Why the Great Northern Brewers Club is the Best Club!

Alaskans love beer, and we have some pretty great ales, lagers and barley-wine here in the Greatland!  Alaska Beer Week is this week, culminating in the Alaska Craft Brew & Barley Wine Festival on Friday and Saturday. I am lucky enough to get to vend my beer art at this event, and I hope to see you there. You probably already know that during Alaska Beer Week, Alaska hosts beer events at restaurants, bars and brewery tasting rooms. What you probably didn’t know is that the best beer event is hosted at 49th State Brewing by the Great Northern Brewers Club.

The GNBC is a homebrew club in Anchorage Alaska, and was founded in 1980.  It is hard to believe this club is as old as I am! The GNBC mission statement is: to educate people about beer, beer tasting, beer judging, and brewing techniques based on shared knowledge and experience. To engage in enjoyable social activities focused on home-brewing as a common foundation. To promote the hobby and enjoyment of home-brewing. To promote the responsible use of alcoholic beverages.  

The best part about the club is the January monthly meeting during Alaska Beer Week, which is also known as the “Industry Meeting.”  This meeting is a mini beerfest in itself, held at the theater at 49th State Brewing.  A keynote speaker is invited to speak, and I’ve listened to some great brewers from famous commercial breweries in the past including: Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada), Greg Koch (Stone Brewing), Jeff Lebesch & Kim Jordan (New Belgium Brewing), Geoff Larson (Alaskan Brewing), Jerry Vietz (Unibroue), John Maier (Rogue Ales), and many others.  There are a lot of complimentary commercial and home-brewed samples, enough that you should arrange transport other than driving yourself, since you will not be legal to drive after this event.  There’s also a great spread of food from the kitchen at 49th State Brewing.  Not to mention, a great amount of door prizes that are available if you donate to the club for drawing tickets.  Overall, I like this event more than the beer festival itself, because you get to find out why people are wearing chicken necklaces at the beer festival (Phil the chicken guy is almost always in attendance), and you will get to meet the brewers from around the State if you are a social person. 

There are a number of reasons to join this club, especially if you love making and drinking beer, mead, cider and other fermented alcoholic beverages. First, you get 10% off at La Bodega, and 10% off at ingredients at Arctic Brewing Supply. Then there’s the December meeting, which is a holiday party that is almost as good as the January meeting. There is a campout in the summer with free camping spots at an amazing campground (it changes yearly). The reasons keep going. You can sign up to become a certified BJCP judge (Beer Judge Certification Program), and participate in the numerous home-brew contests throughout the year. And lastly, this is a great group of people that like to have fun and be social! It was tough through the pandemic, but we survived by drinking socially over Zoom, although it wasn’t the same!  We are back, baby! Get your membership and come on down to hang out at 49th State with one of the funnest clubs in Alaska! 

Cheers to beers and the GNBC! 

Here are some photos from previous January industry meetings: Jerry Vietz from Unibroue with Maria, beard twinsies with John Maier from Rogue Ales, and a photo of the meeting hall.

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Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #122. AK Beer Week.

It’s AK BeEr WeEk!  Brave the cold, revere the beer!  Tonight is my favorite night of AK Beer Week, the Great Northern Brewing Club‘s industry party.  I just dropped off a keg of my home brewed Sunkissed Grapefruit IPA to the 49th State Brewing Company, the hosts of tonight’s shindig.  If you live in Alaska, and love beer, you should join the GNBC. When you join, you get 10% off ingredients at Arctic Brewing Supply, and 10% off at La Bodega, along with other benefits.  Membership is only $30 a year per household.  GNBC parties are hands down some of the best gatherings a beer lover could ever imagine!

Beer week is a great addition to Alaska’s dark, cold January. Thanks to Barb Miller, the instigator, and organizer!  Some of the best events are the many beer dinners around town, and special beer offerings at breweries throughout the State.  The full list of events is at AKBeerWeek.com.

It all culminates in the epic weekend event, the Great Alaska Beer and Barlywine Festival, which is one of the best beer fests in the nation with more barleywine than you can drink (no that is not a challenge, it is a fact!).  I recommend the connoisseur session on Saturday afternoon, as the glass is better (real glass) and the barley wine offerings are more plentiful.  The Saturday afternoon session presents the marching bagpipe band, and the  barleywine and winter warmer contest winners are announced.  Overall, a great week to visit Alaska!  Fortunately, the airlines haven’t figured this out, so you can get some of the cheapest rates to Alaska at this time.

