More than 80 beer enthusiasts answered the ads run in the Celebrator
Beer News for this year’s Brews Cruise, founded by All
About Beer Magazine 10 years ago. I was once again asked to
be the onboard beer “guru” for the various beer
appreciation sessions taking place during the cruise. Our last
beery voyage had a lively turnout of some 35 eager beer seekers,
but this year’s group set new records for the event, which
was organized by Michael Weil from Magic Happens Travel in Cary,
North Carolina.
Most of us arrived in Seattle, our city of embarkation, the
night before the sail date and were treated to beer tastings,
wonderful food and a tour by Charles and Rose Ann Finkel, owners
of Pike Brewing Company in the famed Pike Place Market.
We all boarded the ship the next morning. We headed to one of
the larger meeting rooms for a celebration of local beer from
Seattle beer venues from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Pouring for
our onboard mini-festival were Elysian Brewing, Big Time Brewery
and Pike Brewing. We also enjoyed the spectacular imports of
Merchant du Vin, whose offices are in Seattle. We got under
way by 4:00 p.m. on a picture-perfect sunny Seattle afternoon.
Given the size of our group, we had to use the larger club venues
on board for our tasting sessions. The first night, heading
out of Seattle toward the Inside Passage, we gathered in the
Constellation nightclub for a tasting in the round. “Hi,
how are you?” beers were served, giving us a great opportunity
to meet and greet our fellow Brews Cruise travelers.
The next night we gathered again in the Constellation lounge
for our first session, Beer 101: Beer History. This session
served to make sure everyone was reasonably familiar with common
beer styles and terminology. Nothing too serious, mind you,
and no test either! Some eyes (and palates) were opened by the
time we got to Duchesse de Bourgogne, La Fin du Monde and Cuvée
René. Serious beer here!
Our third day included a tour of Ketchikan (another drinking
village with a fishing problem) in the daytime and a session
of Hoppiness featuring IPAs and double IPAs that night back
in the Constellation lounge. We calibrated everyone’s
palate with the classic Anchor Liberty Ale and went on to enjoy
a lupulin romp through Elysian Jasmine IPA, Bear Republic Racer
5, Lagunitas and Big Time IPAs. We were hop-smacked by Firestone
Walker Double Jack, Port Brewing Mongo and Avery Maharaja double
IPAs. Yeow! And the 80-odd (some of them very odd) beer lovers
begged for more. We’ll have to rename our event the Hophead
Cruise!
| Great beer and food and superb hospitality seem to be
hallmarks of Alaskan Brewing and Alaska itself |
The Hop Night survivors awoke to the ship winding its way slowly
in the ice fields of the Tracy Arm Fjord to get up close and
personal with a glacier. Spectacular doesn’t quite describe
the experience.
We made it into the state capital of Juneau at 2:30 p.m.,
dropped anchor (not the beer, silly) in the harbor and took
tenders (large enclosed motor launches) to our onshore buses
for trips to the Mendenhall Glacier and Alaskan Brewing Company.
We split up the group for our tours and tastings, as the brewery
is not capable of handling 80 people.
Following the brewery tour, we were bused across the harbor
to Douglas Island, where we enjoyed a catered dinner and (you
guessed it) more beer at a large beachfront facility. The event
was put on by the staff of Alaskan Brewing. Founders and owners
Geoff and Marcy Larson graciously helped conduct the tours and
were on hand for the beachfront party as well. Great beer and
food and superb hospitality seem to be hallmarks of Alaskan
Brewing and Alaska itself.
The next morning we woke up to another harbor — this time
the tiny village of Skagway (the end of the line for miners
heading to the gold fields of Alaska nearly 150 years ago).
We had another kind of gold in mind — a golden glass of
pale ale from one of the smallest breweries in the United States.
