Drinking on the Last Frontier: Local wine paradigm — Bear Creek Winery uses local ingredients to wide appeal

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo courtesy of Elaine Howell. The Bear Creek Winery in Homer sees steady traffic to its tasting room.

If you’ve read this column for any length of time, it should be obvious that beer is my alcoholic beverage of choice, with the rare glass of single-malt scotch thrown in for variety. Despite my love affair with fermented barley, I recognize that there’s more to drinking in Alaska, and even on the Kenai Peninsula, than just beer. In past columns I’ve written about our award-winning local producers of mead and about a new distillery opening in Sterling, but I don’t think I’ve ever written about beer’s biggest competitor amongst alcoholic drinks — wine.

Since there are actually several wineries in Alaska, including one right here on the Kenai Peninsula, it seems only fair that I should give wine its day in the sun. So let’s talk about Bear Creek Winery, at 60203 Bear Creek Drive, about three miles out East End Road from downtown Homer.
Like so many craft breweries, Bear Creek started as a hobby. As Dorothy Fry told me, “The winery is my husband Bill’s hobby run amuck.”

Bill started making his own wine in the mid-1990s. As such things are wont to do, his hobby quickly grew from its inception as a few glass carboys on a kitchen counter to taking over their entire garage. After a few years, Bill’s wines were receiving rave reviews, with so many requests to purchase them coming in from family, friends and even complete strangers that he and Dorothy decided to make wine their business.

In 2003, Bill and Dorothy took the plunge and opened Bear Creek Winery and Lodging. For the first year they only offered lodging, as it took that long to complete all the paperwork and jump through all the hoops with both the state and federal governments to be allowed to produce wine commercially. They still offer lodging, in two suites, along with a hot tub, steam bath, horseshoe pits and fire pit, all of which are available for use by guests.

But let’s get back to the winery.

Drinking on the Last Frontier: Fruits of labor to savor — Lambics a much-lauded tradition

Photo courtesy of Elaine Howell

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

Now that we are finally seeing some real evidence of spring, it seems like it might be a good time to talk about beers made with fruit. Most fruit beers are better suited to the warmer days of summer, rather than the colder days of winter, so that’s when brewers tend to have them on offer.

The use of fruit in beer is an extremely ancient practice; it certainly dates to at least 7,000 B.C.E. We know this thanks to a remarkable archaeological find made at Jiahu, near the Yellow River in the central plains of China. Settled around 7,000 B.C.E. and then flooded and abandoned around 5,800 B.C.E., this Neolithic settlement was excavated in the 1980s. Among the many artifacts discovered were pottery jars. Chemical analysis of the jars showed they had been used for alcoholic fermentation.

Further detailed analysis of the residue in the jars allowed scientists to determine the ingredients used to make this ancient beverage — rice, honey, Muscat grapes and hawthorn berries. So at the same time that barley beers and grape wines were beginning to be made in the Middle East, the ancestors of today’s Chinese were brewing a sort of fruit-infused rice wine.

Fast-forward 63 centuries to Iron Age Asia Minor in 700 B.C.E. An extraordinarily wealthy king of the ancient kingdom of Phrygia is buried after an elaborate funerary feast. When his still-sealed tomb is opened by archaeologists in 1957, the riches it contained — including 157 bronze buckets, vats and drinking bowls — convinced them that they had found the inspiration for the mythical King Midas. Chemical analysis of the drinking vessels revealed that the mourners had been consuming a “Phrygian cocktail” made by fermenting a mixture of wine grapes, barley and honey.

Drinking on the Last Frontier: Craft clash a’brewing

Photo by Elaine Howell. Can you spot the craft beer from the ones made by big chain breweries?

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

For the last few months, there has been a hot topic of discussion in the online community of craft beer lovers. Given that so much electronic ink has been spilled and so much rhetorical powder burned, I have decided it’s worth taking a look at here.

The issue boils down to this: What are we to make of the “faux craft beers” being produced by the major brewing conglomerates? If you are not really into craft beer, you may not realize that beers such as Blue Moon, Shock Top and others are not produced by small, artisanal craft breweries, but are brewed by the likes of Coors and AB-Inbev.

Some craft brewers are more than a little irked by what they see as the “big boys” trying to cash in on a growing market that actual craft brewers have worked to create. Put yourself in the shoes of New Belgium Brewing, one of the biggest and most respected craft brewers out there. Many years after New Belgium started producing Sunshine Wheat, Leinenkugel (now part of MillerCoors) introduced a beer called Sunset Wheat. The logo for Shock Top — a Belgian-style wheat Anheuser-Busch started selling six years ago — resembles that of a New Belgium label.

