By Iron Chef Leftovers
Usually when I am on vacation, I like to sample any local beverage I can get, whether it is beer, wine or spirits. Generally, when you go to an area not known for the particular drink you are tasting, it usually ends in disappointment.
Recently, Mrs. Iron Chef and I took off to the Great White North (well actually it was Alaska, not Canada) for a vacation. We found ourselves in a dinky little tourist town called Skagway. Skagway’s claims to fame are that it was a starting point for prospectors during the Yukon Gold Rush and it is the town farthest south on the southeastern coast of Alaska that you can reach by car (everything further south is only accessible by boat or plane). Skagway also has a brewery, conveniently enough named Skagway Brewing. There was a nice little write up in NW Brewing News recently about Skagway Brewing and how they can’t meet demand and their beers are only available at the brewery (the article is on page 25).
Skagway Brewing is located at the very end of the main strip in Skagway, a few minute walk from the docks. The bar is small and crowded, there aren’t many options in Skagway, but the pub has a lot of wood and feels like a brewpub rather than a tourist trap. They have a decent pub food menu and a small tap list – 5 beers brewed in the brewery, a couple of Alaskan Brewing Taps, PBR and a draught Root Beer. The 5 home brewed beers were Spruce Tip Blonde, Prospector Pale, Chilikoot Trail IPA, Boom Town Brown and Blue Top Porter.
All of their beers were good; a couple were exceptional. I liked the Pale, Brown and IPA – the IPA being surprisingly hoppy and full bodied. The Pale and the Brown were both drinkable and I would not turn down a pint of either if someone put one in front of me. The two standouts were the Blonde and the Porter. I was absolutely in love with the Porter and drank that the entire time I was there. It was a cool cloudy day and the Porter provided the right amount of malty smoothness with a hint of chocolate that came with each sip but did not linger, even after 4 pints of the stuff. The beer lacks the heaviness of a stout and I felt like I could keep drinking it all day without getting a feeling of being full. The Blue Top Porter was easily one of the 5 best porters I have ever consumed.
The Blonde would be my second choice of beers from Skagway. The NW Brewing Article quotes the brewer that the Spruce Tip outsells their other beer 5 to 1 when it is available. I am always skeptical about beers that have strange ingredients – they can go from interesting to cloying in a hurry. Spruce Tip Blonde is not one of those. When you first smell this beer, you get a light aroma of being in the forest on a nice summer day – not a smell of a pine scented air freshener, despite 300 pounds of hand-picked spruce tips being included in the batch. Tasting the beer provided a second level of enjoyment – I didn’t taste pine at all, but subtle fruity (almost raspberry) hit on the front of the palate which gave way to a crisp and refreshing sensation from the beer itself. You could definitely taste what was a very nice blonde on the back of the palate.
Sadly, since we were 4 days from returning home and the beer is only available on tap, growlers were not an option, otherwise we would have come home with the world’s biggest 6 pack. If Skagway ever gets the ability to expand and can distribute their beers to a wider audience, try them; otherwise you will need to make the almost 1,100 mile trip by boat (or 2,000+ mile trip by car) to Skagway to sample the beers. Heck, I would probably make the trip again just to drink the Porter that I am sitting here thinking about longingly.
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