February 18 - April 29, 2018
Beer Tasting and Palette Training Class - Anchorage,
Alaska
Description of the Study Course: This course is limited to 40 people. There will be a waiting list for those to take the place of anyone who does not show up for the first class.
Classes will be held:
February 19, 25
March 4, 11, 18, and 25
April 8, 15, 22, and 29
Time: The first class of the The Beer Tasting and Palette Training course will be on February 19 starting at 5:00 p.m.
Location: The course will be held in at Café Amsterdam (530 East Benson #3).
Costs: $50.00 which is due at the first class.
This class is intended to prepare people to take the BJCP Tasting Examination.
For more information about the short course and/or the BJCP ecaminations please contact Kevin Sobolesky at metkonig@gmail.com or (907) 903-1056.
May 5, 2018
Zymurgist Borealis National Homebrew Day/Big Brew Celebration - Fairbanks,
Alaska
The Zymurgist Borealis Homebrew Club will meet on
Saturday, May 5 starting at about noon off of Chena Pump Road at the Chena Pump Campgrounds (Google Maps refers to it as the Tanana Wayside and Boat Launch).
Come and join us in our celebration of National Homebrew
Day in which we commemorate the legalization of homebrewing.
There will be a a potluck and, of course, homebrew/mead to share and sample.
The meeting will
take place rain or snow or shine.
...and now for a bit of history. The Cranston Bill (introduced by Senator Alan Cranston of California) legalized homebrewing on the federal level by calling for an exemption from taxation of beer brewed at home for personal or family use. H.R. 1337, which included the Cranston Bill, was signed on October 14, 1978 by President"Jimmy" Carter. The tax exemption and, therefore, the legalization of homebrewing went into effect on February 1, 1979.
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Shown above is a view of the campgrounds seen from Chena Pump Road (coming from the Geist Road).We usually meet at the shelter shown on the right.
The coordinates of the shelter we meet at are about: 64.795° N, 147.953° W. |
For more information contact Scott
Stihler at stihlerunits@mosquitobytes.com or (907) 474-2138.
May 25 & 26 , 2018
26th Annual Great Alaska Craft Beer and Home Brew Festival - Haines, Alaska
This event consists of three parts.
On May 25 there is an BJCP sanctioned homebrew competition (see below for details) and a beer dinner. On May 26 there is a beer festival.
Beer Dinner: SOLD OUT
Location: Harriet Hall at the Southeast Alaska State Fairgrounds
Time: May 26 at 6:00 p.m.
Cost: $80 per person.
Description: This will be five course gourmet dinner with each course paired craft beers. A menu of what the food will be may be found at: http://www.seakfair.org/events/beer-fest
The tickets will be mailed to you. The tickets and a valid photo ID are required for entry into the dinner.
For additional information contact the director of the Southeast Alaska State Fair office at (907) 766-2476 or director@seakfair.org.
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Beer Festival: SOLD OUT
Must be at least 21 years old to attend!
Location: Dalton City located at the Southeast Alaska State Fairgrounds
Time: May 26
Connoisseur's Tasting: 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
General Tasting: 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Cost:
Connoisseur's Tasting: $60.00 per person
General Tasting $40.00 per person. Tickets may be purchased at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2801012. Note that there is also a service charge of $2.39 per person bringing the total up to $42.39 per person.
Description: Including in the cost are a custom sample glass and several beer samples. There will be a beer festival in which several breweries from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest are represented. There will be live music on stage throughout the day. Food will be available for purchase from various vendors.
There will be a free shuttle service between downtown Haines and the fairgrounds.
Note that only a limited number of tickets are sold and will like sell out prior to the event which was the case for the past four years. If tickets are still availble they will also be sold at the event entrance.
Tickets purchased online will be mailed to you. The tickets and a valid photo ID are required for entry into the beer festival.
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Homebrew Competition:
This is a AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition.
