Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #19, May 7, 2015

This week’s beer-themed painting is of my homebrewed Saison chillin’ in the snow on top of Flattop Mountain. After a vigorous hike to the summit we drank the beer while enjoying the view and then had a good time sliding down the snow on our way down. I chose to paint homebrew this week because May 7^th is the day that National Homebrew Day was announced before Congress in 1988. Last Saturday the Great Northern Brewers Club put on an event known as Brew-a-thon where home brewers of Anchorage showed up to brew together. It is a national event that kicks off with a nationwide toast at noon CDT, 9AM here in Anchorage! I teamed up with newly retired Rick Levinson to brew a California Common Beer (like Anchor Steam Beer) we are calling the Steamy Retirement. I have been home-brewing for ages and consistently putting out homebrews for ten years now, but I recently upgraded my system from a less than five-gallon setup, to a ten-plus-gallon, all-grain, two-kettle brewery. I enjoy every aspect of the brewing process, except for cleaning fermenters, which is the most boring, although extremely important part of the job. In brewing, cleanliness is next to godliness! I have filled every fermenter I own with beer from the new system. Cheers to Arctic Brewing Supply for having every piece of gear a home-brewer could ever need, and all the ingredients to make world-class beer! I hope your homebrew tastes fresher and more delicious than any commercial beer! If you brew with the GNBC, you are on your way!

The original oil painting sold.  You can purchase limited-edition prints, or order a custom painting at my Etsy shop.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #19 by Scott Clendaniel. May 7, 2015. Home-brew on Flattop Mountain. 11″x14″, oil on panel.

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Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #12, March 19, 2015

This week’s Thirsty Thursday beer painting is of Modern Romance — a collaboration by Midnight Sun Brewing Company and Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge. Brewed with cacao nibs, cocoa powder, cinnamon, chilies and maca, this dark ale is a sexy brew indeed. Spicier than last year’s batch, it will bring on the heat and clear your sinuses. This is a great winter warmer, warming more that just your spirits. At 9.3%, and sold in 22 oz bottles, I recommend sharing this one with a friend. Not for someone who dislikes spice, but if you want a beer that will broaden your palette, this is the right bottle. This seasonal, and limited brew comes out right before Valentine’s Day each year.

Cheers to Modern Romance, a great collaborative product from two of my favorite Anchorage establishments!

This painting sold. You can purchase a limited-edition print, or order a custom painting at my Etsy shop.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #12 by Scott Clendaniel. March 19th, 2015. Modern Romance by Midnight Sun Brewing Co. 8″x10″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #8, February 19, 2015

This week’s Thirsty Thursday painting veers from the pattern of famous paintings turned into beer-themed art, because I got a call on Tuesday morning from a reporter from Channel 11 News who wanted to do a story about my art. She asked if she could film in my studio, but because my studio is really small, I suggested filming at one of my favorite local breweries, Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewing Co., because I have several paintings hanging there, the beer is great, and on Wednesdays (and Fridays) growlers are only $5! I also do chalkboard art at this place, so I spend quite a bit of time there. I haven’t painted live in a brewery since November, and I missed doing it, so I suggested doing the interview while I paint a beer. I painted this pint of Urban Wilderness Pale Ale by Sleeping Lady Brewing Co. on the railing of the deck, because this pub has the best deck in town that is packed on sunny days in the summer. This beer is mostly true to its style, but is more hopped than standard pale ales.

I was flattered to be interviewed by Heather Hintze from KTVA. I always worry whether I sound intelligent when speaking about my beer paintings, but figure it will be better to say something about them than nothing at all. Hopefully Heather will edit out all the stupid things I may have said. Painting and talking in front of a camera at the same time is more challenging than you may think. If you live in Anchorage, tune in tonight at 6 PM to Channel 11 News to see my segment.

If you have not visited “The Goose”, I highly recommend it. Keep in mind that if you’re drinking your pint on the deck in high sunlight, move your beer into the shade, or cover it. Direct UV light can damage a beer in just a couple minutes, and will make it taste “skunky”. Thanks to Gary Klopfer, Greg Mills, Dion, Dave, and the rest of the fabulous crew at the Snow Goose Restaurant and Sleeping Lady Brewing! May the restaurant prosper and stay true to its beer-centric roots!

You can purchase this painting, or limited-edition prints at my Etsy shop.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #8 by Scott Clendaniel. February 19th, 2015. Urban Wilderness Pale Ale by Sleeping Lady Brewing Co. 8″x10″, oil on panel.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 336

The featured beer painting is of Winter Ale by Alaskan Brewing Company. An Oude (Old) English ale brewed with spruce tips, this beer is one of my favorite seasonal ales. I have been drinking this strong and sweet beer since I was old enough to buy alcohol legally. I love the purple label with an eagle landing on a Spruce covered in snow. The chances of seeing an eagle landing on a spruce tree in Alaska are very high, especially in Juneau, the brewery’s hometown, and the state’s capital. Juneau has a downhill ski resort called Eagle Crest Ski Area, and I’ve never skied there, but I bet nothing would be better than sipping on Winter Ale after a day of downhill skiing through a spruce tree forest.