A small but fast ferry took us across the sound to the remote
fishing village of Haines, Alaska, where we enjoyed a tutored
bus tour of some truly spectacular wildlife. The largest concentration
of bald eagles is to be found here, and yes, we saw some bears
too — up close and very personal! The tour guide (who
said he hadn’t lost a tourist yet) let us stand one by
one in the open door of our bus to take pictures of the mama
bear and her two very grown up cubs, who were feasting on the
dying salmon in the river only 30 feet away. Don’t tell
Stephen Colbert.
The highlight was a visit to what remains of the Disney set
for the movie White Fang, based on a Jack London story and filmed
entirely in Haines in 1990. The set was to be torn down (burned,
actually) by Disney, but the locals saved the buildings and
moved them to the state fairgrounds nearby, where they are now
serving as small shops and, oh yes, a very small brewery!
Haines Brewing and owner-brewer Paul Wheeler greeted us and
had a large exhibition building on the fairgrounds set up
for a smoked salmon tasting from Dejon Delights along with
Wheeler’s wonderful beers, brewed in a 3.5-barrel copper
kettle and seven-barrel fermenters. Our tasting was accompanied
by a talented trio of musicians who did a few beer songs (someone
must have tipped them off) on guitar, banjo and trombone.
Very Haines.
| Some eyes (and palates) were opened by the time we got
to Duchesse de Bourgogne, La Fin du Monde and Cuvée
René. Serious beer here! |
Wheeler’s beers are excellent, from the opening pale
ale to his kick-ass Bigger Hammer barley wine. Stand-outs
included the Eldred Rock Amber, with a boatload of Cascade
hops (and named for the lighthouse established after a boatload
of gold sank, back in the gold rush days), and a beer packed
with local spruce tips that have only a two-day “sweet
spot” between being too young and too bitter. Wheeler’s
IPA and stout were first-rate, but the hopheads on this cruise
really went for the double IPA, which packed quite a hop wallop.
About a dozen different kinds of pizza were served after the
tasting to accompany the serious drinking. Two of them were
made with salmon sausage, which the pizza guy said he couldn’t
sell to the locals because they eat salmon for almost every
meal! We left Haines (no underwear jokes, please) sated and
glowing from the great brewery hospitality. Be sure to check
out the Haines Beer Fest, held every Memorial Day weekend
— a long trip but worth it for the beer and the incredible
wilderness setting.
The next day was spent at sea, heading back down to Victoria,
B.C., for our pub/brewery crawl. That night we had the last
onboard tasting seminar, featuring big beers. The session
began with the champagne of bottled beers (no, not Miller),
Malheur Brut Reserve, and we waddled our way through Russian
River Damnation, Celebrator Doppelbock, Maredsous 10, Three
Philosophers, a duo of Sierra Nevada vintage Bigfoot Barleywine-Style
Ales (’07 and ’11), Midnight Sun’s Fallen
Angel from Anchorage, The Lost Abbey’s 10 Commandments
and a big-beer finish with Urthel Samaranth quadruple, just
’cause. Happy faces and palates all around.
The seat of Parliament in British Columbia is Victoria, a
diminutive town for a capital, on the bottom tip of Vancouver
Island across the sound from Seattle — hence the temperate
climate and U.S. expats looking for English gentility and
government-mandated health care. Our last port of call had
Brews Cruisers choosing among walking the town, going by bus
to the fabulous Butchart Gardens or taking a bus tour of local
breweries.
We began with a visit to Phillips Brewing, with a tour and
tasting hosted by Matt Phillips. Don Bradley greeted us at
the Moon Under Water brewpub, another new contribution to
the Victoria beer scene. The legendary and knowledgeable Paul
Hatfield and his Spinnakers Brewpub showed maximum hospitality
to our intrepid group, and we finished across the harbor,
back in downtown Victoria at the Canoe Brewpub and Swans Brewpub,
just up the street.
Our visit was arranged by Celebrator British Columbia
correspondent John Rowling and Great Canadian Beer Festival
Director Gerry Hieter. Many thanks to them and to the Victoria
brewers for a magnificent finale to a masterfully beery and
hop-laden cruise. Plans are already in the works for another
Brews Cruise, so stay tuned to this brewspaper for details. |
