Anchorage, Alaska
Crusin' Rating: A-
Booze Rating: A-
At long last, we reach the final review of our Alaskan series. Last week, you read all about one of our favorite beer spots of all time, Anchorage Brewing Company. We are keeping with that trend and wrapping up this series with a spot that has served us well on several stops - planned and impromptu on the past two trips to Alaska. 49th State Brewing Company has become a staple on our Alaska list of stops and manages to consistently serve up tasty food, yummy beer, and perhaps, my favorite single beer to date.
I liken 49th State Brewing Company to Leinenkugel’s here in Wisconsin due to several parallels we've noticed in our travels and learned from talking to Alaskan’s around the state. For instance - both have a generic line of beer that’s available in wide distribution across their respective states. Both have multiple locations throughout the state - 49th State has a location in Anchorage, Denali, and, most recently, Ted Stevens airport in Anchorage. Both are known as a slightly “touristy” destination - the Leine Lodge enjoys a near mythical status as a pilgrimage spot for us Wisconsinites and 49th State is positioned to make the most out of tourists with its positioning near key points in many Alaskan journeys.
We also noticed that both seemed to garner a sort of begrudging respect, or, sometimes, straight dislike for being “too big”. We heard Alaskans mention how overrated 49th State is, how commercialized, touristy, and low quality it has become on more than one occasion. I’ll be damned if I haven’t heard the same critiques of Leinenkugel’s over the years. In Leine’s case - there’s usually a heated debate over the use of “micro brewery”, “craft beer” and other such semantics that I will get into in their review in the future. You know, to an extent, I can agree with some of it, or at least understand where the criticisms are coming from.
If your only experience with 49th State Brewery beer was walking in unaware during busy season, waiting maybe 30 minutes or more for seating, and only snagging one of their standard beers - you might go back for the food, you’d probably go back for the view - but you might skip the beer. The main beer line is distributed widely across Alaska from what we can tell - 8 Star Lager, Solstice IPA, 907 Pale Ale, Blonde Eagle Ale. We chose specifically not to review this line because it is underwhelming on the whole with middling offerings - nothing to write home about, quite literally. It was my first experience with them, and it almost turned me off the brewery entirely.
Likewise, if your only experience with Leinenkugel is Leine’s original or some sort of sacrilegious, and you wind up paying 20 bucks during their yearly bash and it’s filled with hundreds of people and expensive food trucks, you might be turned off from there as well.
All of this is to say, some of these breweries that grow need a bit of a closer look into what makes them good and may take a bit more than a cursory glance to see past all of the pageantry to see that there’s some real beer talent buried in there if you know where to look.
Comparisons aside - 49th State very much should be considered a worth pilgrimage to any Alaskan who enjoys beer or any visiting Wisconsinite.
My first experience with their beer, while not great, was hand-delivered by my brother stationed in Anchorage - Brother Bear. He does his damndest while he's up there and always makes space in his bag for a few solid brews whenever he is able - it’s become somewhat of a tradition even. It was these trips that introduced me to the beer that in a big part, inspired an entire write up on the main ingredient - Spruce Tips.
On our initial visit - Hannah and I had to travel solo to the brewery during December to snag some beer, crab legs, and spend a nice evening on a date downtown near Christmas. However, on our return trip over the Summer we were able to get Brother Bear to join us for our official review.
49th State is a different animal all together in terms of space between the winter and summer. In winter, inside there’s a fireplace table to sit around, wood-fired pizza ovens blaring to life, and a jam-packed bar and second floor that make for a cozy, if noisy spot to spend an evening out of the snow and pretending the sun didn’t set at 3:00 PM. There’s a full cocktail bar, plenty of beer, and above-average food - plus crab legs the circumference of a child’s arm. It was everything you wanted in a cozy spot. There’s a swag and gift area that has a little something for everyone - my second favorite swag spot in Alaska behind Girdwood. I manage to snag something I think each time I’m there and there’s two beer fridges that have constantly rotating beers that I’m always sure to raid.