Accepted BJCP styles: All BJCP styles beer, mead and cider will be accepted. Only one entry per subcategory person is allowed (e.g one can entry a dry stout, a sweet stout and an oatmeal stout but not three sweet stouts).
Entry Fee: $5.00 for the first entry and $3.00 for each additional entry. Please make checks out to Robert Miller.
Number of bottles required: Two 12 oz. bottles per entry. The bottles should be free of ink, paint or labels.
Entries may be dropped off or shipped (do not mail) to:
Attn: Kent Ficek
Alaskan Brewing and Bottling Company
5429 Shaune Drive
Juneau, AK 99801
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Haines Brewing Company
4th and Main Street
Haines, AK 99827
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Arctic Brewing Supply
8401 Sandlewood Place
Anchorage, AK 99507
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Attn: Jessica Wilken
HooDoo Brewing Company
1951 Fox Avenue
Fairbanks, AK 99701 |
or
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Attn: Marko Marjanovic
Winterlong Brewery
83 Mount Sima Road
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory |
Entry Deadline: Entries must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 17 at the Anchorage location, 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22 at 5:00 p.m. at the Junea, Fairbanks and Whitehorse locations and Wednesday, May 24 at 3:00 p.m. in Haines.
Entries shipped via private carrier must be recieved at Alaskan Brewing Company no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 21.
Judging: The first flight of judging wiill take place starting at 9:00 a.m. on May 25. The second flight of judgine will take place starting at 1:00 p.m. on May 25. Judges and stewards will receive a free pass to the beer festival (but not the beer dinner).
The winners will be announced on Saturday, May 26 during the beer festival.
For additional information regarding the homebrew competition please go to: http://www.seakfair.org/beer-fest and/or contact Rob Miller at hainesbrewfest@gmail.com or (907) 303-0075.
The contacts for the 26th Annual Great Alaska Craftbeer and Homebrewer Festival in general are the Southeast Alaska State Fair director - (907) 766-2476 or director@seakfair.org
July 14, 2018
E.T. Barnette Homebrew Competition - Fox, Alaska
This is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition.
The Grand Prize for Best of Show is $500!
Prizes will also be awarded for 1st, 2nd
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Entry Fee: Please include a check
or money order for $5.00 per entry. Checks or money orders should be made
out to Scott Stihler.
Number of bottles required: Three 12-16 oz. brown or green bottles per entry. Crown topped bottles are preferred but flip-top (i.e. Grolsch type bottles) are okay. The bottles should be free of any ink, paint or labels. Entries
with labels will be disqualified and the corresponding entry fees will
be considered donations to the prize fund!
Entries will be accepted: June 18 to July 11, 2018 at 5:30 p.m. - No Exceptions!
Judging: Judging will take place
on Saturday, July 14th at the Silver Gulch Brewing and Bottling Company
in Fox starting at about 10:00 a.m. The best entry from each of the
seven judged categories will be entered into the final round of judging
to determine the Best of Show.
The Judged Categories* |
Pale Bitter European Lager - 5
A. German Leichtbier
B. Kölsch
C. German Helles Exportbier
D. German Pils
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British Bitter - 11
A. Ordinary Bitter
B. Best Bitter
C. Strong Bitter |
Dark British Beer - 16
A. Sweet Stout
B. Oatmeal Stout
C. Tropical Stout
D. Foreign Extra Stout
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Pale American Ale - 18
A. Blonde Ale
B. American Pale Ale
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Amber and Brown American Beer - 19
A. American Amber Ale
B. California Common
C. American Brown Ale |
Belgian Ale - 24
A. Witbier
B. Belgian Pale Ale
C. Bière de Garde |
Fruit/Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Beer - 29A, 29B and 30A
Fruit
Beer - 29A
Fruit and Spice Beer - 29B
Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Beer - 30A |
*In this table, the numbers represent
the BJCP categories while the letters correspond to the subcategories. Information regarding the above categories and subcategories may be found by at: http://bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Beer.pdf.
