That’s what she said: Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival
I’ve wanted to attend this festival for as long as I’ve known about it. But Alaska is not exactly easy to get to for someone like me. I almost always need extenuating circumstances to travel, and there are as about as many extenuating circumstances in Alaska as there are people.
Luckily, my dear friend and former blogging partner Michelle Theriault lives there and actually attended this year’s festival. She agreed to send me a blurb about the festival for old times sake.
Here’s what she says:
The Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival is a sell-out event held in downtown Anchorage in the dead of winter, just a block away from a pavilion of ice sculptures in the city center park. In a state that takes beer very, very seriously, the crowd is a lively mix of connoisseurs toting judging notebooks as well as just about every 30-and-under resident of the city. The festival features more than 200 different beers, and breweries from Unibroue (makers of the aptly named La Fin Du Monde, a 9 percent triple fermented golden ale) to the Oskar Blues Brewery of Colorado, makers of some very innovative canned brews.But the highlight , for me at least, was the impressive turnout of Alaskan breweries. For a state with less than 600,000 people and a very limited road system, there are sure a lot of people brewing beer. Highlights included appearances from Silver Gulch Brewing Company of Fairbanks, Homer Brewing Company and the upstart Kenai River Brewing Company. Their “breakfast beer” — an oatmeal milk stout — was a festival favorite.
Thanks Michelle.
Prost,
GG
I am a new resident living in Anchorage for about 6 months now. Living and working previously in Britain in the pub trade, mainly cellar and bar management, particularly real ale related.
I was thus really excited when this event came around. Unsure of how it would work but hearing celebration of previous good times and its growth, I think I was probably expecting something along the lines of a scaled down GBBF or in fact any of the mid to major European fests. This was my first mistake, I should have kept an open mind, but it’s hard with the prospect of such festivities.
On entry, I was presented with 30 tokens which entitled me to fill me 2oz sampler glass precisely that many times equating to 3 British pints or 4 American. I paid $40 plus $7 booking fee for my ticket. I felt I had been swindled before I was even served any beer… which I hasten to add were all good, as far as I can tell, it’s hard to tell if you like a beer until at least a half pint in, and sometimes It’s still not quite enough. Not only is it near impossible to get through all the tickets (???) due to queueing but the sessions are limited to 3 hours.
I wouldn’t mind so much as, like a lot of stuff in Alaska most beer has to be shipped in, but the festival was very, very AK brewery heavy.
I wondered why such draconian impositions must be made on my good free time for which I’d paid a pretty penny… and then it came to kicking out time. There were lots of drunk people, people who looked like they had probably prematurely recycled their hard earned fortune along with their pre fest chicken fried steak. People were shouting and a singing and some looking just a little vacant. A comedy of school boy errors. How? Had I missed something? Had somebody been giving out leftover Christmas liqueur chocolates with every purchase? 2oz shots? Had they been snorting them?
Where are all the food stands which go hand in hand with beer drinking, this at least may have combatted a little of the inexplicable inebriation. It would also be a total money spinner, which it seems this event is trully about.
I was baffled by the confusion but it kind of made sense, they MUST have had problems in the past. Drinking culture is different here, it’s about drinking to get drunk for most, which seems to verify why a.b.v. is often prominent in reference to beer character here, strength sells. I guess it is also an easy way to balance out enthusiastic hopping.
There is no pub culture. This was my greatest loss when I emigrated. I can call my family and friends, have them send snacks, but I can’t go out for Sunday lunch and a couple of sensible pints of bitter. You don’t prop the bar up here and knock back a jars just because it’s a easy going, fun way to kill some time.
To close, as I should have done some time ago, on a positive note…
The beer was good, some of my favourite US breweries there.
The entertainment was good, certainly some of the best I’ve seen at beer festivals.
If I paid a small cover charge, with beer charged for in individually in reasonable units i.e. 6 or 8oz, until I was full or fed up of the crowd (or even skint, I would happily pay a little extra for some of these beers on the unit) this would be an event worth supporting.
Currently it is daylight robbery and I was appalled.