Quaff The Raven

The Raven on a cruise ship. It does happen...

Alright folks, as some of you may know (those that get my Twitter feed do, #theravenbn) I just got back from a wonderful vacation to Alaska. I took a cruise with my girlfriend’s family on the Coral Princess, which picked us up in Vancouver and stopped in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway, and dropped us off near Anchorage. The trip witnessed a few firsts for me: my first trip to Canada (Vancouver), my second trip to Canada (a creepy little town in the Yukon called Carcross), my first sighting of a calving glacier (Marjorie was very active that day) and my first introduction to Alaskan Ale.

Based in Juneau, the Alaskan Brewing Co. has been in operation since 1986 and was, at it’s inception, the only brewery in Alaska. They produce 8 varieties of ale on a regular basis ranging from light to dark and including a summer and winter ale. The best known of their offerings is by far the Alaskan Amber, and for good reason: this is a really good beer and is available in most of the western states of the lower 48.

Alaskan Amber

This was the brewery’s first beer and is based off a recipe used over a century ago during the Alaskan gold rush. I’m not the best at verbalizing taste profiles, but the Amber is well-balanced, with the sweet and bitter parts mixing well. This beer is available at virtually every bar in Alaska, and is well worth a taste for any drinker.

Loyal readers will know that I’m not much of a fan of lighter beers, and I would be remiss if I did not spend some time discussing the darker end of the offering. Alaskan Brewing regularly offers two dark beers, the Oatmeal Stout and the Smoked Porter. The stout ranks very well among the craft beer stouts I’ve tried. It’s not as chocolaty as some, but easily a stout that I’d keep in my collection. The real story though is the Smoked Porter. I can’t tell the story quite as well as they do at the brewery, but it goes something like this: across the street from their facility is an old salmon smokehouse. One day, one of the brewers was sitting at a local bar with the owner of said smokehouse and the conversation started to drift to and fro, as conversation often does in a bar, and it came out that the smokehouse went dormant for part of the year, on account of the fishing seasons. One thing led to another and soon the two businesses had worked out a deal where Alaskan Brewing Co. would smoke their malt during the smokehouse’s off season.

The result is Alaskan Brewing Co.’s award winning Smoked Porter. The only way to really describe this flavor is to compare it other smoked foods…the first thing that hit my mind was salmon. (Note, this has nothing to do with my previous MxMo post; instead, I was in Alaska and had just enjoyed some smoked salmon.) That’s not to say that the beer tasted fishy, but rather the smoke imparted the same flavor on each of the base foods. It is worth noting that this beer requires that you like at least one of the components (porters or smoky flavor); those who aren’t fans of either probably won’t like this concoction. If you enjoy either flavor, I personally recommend trying this beer.

Just so no one accuses me of selling out, I must say that I discovered that I am not a fan of pale ales or IPAs, and their offerings didn’t change my opinion. I’m told that the Alaskan pales are quite good, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Alaskan Brewing Co. also has a program they call the “Rough Draft”, in which their brewers create small craft batches of varying flavors. A recent offering was based in jalapeno, and the current Rough Draft (which I may not be allowed to reveal yet, so I won’t tell you the name) is a very spicy (though not hot) beer. I was the only one in the group that really liked it, but I like strong flavors. The Rough Draft beers are generally only available locally, but I’ve heard rumors of some making it to Seattle.

John, Ben, Annie, Bonnie, Raven, and Tony (in the back!)

The brewery itself is an experience. They offer free tastings for all of their currently produced beers. I spent a good half hour discussing beer with Tony Hand, one of the brewers there. Anyone making the trip out to Juneau does themselves a disservice to miss the brewery, the tour, and the sampling.

Well, my new life as a boozeblogger has forced me to expand my cocktalian knowledge in ways that I never could have expected. Over the last few weeks, I have been spending a lot of time with my contemporaries, and I’ve stumbled upon a weekly online cocktail event. Spending so much virtual time with people who are considerably more advanced than I when it comes to mixology. The first thing I noticed was that I was lacking in a few key bottles, which I’ve tried to remedy (see The Liquor Cabinet).  The second problem I ran into was my lack of mixers, and not just any mixers: syrups!

As I sat and watched the chat room, I saw these cocktail enthusiasts talking about odd ingredients like orgeat and falernum.   I was intrigued, and totally baffled.  Thankfully, cocktalians are a generous bunch, and they pointed me toward a few recipes.  That threw me for a loop…”Recipes?!” I said, “Where can I buy it?”  They chided me for my ignorance and explained that the store-bought stuff is never quite as good as the stuff you make yourself.  Dearest readers, you can guess what happened next…

But first, a quick overview of the syrups.  The first syrup I decided to make was falernum, a lime and ginger concoction from the Carribean.  Falernum syrup is rum based (duh) and is used most often in tiki drinks (and that family) (again, duh).  That being said, a few minutes of watching the chatting opened my eyes to the myriad of uses of this delightful island beverage.  I knew if I was going to have a chance at trying some of their drinks, I was going to have to make  some falernum.

Enter the recipes.  As this was my first time making syrups, I decided to use other people’s recipes.  I was pointed to this recipe from Gabe over at cocktailnerd.com, and this recipe from Matt at rumdood.com, and this recipe from Rick at kaiserpenguin.com.  I had three to choose from, and so I went with a combination of all three (but mostly Rick’s).  My recipe:

Step 1:

All the stuff I used to make falernum.

Zest of 8 limes.
.5 cup of ginger (julienned)
50 cloves.
Whole nutmeg.
Ground allspice (this was due to the lack of whole allspice).
8 oz. of a good rum (I used Wray and Nephew, another find from my besotted buddies.)

Toast the spices for a few minutes. This was something I’d wished I’d looked at sooner; the ground allspice took on a burnt smell rather quickly, but thankfully the carbon flavor wasn’t in the finish. Steep all of this in the rum for a day or so (I got distracted and let mine go for almost 5 days…oops! Hopefully it made it better.) Strain and discard the aromatics.

Step 2:
Make a simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water). Let the syrup cool and combine with the steeped rum.

Isn't it lovely? Isn't it wonderful?

***
The orgeat was a much simpler story; I came across an article on the Mai Tai, and the recipe called for this almond syrup I’d never heard of. A little research made the travesty of my ignorance profoundly obvious. There are a number of people out there that will threaten you with bodily harm if you attempt to make a Mai Tai with anything other than orgeat. That being said, there are a lot fewer ingredients to orgeat syrup, but the process is a bit more involved. Unfortunately for everyone here, I’ve misplaced the recipe (which is boozeblogger speak for ‘I forgot to save the link).

The basic process goes like this: take some blanched almonds, soak them in water. Pull ‘em out and pulverize them, then soak them again. Strain the water through a cloth, wring the almonds well, then replace the mash into the same water. This last step confused me, but then I read further. The purpose of this process is to remove the oil from the almonds while passing the flavor to the water.
The base for the orgeat is either a brandy or vodka, and it’s mixed with a 2:1 simple syrup. Mine didn’t turn out that well, but it was my first attempt, and I’m going to try again.

It’s been a long month, and I have to apologize for my lack of posting. Between taking classes for my MBA and the academic calendar my 9-5 is inextricably linked to, May is a very busy month. I’ll do my best to get something more over the next month, and then of course July is Tales month…armed with my laptop, I’m going to attempt to transmit as much as I can through my mild intoxication.

Caw!