Midnight Sun melts Sierra Nevada
April, 1999by Dawnell Smith
As a brutal cold snap thickened the blood of sourdoughs, even the toughest Alaskans looked for refuge, warmth and survival rations. Many found shelter and beer in the company of friends at two annual beer festivals in Anchorage, the Great Alaskan Beer Festival and the Great Alaska Winter Brew and Barley Wine Festival.
Both events featured beer competitions judged in part by acclaimed brewing professionals like Dr. George Fix and Fred Bowman of Portland Brewing Company.
With sheer radiant power, Midnight Sun Brewing Company pulled off a coup by winning best of show at both festivals for their Wee Heavy Scotch Ale and Arctic Devil Barley Wine.
The mid-January beer bash went on a quest for the "Best Beer in Alaska for 1999". It attracted about 70 Alaskan-made entries in pale, amber, dark, specialty and barley wine categories. Accredited judges from the Great Northern Brewers Club handled the initial judging, then got support from Fix, who later made the award presentations.
Brewer Kevin Burton of Midnight Sun felt a bit surprised that the Scotch ale won over his bolder, more bodacious barley wine.
"The stuff is nectar," said Burton when describing Arctic Devil, an English-style barley wine with 10% ABV and 80 IBU. The beer sat in an old red wine barrel for six months, which imparted vanilla flavors and a pleasant hint of butterscotch.
Midnight Sun's barley wine also won gold, but lost to the hefty, amber Wee Heavy in the final round. The brewery also came away with a silver in the amber category with their India pale ale and bronze in the specialty category with their Flying Reindeer Rauchbock, a smoked bock beer.
Interestingly enough, out-of-state VIPs like Fix took notice of Alaska's smoked beers, which have become somewhat of a regional specialty. Alaskans tend to own or build smoking rigs to turn salmon and halibut into delectable winter treats, so it comes as no surprise that brewers would use this expertise when making beer. It helps to have a steady supply of good wood, and a cache of smoked fish and game to augment the smoky suds.
Though Alaskan Brewery's Smoked Porter has won numerous Great American Beer Festival medals, it was the Moose's Tooth's smoked amber that won gold in the specialty category at the Great Alaska Beer Festival.
Smoked beers go well with Alaska's climate, but so do barley wines.
That's one reason the Winter Brew and Barley Wine Fest staged only one formal judging event--the barley wine competition. This year, the festival organizers allowed out-of-state entries for the first time.
"The local brewers insisted on it," explained Bill Opinsky, owner of Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse and principle sponsor of the event. As it turned out, 11 of the18 entries came from Alaska, and the rest from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Rogue Ales, Full Sail Brewing Company, Fish Brewing Company, Hales Ales Brewery, Pike Brewing Company and Redhook Ale Brewery.
Four of the six medals went to Alaskan breweries: The winners were:
American-Style Barley Wine
1. Sierra Nevada's Big Foot
2. Snow Goose's Old Gander
3. Moose's Tooth's 1998
English-Style Barley Wine
1. Midnight Sun's Arctic Devil
2. Cusack's Brewpub's Old Bushrat
3. Redhook's Blueline 1988
In the final showdown, Midnight Sun's wolverine-inspired barley wine ripped Big Foot off its feet. The judging panel included Bowman, Tom Dalldorf of Celebrator Beer News, brewer Drew Cluley of Pyramid Brewing, Alaskan beer guru Iliya Pekich of ANCO distributors, and beer enthusiast Dave Snow, owner of Arctic Brewing Supply.
"It's great for me personally, great for the brewery and great for all Alaskan breweries," said Burton, who admitted feeling both weary and proud, not to mention a bit dazed. "We came expecting to win something," he said, "but another best of show is amazing."
Other Alaskan brewers relished the success of one of their own. After all, when an Alaskan-made beer takes on the likes of Sierra Nevada and wins, it gives all Alaskans national exposure.
Which is a far cry from northern exposure, a phenomenon that only occurs when the booths shut down, the crowds dwindle and a few numb, hardy souls decide to howl at the frozen sky while wearing nothing but mug mittens and defiant grins.
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Dawnell Smith is a beer lover, brewer and writer who wants to mud wrestle whoever got the last bottle of Arctic Devil Barley Wine (Editor's note: I cannot tell a lie...) Contact her at ninkasi@ ptialaska.net with suggestions, opinions or babble.
