When it comes to Alaskan Brewing Co. and anniversaries, you can make a safe bet that it will be a big Stout and that birch syrup will be involved. I am burying the lead though. 35 Years! That is a great achievement.
35 Cheers for Alaskan Brewing
Don’t Forget Brewery Tour # 3 – Alaskan Brewing Co.
Recent posts have been about old school breweries like Dogfish Head and Deschutes but for the final, “hey, remember me” brewery we head north, to Alaska.
Let’s reconnect with a few of their beers…
Fireweed Blonde – “A classic light-bodied American Blonde Ale, Fireweed Blonde is brewed with a touch of fireweed honey to balance the slight hop bitterness. Sometimes called the “champagne of honey,” fireweed honey is the result of honeybees harvesting nectar from the vibrant fireweed plants that bloom in summer throughout Alaska.”
Amber – “Slow fermentation helps condition the flavors in Alaskan Amber, contributing to its overall balance and smoothness.”
SMaSH Galaxy – “Single Malt and Single Hop Double IPA, brewed with only Australian Galaxy hops and Premium Northwest Pilsner Malt. The Galaxy hops take center stage and are joined by the very intense bitterness typical of this variety of hops.”
Smoked Porter – “The dark, robust body and pronounced smoky flavor of this limited edition beer make it an adventuresome taste experience. Alaskan Smoked Porter is produced in limited “vintages” each year on November 1 and unlike most beers, may be aged in the bottle much like fine wine.”
A Podcast & A Beer – Wolverine-The Long Night
Most of the podcasts that I have featured have been non-fiction. Usually one person talking to another person. But this month, we head back to a style that was more prevalent before TV. Fiction. In this case the Marvel universe and Wolverine (pre Logan).
The series is called The Long Night and it follows Agents Pierce and Marshall as they investigate a series of maulings and murders with enough suspects, drugs and dirty dealing to keep a herd of FBI busy.
I started writing about the cool things about this podcast and it got too long, so a list will need to suffice:
1. Wolverine does not get top billing
2. The foley and sound effects are top notch
3. The agent characters are new in attitude while still formulaic
4. The voice acting is very naturalistic
5. Each episode is an easily digestable 35 – 40 minutes
And since this show is set in Alaska, best to find some Alaskan Brewing beers (which we get some of down here in the sun). Imperial Red Ale for the blood spilled would be one good choice as wood the Smoked Porter for atmosphere. Then pick up one of their IPA’s to be as bitter as Logan is during the series.
A Book & A Beer – The 12 Lives of Samuel Hawley
I haven’t had a real page turner in a while. That rare book that is exciting and literary at the same time. The type of book that you can picture as a good movie if done right.
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is one such book. The book is located in an East Coast small fishing town. Where a father and a daughter have returned to where the mother grew up.
There have been many moves in the past and lots of guns around the house they move into. In time, we learn of the twelve bullets that landed in Samuel Hawley both before and after the birth of Loo (I do hate girls/women with faux boy names). Poor Hawley as he is called, seems like a magnet for bullets which is bad considering his chosen profession is mostly of the illegal kind where guns seem to be plentiful.
The interaction between Hawley and Loo as well as flashbacks to friends, enemies and more enemies as well as his love, Lily lend an easy poignancy that has you rooting for them and against their foes.
What makes this book is that it sticks the landing. Loo gets a end of movie style moment that closes the adventure but also leaves some strands open. Both Hawley and Loo have grown and learned a bit but they haven’t fake changed, their character arcs remain in motion.
To drink with this book, you could pick from many states since the characters roam from one crime adventure to another but I will pick one from each side of the US. Something bitter for the teenager Loo and something rough and dark for Hawley.
Alaskan Brewing Icy Bay IPA or their Smoked Porter would be perfect for the wayward job in Alaska.
For the East, Harpoon Brewery has Hoppy Adventure IPA or Nana’s Nightcap Porter. (yes, there is a cranky yet worldy grandma in the story)
Up from the Cellar – Perserverance from Alaskan Brewing
This beer was brewed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of brewing by Alaskan Brewing Company. It was initially released into the wild in September of 2011
And this “limited edition Imperial Stout is brewed with glacier-fed water, birch syrup from the Alaska Birch Syrup Co., fireweed honey from BeeAlaskan Apiaries, brown sugar and an array of different malts including malted oats and a dash of our world famous alder-smoked malt”
Let’s see how the years have treated this rarity from up north…….The initial aroma is full of that alder-smoked malt almost to the point of bacon. The aroma is, quite frankly, a bit off putting. Some beers you just get sucked into and this one is doing the opposite. The taste is considerably better. The combo of the syrup and honey goes a long way to ameliorating the smoke notes.
The texture is quite smooth and for a Russian Imperial Stout surprisingly light. The combination of the sweet and the alder almost make for a minty type aftertaste. I double checked the BJCP Off Flavor Flash Cards to double check myself and see if the cellaring had gone sideways but from what I can tell, this probably hasn’t run into trouble. It may just be that the sweetness has faded more quickly than the alder smoke, unbalancing the beer.
I let the beer warm up a bit and the flavors did drop a notch in intensity with some licorice notes adding in as well. And my overall rating rose based on that fact. But it still is quite the Alaskan Rauch to it. I just wish it had a bit more muscular malt body and an easier hand on the smoke to balance the competing flavors. As it is, this is not one of my favorites.
Verdict? I have never had this beer before so I do not have a benchmark. I was darned lucky to find this on sale a year or so later. I would say that there wasn’t any issue with where I bought it nor with the aging but it would be interesting to see how this beer gets reviewed in years to come as others pull their bottles out of their cellar.
Review – Hopothermia from Alaskan Brewing
This DIPA from Alaskan Brewing pours a light orange and clear color. You never know what to expect anymore from IPA’s. Are they really doubles? or are they regular IPA’s? This one tastes more like a session American barley wine to be precise. It doesn’t have the hop bite that many doubles or even regular IPA’s have. It has a caramel-y set of aromas and it tastes boozier than the ABV stated on the bottle. There is a mixture of tea tannin and citrus notes and it does stick to the tongue, so age may have set in a bit but I don’t think the bitterness was reduced except aroma wise where I got a more fusel set of smells.
I would like to try this fresher to see if it is indeed just a freshness issue.
The story of Alaskan Brewing Company
Alaskan Pilot brews
Alaskan Brewing is getting into the reserve series game. Actually, they have been in it for awhile. Us mainlanders just haven’t had access until now. Getting to market is a two step process according to the brewery, “Each new recipe is first created on our 1-barrel experimental brewhouse, perfected in our 10-barrel pilot brewhouse, then put to the test through our Rough Draft series of draft-only beers distributed in Alaska,” the most popular of the rough drafts take the leap to a limited release in the Alaskan Pilot Series.
“Years of local demand through Alaskan’s Rough Draft program of draft-only releases and a Silver medal from the 2008 Great American Beer Festival made our Raspberry Wheat the perfect brew to officially launch the ‘Pilot Series’.”
Two more Pilot Series beers will debut in 2010 — a black imperial IPA in October, and a re-release of the Alaskan Barley Wine— which just won a Bronze medal at the 2010 World Beer Cup on April 10 – in late December.
50 from 50 – Alaska
Alaskan Brewing’s Smoked Porter has always been a beer that I avoided mostly because I am not terribly fond of smoke mixed with beer. I have had a couple rauchbiers that did not hit my palate right. This one is probably the best but I still am not fond of the style…
