alaska Pale Ale
Deschutes Hop Trip Pale Ale
Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
(Local) Moose’s Tooth Polar Pale Ale
(Local) Sleeping Lady Pale Ale
(Local) Alaskan E.S.B.
India Pale Ales (med - high hop bitterness)
Avery I.P.A. (69 IBU)
(Local) Humpy’s Sockeye Red by Midnight Sun (70 IBU)
(Local) Midnight Sun Cohoho Imperial I.P.A. # (8%) (85 IBU)
(Local) Moose’s Tooth Fairweather I.P.A. (64 IBU)
Redhook Long Hammer I.P.A. (38.5 IBU)
Stone’s Double Bastard # (7.2%) (Unlisted IBU)
Belgian Ales
Blue Moon Belgian White Wheat Ale
Shock Top Belgian White Wheat Ale
St. Bernardus Grotton Brown ###
Stella Artois **
Strong Belgian Ales (Alcohol by Volume over 7.5%)
Chimay Cing Cents Triple ##### (8%)
Delerium Tremens #### (8.5%)
Gulden Draak Dark Triple Ale ### (10.5%)
Midnight Sun Saturn Belgian Fresh Hop IPA # (8%)
Unibroue Trois Pistoles ## (9%)
Harvest Ales
Avery Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest # (9.37%)
Ayinger Oktoberfest #
Paulaner Oktoberfest **
Silver Gulch Oktoberfest
Widmer Oktoberfest
Brown Ales
(Local) Kodiak Island Wingnut Brown Ale *
(Local) Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown Ale
Amber Ales / Bocks / Dopplebocks / Scottish
(Local) Alaskan Amber Ale
(Local) Midnight Sun Oosik Amber Ale
Mac Tarnahan’s Scottish Ale
Kassik’s Brew Stop Caribou Kilt Strong Scotch # (8.5%) Same batch as 2008 World Cup Bronze Medal
(Local) Sleeping Lady Braveheart Scottish Ale *
(Cask Conditioned)
Rogue Dead Guy MaiBock *
Barley Wine
Sierra Nevada Big Foot Barley Wine #
Porters / Stouts
(Local) Alaskan Baltic Porter # ed 2007 (9.8%)
(Local) Alaskan Baltic Porter # ed 2008 (9.8%)
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
Deschutes XX Anv. Black Butte Porter # (11%)
Full Sail Imperial Stout # (9.9%)
Guinness Stout *** (on Nitro)
(Local) Midnight Sun Berserker Imperial Stout
### ed 2006 (10.8%)
(Local) Midnight Sun Berserker Imperial Stout
### ed 2008 (12.7%)
North Coast Old Rasputin
Imperial Stout # (9%) (on Nitro)
Seasonal Beers
(Local) Midnight Sun Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter # (7.8%) ed 2008
Winter Bourbon Cask Ale
The views expressed on the Dr. Fermento blog site are not necessarily those of the drunks he associates with, but rather the exclusive byproduct of his self-inflicted liver degradation and delusional inebriate lifestyle
Dr Fermento Beer Calendar
11/19/08 Tap Root Café Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop Beer Tasting 6 pm Pay as You Go
11/19/08 Humpy’s/Subzero Celestial Meads Tasting 6 pm TBD
11/21/08 Seward Sea Life Center Alaska Grown Close to Home Wine and Beer Tasting 7-10 pm $30 per person
11/21/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Obliteration IV Double Wheat Release 6 pm Free
11/21/08 Snow Goose Last Train/Jared Woods Benefit for AK Center for Env. 8 – 12 pm $12
11/22/08 Cafe Amsterdam MSBC Firkin Tap 6 pm Pay as You Go
11/28/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Arctic Devil 2009 Release 6 pm Free
12/05/08 Arctic Brewing Supply Entries accepted for Bigfish Homebrew Competetion Noon – 6 pm Free
12/05/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Uranus 100% Brett Beer Release 6 pm Free
12/05/08 Tap Root Café La Bodega’s Novemberfest 2nd Anniversary Party 7 pm $20 (in advance)
12/06/08 SubZero Microlounge Humpy’s Bigfish Homebrew Competition Judging 10 am Free
12/19/08 Midnight Sun Brewing Company Jupiter Champagne-style Tripel Release 6 pm Free
02/22/09 Café Amsterdam BJCP Exam 10 am TBD
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