I’m relieved that we finally got some snow in Anchorage. It graces the spruce trees like a garland and reflects light, illuminating the surroundings. It may be dark, but as long as the snow has been falling, the moonlight and starlight are magnified enough to create a winter wonderland that makes a northerner feel lucky to call this place home. I love sipping on Alaskan Winter Ale, not only because it’s a family tradition, but also because the sweet aromatic taste of spruce is a taste of the winter forest.

Cheers to Alaskan Winter! My favorite time of year, and a very good beer!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

View the complete Year of Beer Paintings gallery.

Year of Beer 12.02. Winter Ale by Alaskan Brewing Company. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 332

Happy Black Friday sales hunting, but save some money for the annual Holiday Studio Sale and Open House at the Maury home happening next Friday, Dec. 5. If you want the best selection of pottery, jewelry and my paintings and prints, I recommend showing up at opening on Friday at 11 AM. I have made seven new non-beer themed paintings, and when they are gone, I will unveil some of the newest Year of Beer originals. Then come back at 5 PM on Friday, because I will be tapping a keg of my homebrewed honey ginger beer!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! We celebrated with a total of thirty people at my brother’s house this year – a record! My wife and I didn’t stand a chance at the annual doubles ping-pong tournament. I started the party by popping the cork of this bottle of Whiteout Wit Bier with Brett brewed by Anchorage Brewing Company. The old label had a beautiful wintery spruce forest scene on it, but I like the white owl more because it makes me think of Athena, goddess of war and wisdom. Get it? Wit. The beer was the perfect table beer for our feast. My brother married into a Vietnamese family, and his mother-in-law brings the most amazing egg rolls to Thanksgiving. We also had turkey, a duck, prime beef, and a ham, so I made a meat sandwich from all the offerings and washed it down with Gabe Fletcher’s beer. Overall, a feast to remember!

Cheers to the Whiteout Wit on Black Friday! I hope your shopping basket is full of great beers this year!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

View the complete Year of Beer Paintings gallery.

Year of Beer 11.28. Whiteout Wit Bier with Brett by Anchorage Brewing Company. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 292

The featured beer painting is of Redoubt Red Ale by Baranof Island Brewing Company located in Sitka, Alaska. I have never been to Sitka, but I do want to go. Alaska is a huge state, and there are many places that are on my list such as Cordova, Yakutat, Barrow, Kodiak, and the Brooks Range, among many others. Most of them are only accessible by plane. This beer is named after Redoubt Lake, which is a popular fishing destination for Sockeye (Red) Salmon. It’s a meromictic lake, which means that it has two layers of water: a warmer layer on top and a colder layer underneath. The word Redoubt means “a fortified place,” and is also the name of an active volcano not far from Anchorage. Unlike Redoubt Volcano, the one that towers over Sitka’s boat harbor, Mount Edgecumbe, is dormant. So I painted Redoubt Volcano exploding in the background, so that this painting would be a tribute to all things named Redoubt in Alaska: the lake, the volcano, and the beer.

The Redoubt Red Ale is a great beer, and one of the best offerings from Baranof Island Brewing. It is more of an Irish-style red ale, rather than a red IPA. More malty and sweeter than its IPA cousins, this beer still has a nice hop bite, however it is subdued in comparison. Not light on the alcohol by European or American standards coming in at a solid 6%. I tasted all the brews this brewery brought to the Great Alaska Beer and Barleywine festival, and look forward to watching this brewery grow and develop its style.

Cheers to all things Redoubt. I need to make it to Sitka, even though there’s no road to Baranof Island. Good thing there’s a brewery there – a major attraction for me.

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

View the complete Year of Beer Paintings gallery.

Year of Beer 10.19. Redoubt Red Ale by Baranof Island Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 287

The featured beer painting of the day is of Alaskan Brewing Company’s Pumpkin Porter. I would have to say that pumpkin beer is the right ale to be drinking at this time of year. A Pumpkin Porter is a great Halloween beer and I am getting in the spirit of the next upcoming holiday. The dark grains in this beer remind me of the fall harvest in Alaska, and what a bountiful harvest it was! At my local farmer’s market I bought tomatoes, kohlrabi, beautiful spices, and carrots, but I didn’t see any pumpkins. I wonder why, because I know they grow well in Alaska, and some of them get enormous, like the cabbages. Twenty-four hours of daylight and rich volcanic soil can do that. The pumpkins can get so big that they have to be transported to the Alaska State Fair using a forklift! If you look at the label on this beer, you’ll see a truck carrying a colossal pumpkin. I bet this truck is hitting its payload! This year’s blue ribbon pumpkin at the Alaska State Fair was 1,235.5 lbs! That is one big gourd! The world record was broken this year in Mainz, Germany with a behemoth that weighed 2,096.6 lbs! The question that arises is what do you do with a pumpkin that large?   I am imagining a huge brewing operation, a whole batch of pumpkin beer from the pulp! Or, if 1,000 homebrewers showed up, they could make a 1,000 five-gallon batches, and still have enough for everyone to have 1-2 lbs per batch. That’s a lot of pumpkin, really!