Depending upon the number
of entries in each of the seven categories it may be necessary to consolidate
two underrepresented categories or subcategories into a single one. We have never actually done this though.
Entry Shipping: Entries should be
shipped by DHL, UPS etc. to the following address:
ETBHC
c/o Silver Gulch Brewing and Bottling Company
2195 Old Steese Highway North
Fox, Alaska 99712
(907) 452-2739 |
There is no mail delivery
to the above address! Items mailed to that address go to a post office
not frequented by the folks at Silver Gulch. Aside from the legalities
(or lack thereof) of sending entries via the U.S. Postal Service, doing
so will result in them not being picked up in time
for the competition. Please do NOT use the U.S. Mail for shipment of your
entries!!!
Shipping to Alaska is a bit more
expensive than doing so in the contiguous United States. To save yourself
some money you might wish to consider entering the competition with
a friend or group of friends and sharing the shipping costs.
Please note that UPS Red to Alaska is NOT delivered the next day. Although
one pays for this service such packages are delivered in two business
days. Likewise, UPS Blue to Alaska is really
delivered in three to five business days. Please keep this in mind when
shipping your entries.
For several years we've been telling folks that due to the large area covered by the 99712 zip code* none of the private carriers (e.g. UPS Ground, DHL, Airbourne Express etc.) will ship to the brewery via their ground based service. This may not necessarily be the case. Apparently at least some private carriers will deliver to Silver Gulch via their ground based shipping. There is a caveat to this, however. We’ve heard that the delivery times for ground based shipments are extremely variable and one cannot depend on items being delivered by a particular date. We therefore, still suggest shipping your entries by means of Overnight or Second-day Delivery.
Note that we do not know if shipping to Fox via ground is universal. You should check with your carrier and confirm that your package will indeed be shipped by the carrier all the way to Fox. Previously problems arose from ground based shipping because the entries reached Anchorage and then were mailed to Fox. Apart from this being illegal the entries were not received. At any rate, if you decide to use ground based shipping please ship your items as soon as possible.
When packaging your entries please
be sure to use large amounts of
bubble wrap and other packing materials.We recommend placing each
bottle within a large zip-lock bag prior to bubble wrapping. We also recommend placing the paperwork and entry fees in a ziplock bag. If shipping multiple entries please place all of the paperwork at the top of the package to act as a sort of packing list. Lining
the shipping box with a garbage bag which is then sealed around all
of the entries, packing materials etc. is also not a bad idea. Taking such
precautions should ensure that the package still be delivered despite
any mishaps which may happen along the way.
Please note that FedEx no longer delivers to Fox. Entries shipped via FedEx will end up sitting in a warehouse near the airport in Fairbanks. Such entries will not be received and, therefore, will not be entered into the competition. Please do NOT ship your entries via FedEx!
Entry Drop off: Entries may also
be dropped off at the Silver Gulch Brewing and Bottling Company's retail store after 4:00 p.m. on week days and after 11:00 a.m. on weekends. Please
have the entries in six-pack carriers and/or boxes; make the entries
as self-contained as possible with the bottles, paperwork and entry fees all together. Do not attempt to give the entry fees to the folks at Silver Gulch separately. On the final day (i.e. July 13), entries are due by 5:30 p.m.
Entry/Bottle ID Forms: The Entry
and Bottle ID Forms may be printed from the links below. We recommend you use them, however, the standard
AHA/BJCP forms may also be used. If the AHA/BJCP forms are used please be sure to include your T-shirt size and e-mail address on that form.
Since bottles have been known to break in transit we recommend putting
the Entry Form and your check or money order in a separate zip-lock bag. Also please
attach Bottle ID Forms to each of the three bottles per entry with rubber
bands (Please do NOT use tape or glue!). If the tape or glue is used to attached these forms to the bottles, the offending entry or entries may be disqualified and the entry fee considered a donation to the cause. Whether or not such an entry is disqualified depends upon the degree to which the tape and/or glue was used AND mood of the Registrar and Organizer at the time said entry or entries were checked in. Yes, these criteria are rather arbitrary. However, one can avoid this issue entirely by simply NOT taping or gluing the Bottle ID forms to the bottles.