Summer though, is a completely different story. While we knew there was a second story to 49th State, what we didn’t realize is that second story is home to a large outdoor seating area that serves as a balcony with a killer view and on top of that has a staircase up to yet a third story rooftop, complete with full bar and even more seating. I’ve been to rooftop bars, and you know we are fans of a good rooftop space here in Wisconsin, but this is the first one I’ve seen that has a second story rooftop and let me tell you the views are just incredible. You can spot shipping containers being moved on the docks, mountains in several directions, the Knick Arm (ocean), massive C-130 military planes circling lazily, fighter jets zooming beyond the clouds, and one helluva sunset.
Even before we did the review - we found ourselves arriving in Anchorage with some down-time before Brother Bear finished up work. Hannah and I figured, why not? Let’s kill some time and sip on a beer and sit outside. Well, on a 62℉ day with couches that had a fire table going, and seating overlooking the Knik Arm that one beer turned into an entire afternoon of sipping and taking in the scenes, decompressing from a long flight and snacking on some savory bites. It ended up being a really great way to spend an afternoon, something that’s really akin to Hop Garden in Paoli. An outdoor space where you can watch time go by and just enjoy some beer and being outside.
The second story outdoor space has a dozen or so four seater tables with umbrellas, bar type seating along the balcony railings, and then two large outdoor furniture sets complete with gas fire tables. The 3rd story has a square bar, several TV’s and high table seating. I will note that the table seating requires checking in with the hostess for service as do the couches, but the railing seating was come as you please and it was an excellent choice for an off-the-cuff visit. When we joined up with Brother Bear, we reserved a table, and there’s always going to be a bit of a wait during tourist season, but it’s well worth it.
While I always say we aren’t a food blog, the food did not disappoint. Crab Legs, Fish and Chips, Crab Artichoke Dip, Elk Smash Burger, or Yak Burger - you can’t really go wrong. While - outside of the crab legs (if you ask Hannah) nothing is wildly amazing - it’s all good and we never leave hungry.
What we are really here for though, is the beer. As I noted before, there is a separate - “Experimental Line”, Seasonal Releases, and then a coveted Cache Collection and these are where the brewer really shows his talent. We’ve tried beers from each line, brought beers home from each line, and been wowed by beers in each. For our review we stuck primarily to the seasonal and experimental lines. The Cache Collection comes in 750 ml bottles of opaque black glass with gorgeous labels and rather than buy it and open it there, we usually just take those home to enjoy on quiet nights.
We opted for pints rather than a flight on this trip, even though flights are offered as we wanted to really dig into each beer as we awaited a small world coincidence of meeting up with my boss and her Marathon-crushing sister for a happy hour away from work!
Sunlord (5.4% ABV, 15 IBU) - This Summer Wheat Ale poured bright yellow with a fluffy head retention of solid white. Brother Bear came right out and said this beer smelled a little “skanky” (note a mixture of stanky and skunky, not what you were thinking). Hannah made a note of it smelling of cheap pot and I did get sweet wheat notes and skunky cannabis along with fresh green hops. We all got evergreen flavors off of this beer when tasting, glacial timber, floralness, and some campground funk. Truly some Alaskan-specific notes in there, though not necessarily great ones. This one was a miss for all of us as it didn’t have characteristic wheat-beer notes and was closer to a Saison in flavor.
Alaskaveza (5.0% ABV, 20 IBU) - A lager inspired by Mexican Candy (did we mention the head experimental brewer is a transplant from Mexico? Talk about a scenery change!) this beer was easily Hannah’s favorite to sip on all afternoon, both trips. Coming with a Tajin Rim and pouring an orangey-red, this beer has an aroma of salty limes, low chiles, watermelon, small punches of artificial mango, and citrus hi-chew candy. Salty up front when tasting, even after the Tajin rim, not unlike a Gose, with low watermelon flavor and slightly bitter mango flesh, and a little spice but not enough to really notice unless you’re looking. This beer finishes extra bubbly and effervescent, almost like a seltzer with no noticeable bitterness. Brother Bear noted the Tajin rim was a little over-the-top and wanted the beer to speak for itself and I’d have to agree. Hannah, on the other hand, was over the moon. Tajin and Watermelon is a favorite summer dessert in our household. Overall and excellent summer beer.