There is a billboard in New Belgium’s hometown billing Shock Top as a Belgian-style wheat “made here in Fort Collins.” That’s technically true, as Shock Top is brewed at Anheuser-Busch’s Fort Collins brewery along with Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch, Busch Light, Michelob, Michelob Light and Natural Light. You can see why the folks at New Belgium might be a tad unhappy with all this.

Getting a head on beer canning — Kenai River Brewing expands capacity with new equipment

Photo by Elaine Howell. Doug Hogue programs a new three-head automated canning line at Kenai River Brewing in Soldotna.

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

These days, the big topic of discussion in Juneau seems to be what must be done to stimulate economic growth in Alaska. Will cutting taxes encourage more oil exploration, or is that just a big giveaway to the oil companies? Given the heated atmosphere surrounding this debate, it’s nice to take a moment to step back and contemplate one industry that’s still booming in this state — craft brewing.

I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating. In 2011, the brewing industry contributed a minimum of 1,340 jobs to Alaska’s economy and generated more than $125 million in economic activity through direct spending and the multiplier effect of that spending in the state.

Not only does the industry bring money into the state from the export of its product outside Alaska, our brewers also provide a product to meet statewide demand that would otherwise have to be imported, thus reducing the amount of money leaving Alaska. Added to that, Alaska’s breweries and brewpubs paid over $27.5 million dollars in state and local taxes and fees in 2011.

Note that those numbers are from 2011. Since then, two more breweries have opened, the Seward Brewing Company and HooDoo Brewing in Fairbanks, and more are in the planning stage. While craft brewing will never replace oil and gas in Alaska’s economy, it still represents a not inconsiderable addition to the overall economic health of our state.

Here on the Kenai, we’re seeing this same sustained, steady growth continue. Besides the new brewpub in Seward mentioned above, Kenai River Brewing in Soldotna has just expanded its production capacity again.

If you’re not a brewer, you may not realize that the bottleneck in the operation of a brewery is usually not the actual “brewhouse.”

Drinking on the Last Frontier: Stars, stripes and suds — Early U.S. presidents had varying tastes in tipping back beverages

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

Image from the New York Public Library. President George Washington hand wrote his own recipe for brewing his “Small Beer.”

 

When most people think about holidays in February, they naturally tend to focus on Valentine’s Day. In my column for February 2010, I tackled the question of pairing beer with chocolate, so I think this February we should focus on another holiday. And not Mardi Gras either, though I guarantee there will be plenty of beer drunk in New Orleans on Feb. 12 this year.

No, this time around I want to talk about Presidents Day. Or, more specifically, the relationship our various Founding Fathers had with beer.

Starting with George Washington, it’s easy to see that the father of our country had a very cordial relationship with beer. Washington was an enthusiastic drinker of porter, the most popular beer of the time, and imported substantial quantities from Britain.

Later, when American dissatisfaction with things like the Stamp Act led the colonials to begin a boycott of British imports, he shifted to American brewers and home-brewing to supply his beer needs.
Indeed, besides being called the father of our country, Washington could also justly be called the father of American home brewers, as there still survives a recipe, written in his own hand, for brewing small beer.

Small beer was the soda pop of its day, being a very low alcohol beer that was drunk by everyone, including women and children, as it was much safer than either water or milk, laced as those were with disease-causing bacteria.

Washington knew how important beer was for good health, and during his time as commander of the Continental Army, did his utmost to ensure that his soldiers were well-supplied with it, writing numerous letters to the Continental Congress on the subject.

After independence was achieved, Washington continued to drink porter but never returned to his former British suppliers. In a letter to Lafayette, written during his presidency, he said, “We have already been too long subject to British Prejudices. I use no porter or cheese in my family but such as is made in America: both these articles may now be purchased of an excellent quality.”

Drinking on the Last Frontier: Growlers — New style, old idea

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo courtesy of Elaine Howell

With the rapid expansion of craft breweries and brewpubs across Alaska and the rest of the country, a new word has entered our everyday speech — growler. Yet while this word may seem new to us, it’s actually quite old.

Originally, the term referred to a galvanized or enameled steel pail with a lid. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, prior to home refrigeration, most people had to purchase their beer from a saloon, even if they wanted to consume it at home. The growler was the means by which a family member, often a woman or a child, would carry the beer from the saloon to their home.

This was referred to as “rushing the growler,” and was so common that many pre-Prohibition saloons had small service windows — nicknamed euphemistically the “family entrance” — to allow growlers to be filled without the woman or child actually entering the saloon proper. It’s thought that the actual name “growler” was derived from the rumbling sound of carbonation escaping by lifting the pail’s lid on the way home.

