Here are the winners from this weekend’s Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival in Anchorage, Alaska.
And here are a few photos from the event, courtesy of Tom Dalldorf from the Celebrator Beer News.
Dick Cantwell, brewer/co-owner of Elysian Brewing in Seattle, with an English volunteer, and Sam Calagione, from Dogfish Head Brewing in Delaware, enjoying themselves at the Elysian Booth during the festival.
Adrienne McMullen, Nico Freccia, both from 21st Amendment Brewery, with presumably a volunteer, all sporting their watermelon wheat chapeaus.
John Burket, head of craft brands for Odom Distributing, Sam Calagione, from Dogfish Head in Delaware, and Dick Cantwell, from Elysian Brewery in Seattle, Washington, checking out the selection offered in a staggering 42 cold box doors at a retail outlet in Anchorage, Alaska.
UPDATE: The Beer Geeks, Chris & Meridith, have a great write-up on their own trip to the Alaska festival, and they’ve also posted a blizzard of photos from the festival and its surroundings.
Last month, Monk’s Cafe and Beer Emporium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hosted a unique beer dinner with beer cook Lucy Saunders at the helm to support her new book, Grilling with Beer. All of the beers paired with each course was a craft beer in a can. A growing trend among small brewers, there are better than two dozen now putting their beer in a can. The Philadelphia Inquirer attended and reviewed the dinner, titling their article “Can do — craft-beer makers kicking glass, going metal.” Lucy sent me some of her photos from the dinner.
Lucy also was kind enough to provide her write-up of the event:
Craft brewers certainly can be proud of canned beer - at least, that’s the take-home message from a celebration of all-American grilled food and canned brews at Monk’s Café, Philadelphia, PA, in May.
To help Lucy Saunders launch her newest book, Grilling with Beer, Chef Adam Glickman and his culinary team prepared a banquet of BBQ ribs and fixings. Hosts Fergus Carey and Tom Peters called on top craft brewers offering their wares in cans to share the bounty.
Answering the call from San Francisco, California, brewer Shaun O’Sullivan of the 21st Amendment traveled cross-continent to celebrate his birthday at Monk’s, bringing both the stellar Watermelon Wheat Ale and the IPA in cans. Chuck Williamson drove all the way from Garrattsville, across NY state to deliver cold cases of Heinnieweisse to the door. (Cans do travel well, provided they are kept cold.)
Stacks of cans grew like Great Pyramids of Giza on tabletops, as we sampled skewers of apricot-wheat ale chicken, Malt Monster Shrimp with 21st Amendment’s Watermelon Wheat and the Butternuts Heinnieweisse. Brooklyn Lager paired with Chef Glickman’s grilled asparagus salad, and Dale’s Pale Ale partnered with the Porter Ginger Salmon Skewers. Sly Fox’s tasty canned offerings accompanied the beerbistro’s tender Apple Ale Ribs (braised in Éphémère Pomme before finishing on the new grill in Monk’s kitchen).
And at the end, we pulled the pop-tops off of cans of Old Chub Scottish ale, malty and rich enough to handle the Adult S’mores, stuffed with melted bittersweet Belgian chocolate and marshmallows made with St. Bernardus.
It was a cook-out to celebrate craft beer tasting just as the brewers intended, served from cool and classic aluminum cans, so convenient for any BBQ with beer. That’s why I think of cans as mini-kegs, perfect for keeping flavors fresh.
Shaun O’Sullivan from 21st Amendment, Fergie Carey, co-owner of Monk’s, Lucy Saunders, the beer cook, and Tom Peters, also co-owner of Monk’s.
For more photos by Lucy Saunders from the beer dinner, visit the photo gallery.
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Last Saturday, while I was attending the Santa Rosa Beerfest, 550 miles to the north in Eugene, Oregon, another beer festival was taking place. The fifth annual Sasquatch Brew Fest is a benefit for the Glen Hay Falconer Foundation, a charity set up after the untimely death of the well-known Eugene brewer in 2002. The Foundation provides scholarships for brewers to attend the Siebel Institute in Chicago.
Shaun O’Sullivan, co-founder and brewmaster of 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, attended the festival and was kind enough to share some of his photos. Thanks Shaun.
Jamie Floyd, from Ninkasi Brewing, John Maier, from Rogue Brewing, and Nikos Ridge, also from Ninkasi.
Shaun O’Sullivan, co-founder and brewmaster of 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, and his girlfriend Adrienne McMullen.
For more photos from this year’s Sasquatch Brew Fest, visit the photo gallery.
A friend of mine (thanks, Shaun) was going through the airport at Portland and happened upon the new temporary space for Laurelwood at the airport and thought he’d share some photos. It’s certainly nice to see better beer making inroads at airports. There are several other rumors of breweries planning spots at airports all over the map, which is a great trend for those of us who do some traveling.
This way to Laurelwood.
Not everyone — gasp — wants a beer when they fly so there are also coffee and pastries available.
And a case filled with bottled beer for those of us who do.
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The results are in for the 2007 Great Alaskan Beer & Barley Wine Festival.
Here are the top three Barley Wine winners:
Results courtesy of Tom Dalldorf, publisher of the Celebrator Beer News.
A couple of weeks ago the Portland Holiday Ale festival was held in the Rose City and award-winning beer writer — and Portland resident — Lisa Morrison was on hand to sample the holiday beers. Lisa filed this report along with a few pictures from the festival. Thanks, Lisa, for sharing the festival with us!
I don’t have a lot of detail on how well the fest was attended or anything, but I do know the “buzz” beer was called Jim, named after Jim Kennedy, one of the patriarchs of Portland beer and, really, one of the founding fathers of the good beer movement nationally. It was created by Preston Weesner and Alan Sprints (Hair of the Dog). It was conceptualized one day when the two were sitting around talking and enjoying some beer and cheese. Preston said Maredsous 8 was always a “Jim beer” for him in that he thought of Jim whenever he enjoyed it. They worked on a blend of some Hair of the Dog beers with a keg of M8 and Alan painstakingly aged it in oak barrels until the fest. Truly a one-time, one-of-a-kind beer that was appreciated and celebrated by all. A fitting tribute to a really great guy.
Fest-goer Eric Bressman shows off a T-shirt from recent travels while enjoying a beer at the fest.
Having some fun at the Holiday Ale Festival.
Chris Crabb, who does PR and is an organizer for the event, keeping chaos under control. With a smile, even!
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