A Festive Time of the Year

As usual for Alaska, the summer is flying by. Hard to believe it's August already. At least that means dipnetting is finished for the year; the hordes can return to Los Anchorage and leave us hicks down here on the Kenai to rusticate in peace...

The good news about it being August is that we are now in the heart of the beer festival season in Alaska. First off, 49th State's Augtoberfest starts today in Healy. I have yet to attend this fest (next year, for sure!), but everything I've seen and hear tells me it's a fantastic time.

The brewery is offering special Bavarian-style food for the fest: Roasted Duck (duck braised in apple juice, fresh apples and white wine served with dumplings and red cabbage), Smoked Pork Chop (served with Bavarian sauerkraut, German potato salad, house-made dumplings and stone ground mustard), Smoked Trout Skewers (an Alaskan twist of the traditional "Bismarkhering", this is trout marinated in brine with blackening and pickling spices, then smoked on a stick), and Baked King Salmon (Alaskan King Salmon baked with German mustard and carmelized onions, then served with spaetzle).

For beers, besides their numerous regular offerings, look for Augtoberfest (their take on the traditional Oktoberfest brew, a 5.6% ABV, 26 IBU malt forward lager), Bulliner Weisse (in the style of a Berliner Weisse, this tart and refreshing wheat beer comes in at 3.7% ABV, 5 IBUs), Grizzly Bear (a classic Munich Dark Lager, 5.4% ABV, 26 IBUs), and Hibernator (a 7.9% ABV, 20 IBU doppelbock).  Toss in some great music and you've got the recipe for a fantastic time.

As I said, I won't make it to this year's fest, but look for me there next year for sure!

An event I will be attending will be the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Across America Event at Humpy's Alaskan Alehouse on Thursday, August 7th. For those of you who haven't heard about Beer Camp Across America, Sierra Nevada has been celebrating the opening of their new brewery in North Carolina by brewing collaboration beers with some of the best craft breweries in the US. Those beers have now been released in bottles and at various events across the country. Next Thursday's event is your chance to sample them all in one place.  What are the brews you ask?  Here's the list:

Yvan the Great – Belgian-Style Blonde (Russian River)
Canfusion Rye Bock (Oskar Blues)
Myron’s Walk – Belgian Style Pale Ale (Allagash Brewing)
Alt Route – Altbier (Victory Brewing)
Electric Ray – India Pale Lager (Ballast Point)
Chico King Pale Ale (3 Floyds)
Torpedo Pilsner (Firestone Walker)
Yonder Bock – Tropical Maibock (Cigar City Brewing)
Double Latte – Coffee Milk Stout (Ninkasi Brewing)
There and Back – English Style Bitter (New Glarus Brewing)
Maillard’s Odyssey – Imperial Dark Ale (Bell’s Brewery)
Tater Ridge – Scottish Ale (Asheville Brewer’s Alliance)

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The event at Humpy's kicks off at 7 PM. There will be a tap takeover of sorts along with special pours of all the beers. The cost is $20 per person, first come, first serve, and will feature 3 oz. pours of each beer, served in three flights of four beer each. Leading the discussion of the brews as joint Masters of Ceremony will be Jim "Dr. Fermento" Roberts and yours truly. So if you'd like to sit down and sample all of these exceptional brews at once, this is your chance.

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Down here on the Kenai. the 4th Annual Kenai Peninsula Beer Festival is happening next Saturday, August 9th, from 5 to 10 pm, at the Soldotna Sports Center. I've been writing about this for several of my last blogs, so this should come as no surprise, but there are a couple of new pieces of news. First off, HooDoo Brewing from Fairbanks has confirmed they will be attending, bringing the total number of breweries represented to nineteen! HooDoo's excellent brews seldom make it out of Fairbanks, so if you want to sample them here on the Peninsula, don't miss your chance. Also, all five of the breweries on the Peninsula (our three locals plus Homer Brewing and Seward Brewing Company) will be on offer.  This is the first time all of them have been at the same festival together.

The Fest is also looking for folks with a TAMS card to help pour beers for some of the out-of-town breweries. If you are qualified and interested, I think this is your chance to get in for free! Send a message via the festival's Facebook page (click here) if you are interested. If you are going to have to pay full freight, tickets are on sale for $30 each at St. Elias Brewing, Kenai River Brewing, and Kassik's Brewery.  Or you can buy them online via the Festival's website.

In other beer news, I received the following press release from Darcy Kniefel at Midnight Sun Brewing Company:

Midnight Sun Brewing Company, MDA of Alaska and the Firefighters are teaming up to FILL THE BOOT! On August 17th the brewery will be invaded by Firefighters who will assist in brewing the first ever batch of DAS BOOT. The beer is being designed by Midnight Sun Brewer Davey Cacey, and will be a "sessionable" pale ale. At least as sessionable as we can get. The beer will be released on Thursday, August 28th, the day before the Anchorage Fire Fighters do their annual Fill the Boot Fundraiser for MDA.

