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.

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Stop 3 – Anacortes Brewing/Rock Fish Grill in Anacortes

A hop, skip and a jump down winding Chuckanut Drive (and after an emergency bathroom break), lies Anacortes, Washington – a sleepy little waterside community known for Whale Watching, its ferry terminal, the Tesoro refinery and Anacortes Brewing, possibly the best top to bottom brewery in the state of Washington. Rock Fish Grill is the restaurant attached to Anacortes Brewing and they serve up some tasty food as well as all of Anacortes’s beers and are located right in the heart of downtown Anacortes on Commercial Street.

The Beer – OK, so this is going to be a slightly biased review. I REALLY like pretty much anything that Anacortes makes and they have a pretty extensive lineup of beers – they were pouring somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 beers when we were there, with styles ranging from Maibock to IPA to Belgians. I am a big supporter of Anacortes IPA – I consider this to be the best IPA in the Northwest and quite possibly the world. Their IPA is a tremendously balanced beer with just the right amounts of hoppiness, bitterness and flora aromas. Strangely enough, I did not actually order the IPA (although that is what came home with me in the growler). I indulged in my second favorite beer in the Anacortes lineup – their seasonal Mai Oh Maibock. The Maibock is the kind of beer I look for on a warm summer day – malty and refreshing with a bit of hops on the back of the palate. The one beer they had on tap, which I had not tried before, was the Bourbon Barrel Aged Blonde (say that one three times fast). I am really not at fan of barrel-aged beers – they tend to be overly oaked and remind me of chewing on wood. It is the same reason why I tend not to like oaked chardonnay; all you taste is wood. The Blonde was surprisingly well done. Don’t get me wrong, there is no mistaking that this beer ended up in a Bourbon barrel, but it didn’t whack you over the head with that flavor and you could surprisingly taste the beer (Blonde isn’t exactly a heavy style), making it more than just a one dimensional beverage. With a alcohol level approaching 9%, you probably wouldn’t want more than one, but you are not exactly going to chug it either. Alas, Anacortes’s beers are available on tap only and don’t make appearances in Seattle in any great quantity (you will usually find a handful of places with it on tap), so I would recommend taking home as many as you can before you leave. Overall, I would give their beers 5 Sebastidae out of 5. Heck, the only thing keeping the beer from being 6 Rock Fish out of 5 is that you can only get it on tap, and most of the beers are only available in Anacortes.

The Atmosphere – Rock Fish is a big space, plenty of tables and a large outdoor space (although not large enough to accommodate 8 people on a beautiful sunny Saturday). It feels like a brewpub – inside has plenty of wood, a nice, long bar, the current selections hanging on panels over the bar. Having been to Rockfish several time to eat, I tend to think of it more as a restaurant, and it is a comfortable and homey place to have a meal o go with your beers. Outside there are 2 outdoor areas, one on the side of the building with a few tables and the other in the back. One of these days I am going to have to go back just to have beers and judge it from that perspective, but until then, Rock Fish gets 4 Trophospheres out of 5.

Dog Friendliness – This is a tough one to judge since we couldn’t be seated as a group outside. I am not sure what the Rock Fish policy on dogs is on the back patio, but you can have them on the side patio, which will allow you to indulge in your beer with Spot by your side. The drawback here is I believe the side patio does not have any waiter service, so you have to get your own beers. Rock Fish scores and incomplete 3.5 belly rubs out of 5 due to lack of information on their policy (and I didn’t think to ask).

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Continuing on the North Sound Beer Tour with our next stop, Chuckanut Brewing.

Stop 2 – Chuckanut Brewing in Bellingham.

Just down the street from Boundary Bay, about 10 minutes on foot, lies Chuckanut Brewing, sort of the antithesis of Northwest brewing. Owned by Wil Kemper (the same guy who created the Thomas Kemper brand years ago) and brewing with a high malt, low hop European style, Chuckanut has cleaned up with several GABF medals and high praise.

