Microbrewed Adventures Read online

  Noon Moons, Midnight Sun

  Bean Mead and Barley Wine Ales

  Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska

  WITH ONE BREWERY for every 60,000 people, Alaska ranks as the state with the sixth-highest number of breweries per capita (Vermont ranks number one, with one brewery for every 36,000). That’s encouraging information for the beer enthusiast living in Alaska. It’s also encouraging information for all beer-loving Americans, for at these ratios, one might calculate a potential of 5,000 to 8,000 breweries nationwide.

  Because I am a homebrewer and there are thousands of homebrewers in Alaska, I’ve had the great fortune to visit the state more than just a couple of times. Each time I depart I am in awe of the fanatical passion Alaskans have for both the environment in which they live and for microbrewed beer. People who live in Alaska live there by choice. It is a place they love and cherish. It isn’t surprising, given this lifestyle and attitude, that they would demand quality and passion in the beers they enjoy. They are particular about their choices and they seek to explore life’s pleasures. Inspired by their environment, I have discovered some uniquely brewed fermentations in Alaska.

  On my visit in 1995, two of the first brews I encountered were made by local homebrewer Angie. While most brewers were pushing the limits of barley malt beers and fruit, herb and honey meads, Angie was floating in an entirely different universe. The midnight sun does strange things to the mind. Soy-milk mead and rice-milk mead were her specialties at the moment. At first, I recoiled instinctively as she introduced me to a glass. Recounting the initial fermentation as “milky white and curdy,” Angie assured me that with time and the passing of two equinoxes the mead becomes a crystal clear, deep golden elixir. Flabbergasted is the only word I can use to describe my surprise at how mellow and smooth this bean mead had become. It was indeed some of the best mead I had ever had.

  Hanging out at the Midnight Sun Brewing Co., Anchorage, Alaska

  Sampling Barleywines at the Glacier Brewhouse, Anchorage, Alaska

  Thus encouraged, Angie looked forward to her next experiments, with hazelnut milk. Confident that she could figure out how to make hazelnut milk, she took her inspiration from a reference in Robert Gayre’s book Brewing Mead, where she found a reference to an ancient mead made with hazel-nuts.

  I’ve had the pleasures of visiting and exploring parts of Alaska both in the seasons of the midnight sun and what might be called the high noon moon. Homebrewing in Alaska is prolific, and from this passion has sprung forth a culture of microbrewed beer. In Anchorage, Juneau and most large towns you’ll find a good assortment of locally made beers, as well as other passionately made American microbrewed beer.

  Summertime is work time, fishing time and being-outdoors time. It all then leads to winter and the Great Alaskan Beer and Barleywine Festival, held each January in Anchorage.

  In 2001, Sandra and I arrived a few days ahead of the festival to explore and to visit with local homebrewers and microbrewers. You can safely expect to be up before dawn, which isn’t too difficult at that time of year, and to be having your first beer shortly after sunrise. What a wonderful concept! Anchorage is blessed with the likes of the Midnight Sun Brewing Company, Moose’s Tooth Brewing Company, Glacier Brewhouse and the Sleeping Lady Brewing Company (the large hanging quilts are spectacular, and to see them is itself worth a visit). Makers of microbrewed and crafted brown ales, pale ales, barleywine aged in oak, stouts, porters and other world-class styles, the brewers of Anchorage are always anticipating the excitement of their annual festival.

  Every brewery in Alaska is represented, including small homebrewery brewpubs from the coastal communities of Haines and Homer, the Silver Gulch Brewery from frigid Fairbanks (they brewed a lager) and Alaska’s largest craft brewer, Juneau’s Alaskan Brewing Company, brewers of a famous alder-smoked porter, a spruce tip–flavored winter ale and a popular top-fermented, cold-lagered Alaskan-style “alt” beer, Alaskan Amber.

  The Great Alaskan Beer and Barleywine Festival is a must-do event for anyone who considers him-or herself a serious beer enthusiast. There are other similar events hosted throughout the United States, but none—and I say this from experience, none—embraces the passion of barleywine as much as does the Alaskan festival. The nights are very long. You may need crampons to navigate the icy sidewalks. It can be very cold. There will be snow on the ground. Your friends will think you are out of your mind for going to Alaska in January. But nowhere will a beer enthusiast encounter more camaraderie and excitement about beer than in Anchorage in January. Alaska’s microbrewers are truly making their world a better place to live. Great barley wine enjoyed and savored in the bosom of winter is one of life’s quintessential experiences.

