Visiting Anchorage

Midnight Sun is open today, which seems crazy based on what I’ve heard from friends and family.

 

Thanks! Feeling pretty fortunate. Family and friends are safe, no gas or water leaks at home, and no serious damage to the house or possessions. I work in education and we got all the kids at my school home and safe. We were getting very frequent aftershocks (up to 5.0) but I haven’t felt any in a while. Hoping the worst is over.

I also saw that they are still pouring at Midnight Sun. Good for them! I imagine some of the bottle shops took some serious damage to the inventory.

 

Speaking of that, I’ve been wondering for awhile. A lot of us have a sizeable stash of beer at home. For those of you who have been through earthquakes, how did your “cellar” hold up? Do any of you take steps to protect your beer from seismic events? I wasn’t old enough to drink when the Nisqually quake hit, and luckily that’s the only earthquake I’ve experienced.

 

My "cellar" is actually a couple shelves in my friends basement. I went down to the waterfront here in town, and got some old fishing net from the commercial fishermen. Put it up over the front of the shelving. Won't do any good about the bottles banging against each other, but should keep 'em from falling to the floor. The shelves are securely attached to the walls, and if the walls come down, we're gonna have bigger problems than beer.

Best wishes to our neighbors to the north today.

 

When I used to cellar beer I kept them all in styrofoam shippers. It kept them protected physically and also from extreme temperatures, hot and cold.

 

I'm coming up with a couple buddies for the beer/barleywine festival mid January. How is everything there right now post-quake? I hear you guys killed it and got most o the needed infrastructure back together.

Being that there are 3 of us I think we are looking at an airbnb. It doesn't look like Lyft is up there. Are cabs pretty easy to come by around there? The better airbnbs look to be a few miles or so out of the main drag.

Anyone else going? I'll probably be bringing up some San Diego goodies.

 

cab/uber/lyft is readily available. all the major infrastructure is back to “normal”.

have a great trip!

 

Enjoy the festival, it’s fantastic! Alaskan breweries pump out a lot of excellent barley wines!

 

Things are pretty much back to normal here in Anchorage. Haven't felt an aftershock over the last 2 days so that's been nice. Roads are back to operational for the most part.

Which areas are you looking at as far as airBnB? South Anchorage has quite a few brewery options. Anchorage, King St., and Turnagain are all within walking distance (Anchorage and King St. are literally right next to each other) so those three would be easy to visit consecutively. Midnight Sun's restaurant/main tasting room is a just a little ways up the road from those as well. Cynosure brewing is also in the vicinity.

If you're looking to be around the downtown area, 49th State, Glacier Brewhouse, Humpy's AleHouse, and the Williwaw (which merged with Midnight Sun recently... haven't been there since this happened though) are all easy to walk to and from.

In Midtown, Hearth has the best taplist in town and La Potato is a new place that I've heard has some decent beers on tap. Moose's Tooth has great pizza and brew their own beers. Kinley's often has some Girdwood Brewing beers on tap. Matanuska Brewing is right around there as well.

If you end up with a car, there are some other fairly close options as well. Over on the Northeast side of town, there's Resolution Brewing. Keep heading in that direction and you'll find Odd Man Rush in Eagle River. Just a bit further and you'll bump into Arkose, Bleeding Heart, and Bearpaw River in the Palmer and Wasilla area. Girdwood Brewing is about 40 miles to the southeast, but well worth the drive.

Trying to make it to all those places via Uber/Lyft will add up pretty quickly, so it might be best to pick your lodging close to your top priorities.

Hit me up with a message if you need any more info. or would be interested in having a bottle share or something. I won't be making it to the Barleywine Fest, but I should be around.

 

We get in Wednesday Free day Thursday. Festival Friday and the early session Saturday. Fly ourt Sunday. So I'm not sure what our best bet for location is. Maybe it's south so we can spend our free day down there. Maybe it's downtown so we can walk to the fest and have pre/post things to do close by. Pros and cons.... Won't have a car.

 

It’s also AK Beer week - check out the FB page. Events should start popping up. Highlights include Humpy’s/Sub Zero Beer Dinner (1/16) and 49th State Barrel Agèd dinner.

 

If I didn’t have a car, I’d stay downtown. That said, it’d really be worth it to Uber/cab whatever over to Anchorage Brewing.

 

Downtown has plenty to do both beer-related and not, and if the above events interest you as well, I'd go with that.

itracy has the right idea. ABC would be on the top of my places to visit. With a ride there, you'd have a few breweries in walking distance (King St., Turnagain). You could even stop by Costco and see if they have any cheap local beers (grabbed Fremont Mod Pod 22's for 3.99 a bottle there recently). I assume you could experience quite a few Midnight Sun beers at the Williwaw, so you could probably skip the tasting room.

 

Turnagain opened after I left, didn’t they open in King St.’s old spot?

 

Yep. Turnagain spruced the old King St. spot up quite a bit and officially opened the upstairs for seating. A lot more room and much more comfortable now. Turnagain has some interesting takes on traditional beers. Their tripel is a light and easy drinking version. Their framboise is pretty popular as well.

 

id definitely stay downtown. easy waking to tons of stuff. and an uber/cab to anchorage is a must.

 

Awesome. Thank you all. Looking forward to being back in Alaska! Last time was Juneau for the summer solstice 12 years ago. Had such a blast. I know this will be completely different .