Three bottles per entry are
required just in case there are sufficient entries to warrant multiple
flights during the initial round of judging. Also the additional bottles are added insurance against the loss of an entire entry due to breakage. Because of the logistics
involved unused bottles will not be returned.
Please indicate on the Entry Form
which of Category and Subcategory to which you wish to entry your beer.
A complete listing of the BJCP style guidelines may be found at the
following URL: http://bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Beer.pdf.
In the Belgian Ale Category (24) if entering the subcategory 24C (Bièr de Garde) please indicate on the Entry Form the color of your Bièr de Garde entry (i.e. brown, amber or blond).
Note that one
MUST indicate the Classic Beer Style for
entries in the Fruit/Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer category. Please indicate
the classic beer style in the space provided on the Entry Form and include
the category number and subcategory letter. For example, for a Brussels Sprouts Witbier, the classic style would be Cateogory 24: Belgian Ale, Subcategory 24A: Witbier. If you do not indicate the classic beer style for Fruit/Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Beer entries then beer styles will be randomly assigned to each of these entries!
Extra awards: In addition to the normal competition we have the Battered Bottle Cap Award for the most humorous beer name and the Globe Trotter Award for the farthest traveled entry.
We also give out the Club Spirit Award which is to recognize and honor homebrew clubs which support our competition. Individuals who support the competition above and beyond the call of duty are also recognized. Three or more separate entrants specifying their respective
homebrew club will receive the Club Spirit Award. Individuals
with five or more entries and, therefore, have plenty of club
spirit all by themselves, will also receive this prestigious award.
In 2009 we introduced The Order of the Bronze Hyphen. A hyphen as in what separates the words anal and retentive. This award is given to those entrants who follow directions and show a high degree of attention to detail and legibility when filling out their paperwork. These entrants not only filled out the paperwork completely and legibly but they also took measures to prevent and contain breakages without being excessive.
A few FYI's for new entrants:
(1) This is pretty much an internet based competition. We will notify you of developments with respect to the competition via e-mail.
(2) We try to stay out of the way of the good folks at Silver Gulch as much as possible. We will come in on the evening/night of the final day in which entries are accepted (i.e. July 11) to check them in. Please use your tracking number to check on the status of the entry package. Please do NOT call Silver Gulch! If there are problems with the tracking, contact the shipping carrier your used (e.g. UPS). The good folks at Silver Gulch do not have time to go looking for your package. Please do not bother them.
(3) Please check your e-mail on Thursday, July 12. After checking in entries we send an e-mail to the entrants telling them that their entries arrived okay. If there is some sort of problem with an entry we will notify you at that time as well. Since we often do not finish checking in entries until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., the e-mails may not be sent out until the next morning. We generally send them out when we get back home but if we are particularly tired we may blow that off until the morning/afternoon (i.e. later in the day). If you do not hear from us sometime on Thursday then there may be some sort of problem and you should contact us ASAP.Please note that even if the tracking shows the entries were delivered look for a email confirmation from us. A few times in the past not all of the entries were put in the same place so some of them were not checked in with the other entries. Had we not gotten notification from the entrants that there was something wrong, those entries likely would not have been checked in and evaluated.
LOOK FOR AN E-MAIL FROM US!!!
If you do not list an e-mail address on your entry forms and there is some sort of problem we will call you some time on Thursday.
(4) We will notify the Best of Show winner with a phone call from Silver Gulch shortly after the overall winner has been determined. We are generally finished with the judging between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. ADT (i.e. 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. EDT).
(5) A results webpage is constructed and generally posted on the Sunday following the competition. We will send out an e-mail notifying the entrants that the results are posted and provide a direct link to the results webpage. Please do not ask us for the results prior to this.