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  ALASKAN WINTER SPRUCE OLD ALE

  “It’s the quality of the spruce tips that ultimately determines the character of spruce beer. Don’t be afraid to try your local spruce tips in the spring, but do pick them young.” These are the suggestions of Alaskan Brewing Company founder and brewer Geoff Larson. This version of spruce-flavored beer is based on strong brown ale. Hop bitterness is mild, allowing the essence and freshness of spruce to shine through. This recipe can be found in About the Recipes.

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  Winter Warmer Tour

  In the Footsteps of the Revolution

  ON FEBRUARY 22, 1999, my wife Sandra left our home in Colorado to embark on what I now refer to as “The 14-Day Charlie Does Beer–Winter Warmer Tour,” just one of countless beer journeys I’ve experienced.

  It was an extraordinary expedition, filled with beer, beer and more beer to warm our souls as we wended our way through upstate New York, dipping down into New Jersey and back up through New York City, and continued to cruise for brews in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The snow, rain and cold always seemed to follow us, yet the beers and the hospitality of homebrewers and microbrewers everywhere warmed our hearts. Sandra was travel administrator and membership recruiter, while we both accepted and tasted beer all along the way.

  Day 1: Getting up at 5 A.M. and continuing until we crashed at our Ramada Inn motel room at 11 P.M. somewhere in Newburgh, New York made for a long day. Getting our flight upgraded to first class with a coupon was no great accomplishment; a fruit plate for breakfast, no lunch and no drinking water (they were out of stock!) developed our thirst for the beers that lay ahead. Perhaps the disregard for in-flight amenities was reverse karma intended to balance the good stuff that lay ahead of us. We hoped to be greeted with the best beers of the Northeast upon our arrival.

  Winter is very, very cold in upstate New York. The wind blows. There’s ice everywhere. But after checking into our motel and changing clothes, we soon found warmth wherever there was good beer. An enthusiastic reception of 40 or 50 homebrewers at Joe Burke’s McGonigles Homebrew Supply Shop at 9 West Main Street in Washingtonville cheered us with an endless variety of homebrew. A quick dinner was followed by a very cold walk to the local homebrew club’s meeting place. I was glad to be indoors and greeted with a winter-warming chilled homebrewed stout. The warm reception of my presentation and an endless variety of beer foretold of the days to come.

  Day 2: We drove along the eastern bank of the Hudson River on our way to Rhinebeck, New York, a town steeped in American history and contemporary great beer culture. Hosted by the local beer community, Sandra and I stayed at the Beekman Arms Inn, America’s oldest continually operating hotel and inn. The second evening we indulged in a magnificent “Dinner with Charlie” hosted by the St. Andrews Restaurant on the Culinary Institute of America’s campus. It was a unique experience in their dining series, as all the beers on the menu were homebrewed by local homebrewers! For each of the six courses there were these beers: a 2 percent ginger lager (brewed by Lyn Howard), an English-style bitter (Anthony Becampis), Pre-Prohibition Pilsener (Jim Taylor), Malt-Tease Maerzen (Bruce Franconi), Robust Porter (Greg Holton) and Bit o’ Spice Cider (Cider Maker of the Year, Gloria Franconi). Organized by Bil
l Woodring (American Homebrewers Association Board of Advisors) and Ken Turow (CIA Dean of Students), the evening was a celebration of pure and indulgent pleasure.

  Arriving at our inn after dinner, Sandra and I turned to each other and asked, “How about one more beer?” “You bet!” We snuck off to the inn’s bar for a nightcap before retiring. It was biting cold outside; snow covered the ground in moonstruck patches. We entered to the warmth of a fire in the hearth. A sense of something special filled the air. Here the low wood-beamed ceilings and antique floors captured the ambience of 250 years past. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams and other revolutionary forefathers of America congregated in this very space and enjoyed locally made porters and other ales—I’m certain of that. The walls told me. The cold winter unchanged from that time to now.