So why is there a rubber chicken in this painting?  Well, there’s a guy named Phil, who has been coming to Anchorage for the GABBF for decades, and he always brings a rubber chicken, and takes photos of people holding his chicken (not choking it).  If you are willing to pose for the photo, he rewards you with a bead necklace that has three chickens on it.  So, the rubber chicken has become the mascot of AK Beer Week.

Cheers to AK Beer Week, when Alaska’s craft beer takes the forefront, where it belongs!

This original oil painting, and limited-edition prints are available at our Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #122. Rubber Chicken of AK Beer Week. 8″x10″, oil on panel. By Scott Clendaniel.

Putting Together an Art Show

~ by Maria Benner

Last night Scott and I hung an art show at Midnight Sun Brewing, which was a culmination of planning, painting, and getting everything ready for the venue.  We’ve done this many times, so we’re getting pretty efficient at it.  The process begins several months in advance when I book a venue.  Then Scott and I brainstorm about a theme, decide how many new paintings he needs to paint, and what they should look like, and which existing paintings to hang.  About two weeks in advance, I submit event information to the venue, ADN, and the Anchorage Press, and a couple days later, create a FB event, and schedule on my calendar the e-mail blast, and social media posts promoting the art show.  A day before we hang the art, we work for about five hours making prints, framing paintings, pricing everything, creating an inventory sheet, and signage.  Normally we have to wait until the venue is closed to the public to set up.  Midnight Sun Brewing closes at 8 PM.  So we packed everything up and loaded it into our truck from the studio around 7:30 PM, and arrived at the brewery with just enough time to order a beer before last call.  Setting up took about two hours this time.  We always have a great time at MSBC after hours, because the employees have a lot of charisma, and they appreciate Scott’s art.  They get first dibs, because they’re the first ones who get to see all the paintings, and sometimes, someone buys their favorite piece.  Last night the Banksy beer parody sold.  The theme for this art show is Beer Art History, and it features many of the beer parodies of famous paintings that Scott released in 2015 on Thirsty Thursdays.  We are also unveiling the new Pops series, which is several bright oil paintings of poppies in front of Anchorage scenery.

Scott’s art will be at the brewery until February 4th.  We hope you stop by and check it out.  You can take the paintings and prints home with you right away.  Scott will be tapping a firkin on January 8th at 5 PM, since First Friday was on January 1st this year.  Click here for more event info.

Hopefully the firkin will do this again.

Here are some pictures from last night.

We put together this list of things to do to get ready for the art show.

A Toast to Our Mountains!

 

“A Toast to Our Mountains” painting series, Anchorage Skyline and Chugach Mountains. 24″x12″ oil on panel.

One day in September I was working on our log cabin in McCarthy, Alaska when I heard my phone ring.  I was surprised to see an unknown number, and answered as professionally as I could while ripping a chainsaw helmet off my head to access my ear quickly.  A gentleman on the other end identified himself as David Crewdson, a beer connoisseur in Anchorage.  He told me that he came up with a delightful beer painting concept and got my number from one of the beeristas at Midnight Sun Brewing Co., and wanted to share it with me (the beer painter), but he wanted to meet me in person.  He said he would be giving the brewery tour at the MSBC in a couple weeks as a guest lecturer while Gary Busse was out of town, so we agreed to meet at the brewery right before the tour.  Luckily, I had planned to be in Anchorage then, so I trucked over to MSBC to see what David had to say.  He told me that paintings of glasses of beer with Alaskan mountains in the foam would be a great idea.  I immediately agreed.  He also came up with a name for the art show “A Toast to Our Mountains”.  He didn’t ask for anything in return, except credit for the idea, which I am happy to give him.  So you can look forward to seeing these paintings at my next art show at MSBC, which opens January 3rd with me tapping the Firkin keg at 5 PM.  Also look for other beer paintings.  I have been playing with concepts like “The Art of Beer,” and “Beers of the World.”  I will also fill out the space with a final showing of the remaining “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”  The art show will be up all month, during which Alaska Beer Week takes place.  Stop in for a taster, small, or large glass of avant-garde brew, as well as my paintings, art prints, and mini-original painting magnets!