To celebrate the release, The Loft at Midnight Sun Brewing Company will have, for the first time ever, traditional German Beer Boots for purchase. The boots will be a "one and done", weighing in at 36ounces of foamy love and will travel home with their purchasers, once they have been drained. There will be a very limited supply of the boots, so if you would like to be a part of this, come early! A portion of the proceeds from the boots as well as from the beer sales will go to MDA to support their efforts in finding a cure for muscular dystrophy.

As the release party also falls on a Thursday night, which is Tour Night at Midnight Sun, we will have our traditional FREE Brewery tour starting at 6:00 and we will include a tour of a fire truck which will be on sight for the night. The Firefighters will be at The Loft all night from 5-8pm to kick off the Fill the Boot extravaganza and there will be a chance for you to help fill the first boot.

Darcy also tells me that MSBC will be doing a second release of their outstanding Berserker Imperial Stout! They'll be bottling next week, with the beer hitting shelves the week after. Darcy says that this is the start of what they hope will be a new tradition of two releases of Berserker each year. Now that's what I call good news...

In other good news, it looks like the construction of Anchorage Brewing Company's new facility on King Street is proceeding on schedule.  They've posted several pictures of the construction on their Facebook page.

Denali Brewing Company in Talkeetna needs blueberries and they'll pay good money for them!  Here's the poster for that:

Glacier BrewHouse has two new beers on tap.  The first is a Strawberry Cream Ale.  Here's how they describe it:

Light, unfiltered, and refreshing with aromas of strawberry. Milk sugar (lactose) was added to render the ultra-creamy body. Infused with real strawberries! Nitrogenated.
Alcohol: 5.66% alcohol by volume. Starting Gravity: 13.70 Plato (1.056 S.G.)

Photo courtesy of Glacier BrewHouse

The second is a Saison.

French style Saison with fruity and spicy flavors supported by a soft malt character and slight tartness. Made with special French Saison yeast, zest of lemon peel, and a touch of honey. Definitely a smooth operator. Alcohol: 6.38% by volume. Starting Gravity: 14.00 Plato (1.057 S.G.).

Photo courtesy of Glacier BrewHouse

King Street beers are now available in the Fred Meyer stores in Anchorage and Eagle River.  Hey, guys, how about some love for the Peninsula!

Photo courtesy of King Street Brewing

Let's move on to some beer reviews.

St. Elias Brewing Company's Savage XPA: Another in Zach Henry's series of hoppy session ales, in the vein of his Insidious XPA (see my review 2/28/2014). This beer poured a crystal clear gold with big white head; very pretty in the glass. Besides the typical hoppy notes in the nose, I thought I was picking up some tropical fruit notes, leading me to think thank Zach had used some Galaxy hops, which he later confirmed. Carbonation was good, and there was a nice clean bitterness up front, then more tropical fruit/mango notes, before falling away to a nice finish. A great, easy-drinking brew, just what you want in a session ale.

Founders Brewing Company's All Day IPA Session Ale: Sticking with the theme of session ales, I got to try this one, thanks to the generosity of a colleague, who had her parents hand carry some up from Michigan for me. It also poured a clear gold with a nice white head. The aroma was classic American hops, very citrusy and fresh. The carbonation was good, was the mouthfeel. Initially there was a crisp, clean but not overwhelming bitterness, then lots of hop flavor before dropping down to a nice clean finish. At 4.7% ABV and 42 IBUs, this is indeed an excellent session beer.

Deschutes Brewing's Foray Belgian-style IPA: This is another of the oxymorons that craft brewers seem to love today, like black IPAs. Technically, there's no such thing as a Belgian IPA, since Belgian brewers don't brew IPAs. However, it's come to mean an IPA that uses a Belgian yeast to impart some of the characteristic peppery, spicy notes that such yeasts are known for. So this beer is Deschutes' entry in this new style, which I bought at our local Fred Meyer. Foray poured a clear light gold with a big white head. I picked up plenty of citrusy hop notes in the aroma, but none of the earthy, spicy notes I look for in a Belgian beer. Carbonation was excellent, and the beer had a nice mouthfeel. On the palate there was plenty of nice, bitterness, followed by lots of great hop flavor, but I tired in vain to pick up anything that I could identify as Belgian yeast notes. Frankly, it just tasted like a good American IPA to me. 6.4% ABV.


Well, that's it for this week.  If you're going to be at either the Humpy's Beer Camp Event or at the Kenai Peninsula Beer Festival, be sure to look me up and say hi.

Until Next Time, Cheers!