Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [40]
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