The images of children rushing beer home to their parents from saloons (and possibly sampling it along the way) were frequently cited by the anti-alcohol crusaders of the Anti-Saloon League. When the ASL finally succeeded in imposing Prohibition on America, it spelled the end of the growler’s original incarnation.

Even when repeal came, the days of children carrying pails of beer home never returned, and soon the development of home refrigeration and canned beer removed the need to transport beer from bar to home. The growler, it seemed, had been consigned to the dustbin of history.

Until craft beer came along.

Dream distilled — Entrepreneurs embrace business spirits

Drinking on the Last Frontier, by Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo courtesy of Elaine Howell. Jeannie Brewer, left, and Felicia Keith-Jones, right, of High Mark Distillery, in Sterling.

As someone who lives there, it certainly would not surprise me to learn that there was a whiskey still somewhere in Sterling. After all, there’s a reason we all chose to live out there, right? However, I was surprised to learn earlier this year that Sterling would be home to a legitimate (as opposed to illicit) distillery.

High Mark Distillery is part of the 10-acre High Mark Ranch, located on Thomas Street, off Scout Lake Road. It is owned by Felicia Keith-Jones, and takes its name from her late husband’s favorite pastime. Other distillery personnel include her executive assistant Jeannie Brewer, her brother and master distiller Ray Keith, and distiller Roger Phillips. The distillery is housed in a 5,000-square-foot building and consists of a 450-liter copper pot still and 23-foot-tall copper column still, both manufactured in Germany specifically for High Mark.

Keith-Jones has an extensive background in the making of spirits, having studied distillation and fermentation at the Dry Fly Distillery in Spokane, Wash., and then spending several months working at a distillery in the town of Ardara in County Donegal, Ireland. She is originally from Alaska and also has a degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

She told me that her vision for High Mark was to fuse “old recipes and traditional techniques with modern technology.”

To that end, she’s purchased state-of-the-art equipment, like her pot and column stills, but will be using them to make spirits in traditional ways.

Drinking on the Last Frontier: Get into holiday spirits

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo courtesy of Elaine Howell

We are heading into the time of year that’s characterized by dinner parties and social gatherings. Since we’re all going to be eating and drinking a lot in the next few weeks, I’d like to talk about pairing craft beer with good food in general, and then make some specific suggestions for beers to accompany a couple of traditional holiday meals.

First, let’s talk about the basics of pairing beer (or any other beverage, for that matter) with food. There are three principles or protocols when pairing with food — cut, contrast and complement. Essentially, you should decide which of these three goals you are expecting the beer to achieve, and let that guide you in making an appropriate selection.
The first protocol is to cut.

Literally, this means you want the beer to cut through the predominant taste or ingredient of a particular dish.

Beer is especially well-suited for this purpose (more so than wine, for example), thanks to its carbonation, which helps to scrub the tongue. Additionally, the bitterness from the hops in beer helps to cut through rich foods. If you are serving a dish with a rich cream sauce, for example, a proper cut choice — perhaps a hoppy, well-carbonated Czech pilsner — will help cleanse your palate between bites, refreshing it and keeping it coming back for more.

Drinking on the Last Frontier: Drink in the craft brew boost — Breweries a historic source of US economic diversity

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

These days, the economy seems to be the No. 1 topic of conversation, at least among the chattering classes. You can’t turn on the television without being assaulted by one presidential candidate or the other (or one of their surrogates) arguing about just how bad the economy is and whose fault is that. However, I hope to keep this column a bit more interesting than the latest election-year folderol, so let’s talk about the economy and beer.

Historically, alcoholic beverages have been mainstays of the American economy, and one of the critical sources of revenue for the federal government, dating all the way back to 1791. During George Washington’s first term as president, Congress passed the very first excise tax on a domestic product, a tax on distilled spirits. The failure of the ensuing Whiskey Rebellion, which President Washington put down at the head of 15,000 troops, established the principle of federal domestic taxation, something we still live with today.

Another rebellion also led to the first real beer tax in the United States. From the time of independence, American beer taxes were largely indirect, typically in the form of licensing fees and duties on malt and hops. That changed during the Civil War (or, more accurately, the War Between the States). On July 1, 1862, Congress authorized a tax of $1 per barrel of beer.

Drinking on the Last Frontier: Brewing birthday cheer(s)

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photo courtesy of Elaine Howell. Brewers at King Street Brewing Co. fill up patrons’ containers with a batch of its India Pale Ale as part of a celebration of the brewery’s one-year anniversary.

