The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [32]
KEY BEER
The brewery offers eight year-round beers on tap and five specialty brews. It also has one cask-conditioned ale at most times, hand pumped directly from a firkin. The flagship is Urban Wilderness Pale Ale (4.9% ABV), a daytime-drinking, English-style session ale with moderate, grainy sweetness and a touch of tangy hops.
BEST of the REST: ALASKA
THE IMPERIAL BILLIARD & BAR
241 Front St. • Juneau, AK 99801 • (907) 586-1960 • No website
Opened in 1891, the Imperial is Alaska’s oldest continuously operating tavern but doesn’t go the old-timey route, having been buffed to a shinier condition in recent years. The bar offers ten taps, another eighteen in bottles (mostly macros), and a limited pub menu. Inside, it’s low-lit with occasionally loud music and a chilled out local crowd. You’re here for the history, the scrappy pool games, the locals drinking Alaskan and Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale.
THE ALASKAN HOTEL BAR
167 S. Franklin • Juneau, AK 99801 • (907) 586-1000 • alaskanhotel.com
Built in 1913, this is the bar where you go to “drink with an Alaskan at the Alaskan.” But it’s not the tourist trap one might imagine from that old chestnut of a phrase, nor from the spindly Victorian-era balustrade, weathered felt-pattern wallpaper, or corny wrought iron park lantern next to the parlor stairs. Instead, local rabble and well-heeled citizenry alike gather around the old antique bar without going all Wyatt Earp, to name one former carouser in town. They’re bobbing heads to an acoustic ballad courtesy of the open mike and drinking the lemony, coriander-kissed Blanche de Chambly, a 5% ABV witbier on tap from Quebec. How gunslinger is that?
CAFÉ AMSTERDAM
530 E. Benson Blvd., No. 3 • Anchorage, AK 99503 • (907) 274-0074 • cafe-amsterdam.com
Established in 1999 in a little mini mall, this charming European-style beer bar has one of the state’s all-time great beer lists, with seventeen taps and a hundred bottled selections, especially strong in Belgians, Alaska-born microbrews, Trappist ales, cask beers, and meads. It’s a popular spot for revelers after the Barley Wine Festival as well.
BEAR TOOTH THEATRE PUB & GRILL
1230 W. 27th Ave. • Anchorage, AK 99503 • (907) 276-4200 • beartooththeatre.net
The latest member of the Moose’s Tooth Brewing Company (which includes a pizzeria pub; moosestooth.net) and a brewing company headquarters, the Bear Tooth combines a sleek, remodeled concert and film venue (featuring headline acts from the lower 48 and both first run and 3-D movies) and a cool little glass-and-brick enclosed bar and eatery. The brews are standard but far from disappointing; try the hazy orange Fairweather IPA, 6.1% ABV and strongly redolent of graham crackers and grapefruit.
CHAIR 5
171 Linblad Ave. • Girdwood, AK 99587 • (907) 783-2500 • chairfive.com
The Aleyeska Resort, opened in 1954, is a classic expert ski area with a reputation for steep terrain and flinty locals. And Chair 5, established in 1983, is Girdwood’s après-ski beer playground, with twenty taps and forty-nine bottles of Alaskan and lower 48 specialty beers from Deschutes to Sierra Nevada, Midnight Sun, and Kona.
DENALI BREWING CO. & TWISTER CREEK RESTAURANT
13605 E. Main St. • Talkeetna, AK 99676 • (907) 733-2536 • denalibrewingcompany.com
The gateway to Denali National Park, little Talkeetna (population: 960) is both a stopover for climbers headed to Mount McKinley and a destination in itself for its excellent fishing and whitewater rafting. Denali Brewing Company’s light, silky, black, and roasty Chiuli Stout is fast finding fame in Anchorage beer bars, but there could be no better place to drink it than on the sunny patio of the log cabin–style Twister Creek restaurant.
SILVER GULCH BREWING &