Cheers to Fall, and the great harvest that ensues on this side of the world! I hope you get some of Alaskan’s Pumpkin Porter — one of the best pumpkin beers I’ve had yet!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

Year of Beer 10.14. Pumpkin Porter by Alaskan Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 285

Way up north in Alaska, and still waiting for snow here at sea level in Anchorage. It will come soon, because the termination dust is on the mountains, and won’t be going anywhere until spring. I am eagerly awaiting a killer ski season this year, and I have a good feeling it is going to be a good snow year. “Termination dust” is the first snow of the season on top of the mountains, while it continues to rain at lower elevations, hence terminating the summer/fall season and entering into the lustrous winter stage of the year. I love winter, which is a good thing, since I live in a northern state.

This beer brewed by the team at Midnight Sun Brewing Company: Lee Ellis, Davey, Sean, Matt, Gavin, Chelsea, Nick and Kevin, is some of the best beer I have had from the brewery in five years. I think Termination Dust Belgian Barley Wine will age to be as good as the notorious 10^th anniversary barley wine, M, that marked the 1000^th batch of beer in 2005. A bottle of M can sell for over $1,200 between beer traders today. I was lucky enough to get a pretty hefty sample of that glorious beer when I showed my first beer paintings at MSBC in 2011. I think in a few years people will be trading Termination Dust for well over $300 a bottle, if not for way more, just because this barley wine aged in High West bourbon barrels is that good. Also, very good news is that the CoHoHo Imperial IPA is probably the best batch of CoHoHo I have had in five years. Not to mention the greatness in every bottle of Bar Fly Smoked Imperial Stout. The brew crew has worked out any kinks that come from switching up brew staff, and the beer is probably better than it has ever been before!

Cheers to MSBC, the world-class brewery putting out the best beers I have ever tasted, right in front of the Chugach Mountains! Bring on the Termination Dust! Alaska is ready for winter!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

View the complete Year of Beer Paintings gallery.

Year of Beer 10.12. Termination Dust Belgian Barley Wine by Midnight Sun Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 282

The featured beer painting of the day is of Denali Brewing Company’s Single Engine Red, which is an Irish-style red ale. Even the brewers in Talkeetna know that if you don’t get a chance to fly around Denali while you are here in Alaska, you are going to have to make another trip back. My wife, Maria, made four trips this summer, landing three times on the Ruth Glacier. She claims it is the highlight of the trips she guides during the summer here. I have not gotten to land on a glacier on Denali yet, although this summer I flew to St. Elias in a smaller private plane that was probably way more exciting. My friend, who pilots a juiced up Piper Cub, let me open the window to get better pictures, but said we don’t have the power to execute backcountry landings, more importantly the takeoffs. Flying around the big one would be a dream job for him. An old hand with the mountain, he says he is tired of walking up the mountain as a guide. I can understand why, as the success rate for making the summit is 50%. Flying seems like a way better option for me. I don’t like being stuck overnight, huddled in a tent on the side of glaciers. Warm, snug woodstoves and a big thermal mass of logs appeal to me. On our trip to St. Elias we only flew halfway around the pyramid pinnacle, as we didn’t want to enter Canadian airspace. So for the next trip you book to Alaska, really consider a flight seeing trip around the Great One in one of the little red planes pictured in this painting! When you make it back to Talkeetna, the Single Engine Red will taste incredible.

Cheers to the Single Engine Red, and to Alaskan pilots!

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

View the complete Year of Beer Paintings gallery.

Year of Beer 10.09. Single Engine Red by Denali Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 279

The featured beer painting of the day is of Alaskan Brewing Company’s Oatmeal Stout brewed in Juneau, Alaska. Alaskan Stout was released as a rough draft series in 1998 and rapidly became a local favorite. Historically, oatmeal was added to stout beer to give it more healthy nutrients, and it was considered a healthy beverage. When people think of dark beer they expect it to be bitter. Well, if you are trying to stay true to the English style, stout is a dark ale, while porter is a dark bitter. So, a stout should be sweeter than a porter. An oatmeal stout has more un-fermentable grain, so it retains the grain sweetness, and the grain brings its nutritional content higher, resulting in a great beverage for hardworking Alaskans. When I finish working on the cabin for the day I totally want a beer. I am thirsty and hungry at the same time, and an Alaskan Stout seems like a good idea after a hard day of building with logs. It is a true treat, chocolate and malt, with creamy, tan foam that washes down smooth even with a tart carbonation.

Here’s to Alaskan! Cabins, bears, salmon, berries, mountains, ocean, eagles, colossal rivers, glaciers, and stout beers! I hope everybody gets a chance to see the sublime land we Alaskans like to call home!

You can purchase this painting, or a limited-edition print at my Etsy shop.

View the complete Year of Beer Paintings gallery.

Year of Beer 10.06. Oatmeal Stout by Alaskan Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.