(6) On the Monday following the competition (i.e. July 16) a certified check for $500 will be mailed to the Best of Show winner via U.S.P.S. Express Mail.
(7) The entrants' prize packages and competition score sheets are generally mail out 3-4 weeks following the competition. An e-mail will be sent out to the entrants notifying them that the prize packages are on the way.
We
need experienced judges to help out with the judging on July 14!!!
If you'd like to judge or need more
information about the E.T. Barnett Homebrew Competition please contact
Scott Stihler at home - (907) 474-2138, work - (907) 474-5450 or stihlerunits@mosquitobytes.com.
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*
Note that I was curious as to exactly how large an area is covered by the 99712 zip code. I went online (http://www.zip-codes.com/zip-code/99712/zip-code-99712.asp) and found that the 99712 zip code encompasses about 3,530 sq. miles (9,144 sq. km). This is greater than the areas of the states of Delaware (2,489 sq. miles/6,446 sq. km) and Rhode Island (1,545 sq. miles/4,001 sq. km). In fact, it is over twice the area of Rhode Island. Hmmm...the area of the 99712 zip code turned out to be a bit larger than I had expected.
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Forms Needed for the
E.T. Barnette Homebrew Competition |
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E.T. Barnette's Competition Advise
(click the images to hear what he has to say) |
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Pictures and Summaries of Previous Events:
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Below
is a listing of beer-related events taking place in Alaska during 2018.
Upcoming events for which I have information are listed above and the
details are given there. The dates of several of the events listed below
may not be known at present (or at least not known to me). This information
will be updated when I have more details. Most events listed here are
annual events and although the exact dates may vary from year to year
the approximate dates are correct and can be used as a guide to the
remainder of the year as well as next year.
The
Following Events are for the Year 2018
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January 19 & 20 |
Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival - Anchorage, Alaska |
February 17 |
Frozen RiverFest - Soldotna, Alaska |
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March 4 |
Fur Rondy Homebrew Competition - Anchorage, Alaska |
April 21
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Taste of Alaska Beer Festival - Fairbanks, Alaska |
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Late June
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Euphoria Denali - Healy, Alaska |
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July 14 |
Golden Days Beer Fest - Fox, Alaska |
Late July |
The Culmination Beer Festival - Anchorage, Alaska |
Early August |
Downriver Beer Festival - Fairbanks, Alaska |
Early August |
Augtoberfest - Healy, Alaska |
Mid-August |
Kenai Peninsula Beer Festival - Soldotna, Alaska |
Early September |
Alaska Crafted Festival - Anchorage, Alaska |
Mid-September |
Talkeetna Beer Festival - Talkeetna, Alaska |
September 22 |
Capital Brewfest - Juneau, Alaska |
Late September |
Zymurgist
Borealis Septemberfest - Fairbanks, Alaska |
Late September - Early October |
HooDoo ChooChoo - On a train traveling from Fairbanks-Nenana-Fairbanks, Alaska |
Early October
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Eagle River Brewfest - Eagle River, Alaska |
Early October |
Oktoberfest and Home Brew Competition - Valdez, Alaska |
Early October |
Great Alaska Beer
Train - On a train traveling from Anchorage- Portage-Anchorage, Alaska |
Early October |
Anchor Town Invitational Homebrew Competition - Anchorage, Alaska |
Mid-October |
Alaskan Homebrew Competition - Juneau, Alaska |
Late October |
Mighty Matanuska Boo Fest - Palmer, Alaska |
Early November |
Beers by the Bay - Seward, Alaska |
Early November |
Bodega-Fest - Anchorage, Alaska |
Early December |
Humpy's Big Fish Homebrew Competition - Anchorage, Alaska |
If you have any information regarding a beer related event that should be listed in this calendar please contact Scott Stihler at stihlerunits@mosquitobytes.com or (907) 474-2138.
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You can follow the Alaska Beer Events on Twitter by clicking the link below.
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