Midnight Sun Brewing has always mirrored the extremes of its Alaska home. It is both the only stand-alone production brewery (not associated with a brewpub) as well as the southern-most brewery geographically in the city limits of Anchorage. 

Opened in 1995 by homebrewers Mark Staples and Barb Miller, the original location was housed in a three–bay, wooden warehouse attached to the landlord’s taxidermy studio, with a small parking lot that faced the local animal shelter. The brewery and office took up one bay, with the walk-in chiller in another and the third used as the storage area for everything else.

Many days started similar to a NASCAR team unloading a trailer at a new racetrack, as the fork lift and pallet jack skillfully made a path to the items that were strategically hiding in the very back of the bay using the front of the tasting area and/or the parking lot (weather permitting) as the staging area. There was really no tasting room per se, only a counter in front of the cold box where taps hung to fill growlers and offer samples. With no tables or chairs and limited space, Barb remembers how amazed she was that loyal customers would religiously navigate the pallet maze “like mice looking for their cheese.”

The brewery slowly acquired more fermenters and welded an added section to their mash tun to increase capacity, but with every cubic foot of brewery space from floor to ceiling spoken for and the Great Anchorage Fur Feud showing no signs of abetting, they moved to get to get bigger and better.
    
The new brewery, a year old this past May, is eons ahead of its ancestor. The brewing system, small fermenters and original cooperage made the trip across the southern part of the city. Despite tripling the number of wooden barrels and adding large fermenters, the brewery is still large and open. There are overhead doors that can be raised to almost give it an outdoor feel when the weather cooperates. The cold storage is almost as large as the original brewery.  

SIPPIN SOME SUN: MSBC's Barb Miller.Most importantly to fans of Midnight Sun, there is an entire floor upstairs devoted to tasting, “the Loft.” Open daily, this tasting room on steroids features every draft beer available, poured from a polished cement tap wall, tray and bar. A cooler is stocked with all bottle selections currently in distribution. They have an outside deck as well as beer wear, glassware and local art adorning the walls inside.

In January a full-time chef joined the team, and his menu features local fare that makes this a very popular pit stop during lunch and after work. Barb changes the featured artists every month in a First Firkin Friday that – as its name implies – offers a special cask that afternoon.

Just as Seinfeld was a “show about nothing,” Midnight Sun’s pattern is to have no pattern. “We brew beers we want to drink,” says Barb. There is a lot of experimentation with ingredients, spices, yeast strains (25 this year) and barrel aging. They routinely make Belgian-style beers, use souring organisms, and allow Brettanomyces to make their beers wild. They also offer hoppy yet clean American styles. There are collaborations, commemoratives, anniversary brews, four quarterly Imperial IPAs, a wood-aged barleywine and two pumpkin beers.

To inaugurate 2007, Barb used the theme of the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, etc.) to introduce seven special beers. The following year they commemorated the demotion of Pluto from planet to “trans-Neptunian object” with Midnight Sun’s Planet series. Earth was Belgian chocolate milk stout, Mars a Belgian Imperial Red IPA and Uranus a 100 percent Brettanomyces beer. Jupiter was an ambitious beer that honored the largest planet with a huge gravity, secondary sugar doses, hand riddling and Méthode Champenoise finishing. It was released a year later due to the extended process and move to the new brewery but was replaced by Pluto, the “fallen planet” (a special variation of Fallen Angel).

BREW CREW: Midnight Sun's crew poses with the author's well-travelled (and now bronzed) rubber chicken.The Brew Crew series followed in 2009 with the nine people involved with the brewery designing their own beer, and 2010’s theme was “Pop Ten,” featuring contemporary sayings such as “The New Black,” “Tree Hugger” and “Head Banger” (Belgian Malt Liquor). There will be six beers in the as yet to be named 2011 series. Ben Johnson, the recently promoted head brewer, promises they will be beers to be remembered.


If You Go…
The Loft at Midnight Sun Brewing Company (8111 Dimond Hook Drive, Anchorage) is open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Beer is available to sample and purchase during those hours. Food and souvenirs are also for sale. Brewery tours are offered every Thursday at 6 p.m. No reservations are required. Check out the Web site, www.midnightsunbrewing.com, for news on special releases and events. 

-- By Phil Farrell