  It was quiet—well, almost quiet. Sitting in a wooden booth, we were the last two customers in the bar. The bartender and waitress were finalizing their evening’s work. The floors creaked, the air was filled with the faint smell of smoke and the candles’ flickering flames engraved their memorable glow upon us. The atmosphere was just as it must have been in 1766. But I couldn’t quite connect with the lack of beer choice. I settled on an imported British ale but drank it with disappointment. It had lost its edge, just as the British had in 1776, suffering from the ravages of age and staling. Spice Girls and En Vogue hip-hop music thumped in the background…Old George Washington, I wonder how he would’ve handled it. He probably could have taken the hip hop, but stale English ale? No bloody way! George knew better. He made his own homebrew; this is well known. Beer passion inspires revolution as needed. I am glad to be part of the current American Revolution, a revolution championing beer flavor and diversity.

  One small five-gallon batch at a time. Times a million American homebrewers inspiring the spirit of local microbrewed beer.

  The next day, we visit the Gilded Otter Brewpub in nearby New Paltz. I am captivated by the spectacular $2 million view of the Hudson Valley countryside. Now this is a place that singularly made the revolution worth fighting for.

  Day 3: I have an early-morning telephone interview with Lee Graves, a beer columnist for the Richmond Times Dispatch about my Northeast tour. “When are you coming to Virginia, Charlie?” (I would tour New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas the very next year.)

  It’s still cold cold cold.

  We are picked up by local homebrewer Bill Woodring, Dean of Students at the Culinary Institute; Ken Turow; and John Eccles, brewer at Hyde Park Brewery. We travel through the countryside and visit Gloria and Bruce Franconia’s Party Creations Homebrew Supply Shop in Red Hook, New York, a small homebrew shop in a converted barn situated in an all-too-pleasant and relaxing backyard forest. It is a comforting destination as well as a great place to buy supplies from knowledgeable and passionate people. Nat Collins, brewmaster at the Woodstock Brewery in Kingston, drops by as we begin enjoying an imperial stout and a big-brew barley wine to the accompaniment of Gloria’s praline-drizzled chocolate cream cake. A killer combination!!! We leave with both the imperial stout and the cake recipe.

  As I am leaving, a new customer comes in. At my encouragement he confides, “Well, my mother’s brother had a brewery and so I have brewing in my blood.” His grandmother’s brother was F. X. Matt of the F. X. Matt Brewing Company in Utica, New York. He had discovered homebrewing through my book in a library when he was in high school.

  Nat Collins, Bruce and Gloria Franconia, Woodstock/Redhook, NY

  We return in time for dinner at the Hyde Park Brewery, and then quickly stop by our inn for a short hour of downtime. I dare not lie down for fear of falling asleep and never waking up. This is Rip Van Winkle country. So I have a beer, one of many that had already been given me.

  In the evening we return to the CIA to meet and talk to 90 members of the student beer society, ALES (Ale and Lager Education Society). We finish a fun evening by 11:30 after watching a few beer videos I’d brought along, tasting and talking beer and food.

  Day 4: Departing the Rhinebeck area, we already miss the hundreds of kindred spirits who are in their own special ways all cultivating a passion for beer and brewing. This morning Sandra and I visit friends at the Egg Farm Dairy in Peekskill, a small organic producer of traditional and local cheeses. We share homebrew, and Jonathan White offers us some of the best cheese I have ever tasted.

  By evening there are already eight inches of snow on the ground, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped 120 beer enthusiasts from coming to the Hudson Valley Homebrewers/Woodstock Brewing Company “rendezvous” in Kingston. There is nothing maniacal about the people who turned out this evening. Everyone is dead serious about their love of beer and brewing. Dozens of locally made homebrews, as well as fresh specialties and cask-conditioned ales from the Woodstock Brewing Company cellars, flow freely.

  Richie Stolarz, Beers International

  Those who attend learn one important lesson: if anyone dares serve me a beer, they had better serve my wife too. More than once she charges to the podium during my presentation to steal my porter, IPA and best bitter, leaving me empty handed, each time to the howling applause of the audience. The last homebrewer who comes up to fill my glass gets it right, one for Sandra and then one for me. I can’t really complain about a spouse who in thirst will steal my IPA and enjoy drinking it herself!