Luau Punch Sour (6.0% ABV, ) IBU) - This sour poured warm gold with low clarity, and had the aroma of one of those Dole Mixed Fruit cups - pear, cherry, peach, and sugary syrup with a touch of sourness from pineapple. Like a few of the sours at 49th State, I find them to be almost a little over-flavored in terms of fruit, but they are trendy and Hannah enjoys them as summer sours. This one had low salinity, some minerality, sweet pineapple, mixed fruit of mandarin orange, tangerine, guava, and coconut. The sourness is clean, the beer is fruity, and its a little on the sweet side. There is a target market for summer sours like this (ahem, Hannah) and 49th State consistently nails the mark.
Sprucesplosion (6.8% ABV, 13 IBU) - I’ve referred to this in several of our Alaskan Series reviews, and here we are at what is, currently, my favorite beer - anywhere. Sprucesplosion is a Spruce Tip IPA backed with a classic combination of Mosaic and Citra hops. Pouring a slightly hazy yellow - Sprucesplosion is ripe with red berries - currants, raspberries, nagoonberries and huckleberries - freshly picked from boreal forests, coastlines and mountainsides. There’s a misty dampness here that is welcome, like the dew falling off of wintergreen leaves accompanied by notes of pineapple, mango chutney, grapefruit rind, melon, and gooseberries.
There’s a cool quiet comfort to tasting this beer. For me, it immediately evokes mists on a ridgetop after coming out of the treeline. Damp bark, wet shrubland grass, cold morning flowers, and that signature spruce tip flavor - red currants, bright raspberry, just frosted over nagoon berries, white cherry skins, juniper berries, pine, and tannins, there’s a rich sweetness here with the spruce tips as well that plays well with the citrus and mango of the hops with even a little zest and pine-adjacent tannin component. This beer has a soft, almost pillow-like and full mouthfeel.
I cannot overstate how this beer, to me, is Alaska in a can. I think, even without the fluff and bias of what it reminds me of on my trip there, this is just a wildly well-executed IPA that has sweetness, fruit, bitterness, and unique flavor all rolled into one package that make for an excellently balanced and unique experience. I buy it whenever I am there and it’s in season - the spruce tips are harvested by hand in spring in Southeast Alaska. I ask Brother Bear to bring it home with him on visits, and if I could, I would just get on the standard distribution list of who they ship a crate to each year. It’s that good and has been my out-of-state favorite beer for a few years now.
49th State may be the Alaskan Brewery, right behind Anchorage, in both of our books thus far. The vibe and views are immaculate and really tough to beat outside of Homer or maybe Seward but none of them have that two story balcony outdoor space. It’s just going to be tough to beat anywhere, I think. There’s something to be said also about a space that we are just comfortable going to, knowing that we can get solid beer no matter the time of year, and beyond that, knowing that we are probably going to enjoy one or two of them enough to bring back home. I keep an entire shelf of Sprucesplosion at home to treat myself to little victories and it always just takes me right back to that rooftop, watching the the hours tick by without a care in the world and adventures on the horizon on the Last Frontier. I think there’s something to be said about a beer and a brewery that is quintessentially Alaskan and I hope one day to make it up to the brewery in the shadow or Mt. Denali. Until then though, 49th State is a must stop - preferably in summer but the beer is great regardless. As proof, we can rarely leave without at least 4-6 separate beers, often 4 packs of 750 ml bottles of each and it’s usually win after win: Mescal Barrel-Aged Seward’s Folly, Apple Fritter Ale, Arnold Palmer Sour, Thundershuck - a freaking stout aged on oysters, Cloudberry Sour, Tiger’s Blood Sour, and the unbelievable Intrepid - a 14.7% Whiskey Barrel-Aged Stout with Spruce Tips and Birch Syrup - and that’s just what I can remember off the top of my head. It’s just excellent all around and a worthy pilgrimage - even from Wisconsin.
Until next time, keep on Crusin’, don’t stop boozin’!
To learn more about 49th State Brewing please visit their webiste at: www.49thstatebrewing.com/anchorage or on Facebook: @49thStateBrewingAnchorage or on Instagram: @49thStateBrewing
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