 The Beer – I get the sense that this was not the group’s favorite place, but I personally loved the beer. They had 6 beers on tap – all very summer appropriate, but not the kind of range that you are going to please a large group with. My favorites were the pilsner, brewed in a traditional Bohemian style with refreshing maltiness and just a hint of hops; it give the consumer a sense of what Budweiser probably tasted like in the early days. The Session Blonde was smooth and easy drinking; I could have easily knocked off several pints of that one. If I had to pick one overall, it would be the Kolsch. Probably my favorite style of beer for sitting outside on a sunny day, Chuckanut’s Kolsch was refreshing with a nice maltiness and a hint of flora overtones to it. Chuckanut also makes an English Style IPA. Coming in at a whopping 45 IBU, it is an IPA for non-IPA drinkers. While I am not a fan of the British IPA style anymore, it was a solid beer, reminding me more of an amber ale than an IPA. Chuckanut’s beers are available on tap only, so I would recommend taking home a growler or six of your favorites. Overall, I would give their beers 4 Lederhosen out of 5.

 The Atmosphere – Chuckanut sits just outside of downtown Bellingham in a converted warehouse. The space is large and has the brewery on one side and the taproom on another. Inside is nice – high ceilings, minimal decorations, not too fancy; a nice place to kick back and quaff a few brews. Outside there is a spacious patio with tons of room overlooking the water. The only drawback is the lack of shade – it can get pretty toasty out there on a sunny day. They lose a half point for lack of shade; otherwise they would have gotten a perfect score – the atmosphere rates as 4.5 Cumulonimbus clouds out of 5.

Dog Friendliness – It doesn’t get much dog friendlier than Chuckanut. Dogs are allowed on the patio, right at the table with you. The staff was nice and brought out a bowl and water for the pooch. I am pretty sure that they would have brought out beer for the dog if we asked. Chuckanut scores 5 chew toys out of 5.

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Recently, 8 people and 1 dog made a trek up north to participate in the inaugural “North Sound Beer Tour” sponsored by no one. Starting in Bellingham, we tackled 6 breweries over 12 hours on a spectacularly beautiful day. I was going to originally write one long review of the tour and then realized that it would be an epic tome rather than a blog post, so I have since decided to make it a series. The breweries that we visited were (in order of appearance) Boundary Bay, Chuckanut, Anacortes, Flyers, North Sound and Skagit River. I am rating all of the breweries on a 5-point (five being the highest score) scale in 3 categories: Beer, Atmosphere and Dog Friendliness. So without further delay, I give you the 2011 North Sound Beer Tour:

Stop 1 – Boundary Bay Brewing in Bellingham

Bellingham is a nice little town and is blessed to have two pretty great breweries, located within walking distance of each other. Boundary Bay is one of my favorite NW breweries; they have a solid beer lineup and one of the better IPA’s in the region.

The Beer – My personal favorites were the IPA (no brainier) – a nicely hoppy, northwest style IPA and the Imperial Oatmeal Stout, which had a wonderful maltiness with overtones of coffee and chocolate. The Scotch Ale, not one of my favorite styles, was immensely drinkable and not that cloyingly sweet/syrupy beer that I usually associate with Scotch Ale. I thought that Scotch Ale was a strange selection for a summer beer lineup, but what do I know. There really wasn’t anything in the sampler that I didn’t like or wouldn’t order a pint of. They have a nice, 10 tap selection, but definitely weighted to the heavier NW style beers you would expect from a Washington brewer. They sell growlers to go and they do sell several styles in bottles, which can be found in the Seattle area.  Overall, I would give their beers 4.5 out of 5 Flying Dutchmen.

The Atmosphere – I really like Boundary Bay’s setup. They are located on a main street, right across from the Bellingham farmers market, so there is plenty of street parking and paid lots if needed. The bar area is a converted garage with doors that will open and they have a sizeable deck for your outdoor seating pleasure. It really feels like a brewery with lots of wood and mismatched furniture. The atmosphere rates as 5 millibars out of 5.

Dog Friendliness – For a city that seems to be very dog friendly, BB is not. Dogs are not allowed on the outside deck and the deck is located on the side of the pub, so there is no good place to hitch up the pooch and keep an eye on her. Your best bet in the summer is to tie the dog to a tree in front and sit in one of the tables in the bar that are close to the doors. Not the best place in the NW to bring a dog – 2 tail wags out of 5.