Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [41]
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