  Late that night, sleep and bed. How sweet it is, but I’m beginning to wake up wondering where in the world we are.

  Day 5: The snow stopped last night and it’s starting to get a bit warmer. We drive down to New Jersey and rendezvous with Richie Stolarz of Beers International. Beer enthusiast extraordinaire Richie had arranged for the evening’s sold-out 80-person beer event. There’ll be a lot of homebrewers in attendance tonight.

  True to anticipation, the evening is overflowing with beer. The venue is the Gaslight Brewery in South Orange. More than 15 beers are formally tasted. Several are homebrews, while most are imported strong Belgian ales. And then there are dozens of beers informally tasted (“Charlie, will you taste my homebrew?”). It’s still cold outside, and a winter-warming homebrew is a welcome sight.

  Day 6: We’re not even halfway through our journey. With seven days ahead of us, we’re still in the “just warming up” mode.

  Dropping off our rental car at Newark airport, we haul our luggage (our extra duffel bag for gift T-shirts gets bigger every day) onto a bus and into New York City. The Big Apple homebrewers and microbrewers are waiting with outstretched arms, beer grins and cheer. We stash our belongings at a friend’s apartment on the Bowery, have a quick lunch, change clothes and take the subway to Brooklyn Brewery, arriving in time to judge at the Malted Barley Appreciation Society’s second annual homebrew competition. There are 420 entries, up from about 250 the year before. Lots of homebrewers, judges, brewers, fun, winners, food and beer stories.

  After judging 420 beers it’s time for…well, beer and dinner a short walk over to the local beer haven, the Mugz Bar. And that’s where and when the evening begins to drift off.

  Day 7: A day off. It rains all day, so we sleep in and relax. We have dim sum in Manhattan and home-prepared mussels, asparagus and Jay Sims’s pie-to-die for dinner. And some of her own homebrewed beer, of course.

  Day 8: Three morning business appointments in Manhattan are followed by an afternoon visit to D.B.A. bar in the East Village. With great selections of cask-conditioned beers on draft, this is the real thing and as good as it gets in New York City.

  As I come up from the subway in the evening I notice the first full moon of March high above. Perhaps it’s the first time I’ve glanced up from a beer in eight days.

  Later in the evening I host a Café Centro (at Grand Central Station–Met Life Building) gourmet beer dinner organized by Steve Hindy and the good folks at Brooklyn Brewing Company. Great food and great beer are enjoyed by the attending homebrewers and beer enthusiasts.

  Day 9: Packed and out of the apartment by 8:30 A.
M. Tony Forder, publisher of Ale Street News and co–media sponsor of our “beer to heaven” tour, picks us up, and we’re suddenly on the road to Connecticut. Our first stop is at Hartford’s Troutfish Brewery and Restaurant for a lunch with American Homebrewers Association members and homebrew enthusiasts. There, Bill Metzger, publisher of Yankee Brew News and co–media sponsor of the tour, joins us. Lunch is over, but the afternoon beers have just begun. We are soon off to Connecticut’s first brewpub, the Hartford Brewery. Afterward we walk over to Ron Page’s realm, the relatively new City Steam Brewery and Restaurant.

  Paul Zocco, our driving and organizational host of the day, continues to herd us forward as we migrate to a small homebrew shop in East Hartford for a sampling of beers.

  We stop briefly to pick up our rental car for the next five days. There’s no time to waste, as we’re instantly off to the Hop River Homebrew “Clubhouse” for a quick peek at a great little home brewery and meeting site.

  It is 5:45 and we are in the small town of Willimantic, checking into our bed-and-breakfast accommodations. After a 15-minute catnap and a change of clothes, we crawl to the Willimantic Brewery and Main Street Café to be greeted by a packed house of 80-plus American Homebrewers Association members and beer enthusiasts. The brewery is in a historic post office building. The grand ceilings, artwork, sight of brewing kettles and excitement of the evening instantly rejuvenate both Sandra and me. The specially prepared beer dinner is superb and is complemented with beers exquisite. If ever there is doubt that small-town America cannot support a small brewery, visit Willimantic. The hospitality, food and beer are worth the journey. The energy is uplifting, and Sandra and I enjoy the company well into the night.