Poor Kid Drinks a Good Beer
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Midnight Sun Brewery
It was a sunny day, so it seemed. Anchorage, Alaska is part marsh, part rain forest, and part crazy landscape and wild animals, will never let you know what the weather will truly be. Being that it was sunny, my partner and I still managed to sleep in and skip our fishing plans entirely. I blame it on the time difference. None the less we still had our hearts set on touring the Midnight Sun Brewery, and we certainly did.
We arived at the Midnight Sun’s location, which is set only a few miles from where we are staying off of Dimond Blvd. Yes, I realize the miss spelling but that is how they spell it up here. I do believe it is someone’s name and not actually the precious gem.
The building is located in an industrial park and is a bit difficult to find for anyone who hasn’t had the good fortune to have visited it before. My partner and I arrived just in time to order a Sockeye Red and Monks Mistress before the manager, and part owner walked up to the swanky loft announcing that tours would start in a few minutes to anyone who would be interested. Did I mention that the tours were free? For anyone who may find themselves up in Anchorage, every Thursday around 6 pm, the Midnight Sun Brewery has free tours, and I highly recommend anything that is free.
The tour starts, myself, my partner, and roughly 10 other people wander down the stairs outside and into the warehouse that is home to all the the fermenters, mash tun, and the like. We hear the quick history of how the Midnight Sun has been around for 15 years, where they moved from, and how unique their brewery is.
In fact the brewery is one of the only ones in Anchorage that has a tasting room and restaurant services available on the upper levels or the warehouse. Each person is allowed to consume 36 oz while they are there. They are also allowed to purchase a growler or any other sealed bottles to take home. Legislature does not allow anyone to be drunk on site, thus the limit of samples any one person is allowed. The loft itself is only open from 11 am to 8 pm, and very strict about last call. There are no shows, or smoking, in attempts to remove themselves from being a bar. The walls however, are covered with art pieces from various local artist.
The first stop on the tour is the grain room, where all of their stock is kept. The hopper is on an upper level platform that filters into a sea foam green grinder. All of their grain is purchased, and the one thing the brewery lacks is a roaster. Not that one cannot make superb beer with prep-packaged grain, but in house roasted barley can lead to some very interesting flavors, and freshness. Likewise their yeast only every makes it to 4th generation before being disposed of and a fresh yeast is introduced. There is something to be said about conistancy, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the Midnight Sun, one of my favorite places in Anchorage, propegate and tweak their yeast into their own unique strain.
Recently the Midnight Sun has been experimenting with open fermentation and Brettanomyces. This makes me very hopeful that the Midnight Sun may be able to adventure past their typical styles of Ales, and into more complex and unique beer styles. Only time will tell where these adventures will lead.
As the tour ended, the group got a few fresh tastes of the Hop Dog, and Pilsner, both great even before the conditioning.