Birthdays are funny things. When we are young, they are joyous occasions, marked by parties and gifts. When we reach middle age, we are often happy to just let them pass by unmarked, rather than be reminded that we’re a year older. Then, in our old age, birthdays become something to celebrate again, as each one marks another year we’ve held the Grim Reaper at bay.

When it comes to U.S. craft breweries, there are darn few out there that could qualify as middle-aged. Most are young adults, at best. Alaskan Brewing Company, the oldest craft brewery in Alaska, only turned 25 last December. Most craft breweries in this state are still just teenagers, at best, and some are fresh from the womb, like Seward Brewing Co., which opened its doors Aug. 17. So it makes sense that for these youngsters, birthdays are still something to celebrate.

King Street Brewing Co., at 7924 King St. in Anchorage, just celebrated its first anniversary, having brewed its first batch of Busted Blonde Ale on Aug. 23, 2011. Over the last year, this brewery has produced many exceptional beers, such as their King Street Pilsner and King Street Hefeweizen, and earned quite a following. Such a following, in fact, that they had ordered and just took delivery of two brand-new, 40-barrel conical fermentation tanks. To mark this double milestone, the folks at King Street offered several events.

On Aug. 24, the two new tanks were christened at a party at the brewery. Of course this could not be done with anything so mundane as a bottle of champagne. Instead, King Street smashed glass growlers filled with beer against the tanks, ensuring that they will serve the brewery productively for years to come.

Drinking on the Last Frontier: 2nd fest at its best — Attendees raise glass to Rotary’s Kenai Peninsula Beer Festival

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of Elaine Howell. Attendees visit a brewer’s booth at the second annual Kenai Peninsula Beer Festival on Aug. 11 at the Soldotna Sports Center. Nice weather helped bring out an even-larger-than-last-year crowd.

The real hallmark of success is consistency. After all, doing something well only once could be attributed to beginner’s luck, while being able to repeat an exceptional performance is indicative of luck having nothing to do with it.

Event organizer Matthew Pyhala and the other members of the Soldotna Rotary Club demonstrated Aug. 11 that when it comes to holding a great craft beer festival, they are anything but lucky amateurs. The first Kenai Peninsula Beer Festival in 2011 set a very high bar, but they had absolutely no difficulty surpassing it with this year’s edition.

The second annual festival benefited not only from a new venue, being held this year in the parking lot of the Soldotna Sports Center, but also from gorgeous weather. The warm and sunny Saturday afternoon was perfect for standing outside, listening to great live music and enjoying delicious craft beers from breweries near and far.

The new location allowed for a much-larger area to be encompassed by the festival boundaries. This year’s count of 1,350 far exceeded last year’s 1,000 attendees, but this year’s festival felt less crowded than in 2011. People came from far and wide to attend, with many folks from Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna area making the trek to Soldotna.

Festival-goers were presented with a huge range of beer choices. The 11 in-state brewers  — Alaskan Brewing, Broken Tooth Brewing, Denali Brewing, Glacier Brewhouse, Kassik’s Brewery, Kenai River Brewing, King Street Brewing, Midnight Sun Brewing, Silver Gulch Brewing, Sleeping Lady Brewing and St. Elias Brewing — joined beer distributors Odom Corporation and Specialty Imports, and the local Kenai Peninsula Brewing and Tasting Society, in offering over 50 different beers. For six hours, from opening at 4 p.m. to close at 10 p.m., attendees could wander from booth to booth, sampling beers as the mood struck them.

Drinking on the Last Frontier: Welcome to the Pour House

Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of Elaine Howell. The Pour House is the new iteration of BJ’s in Soldotna. The interior and exterior received a face-lift before opening earlier this month.

I’ve got a couple of items of news this month, one good, one not so good. Let’s start with the good news first.
If you’ve driven through Soldotna lately, you’ve probably noticed that the former BJ’s bar on the corner of Kobuk Street and the Sterling Highway has been enjoying a bit of a makeover, with a new color scheme and some metallic siding. On Tuesday, July 24, it re-opened for business under the name The Pour House.

The Pour House is the brainchild of owner Molly Poland, also of Hooligan’s Saloon, and general manager Dee Roddis. They have transformed the old Soldotna landmark into a bright, new sports bar, serving beer and wine.

The interior of the bar has received a thorough makeover, with the old, rather dark (and thoroughly nicotine-stained) interior giving way to a much more modern look, boasting bright colors, metal trim and numerous flat-screens tuned to various sporting events. You can even sit at a pingpong table and enjoy a game while waiting on your order, or plant yourself at one of the truck tailgates attached to one wall.

A dozen beer taps stand ready to pour, with the standard beer offerings like Stella Artois and Pacifico being supplemented with more local offerings from Alaskan Brewing Co. and Kenai River Brewing Co.