[bonjour]

For our 40th anniversary, my wife and I are planning an Alaska Cruise/Tour on one side or the other of the NHC.
Any suggestions?  Breweries/brewpubs that are a must see?  Other things to make sure we don't miss?

Fred

[EHall]

Salmon fishing!

[tumarkin]

Midnight Sun in Anchorage!!!!

[hopfenundmalz]

Fred, we really liked Humpy's Alehouse in Anchorage.

We just rented a car and toured the Kenai after flying into Anchorage.  Seward and Homer, were where we spent a few days each.  Toured Resurrection Bay out of Seward for the scenery and wildlife.  Went flying in a small plane over the Harding Icefield.

Whatever you do, you will be surrounded by beauty (at least we were).

Edit - A friend went to Alaskan Brewing while docked in Juneau.  Teenagers near the dock said "Finally, signs of intelligent life from the cruse ships!"  as they walked past with full Alaskan Brewing shopping bags.

[bonjour]

Will keep it in mind, we are just planning

[stihler]

That sounds like a great trip.

While in Homer you should definitely check out Homer Brewing Company (say hello to Karen and Steve for me) and the Ring of Fire Meadery.

On the way to Homer there is the Kenai River Brewing Company and St. Eilas Brewing Company in Soldonta and Kassik's Kenai Brew Stop in Kenai. All three are well worth stopping at.

I have a Alaska brewery webpage at: http://www.mosquitobytes.com/Den/Beer/Breweries/Breweries.html. This should give you an idea where the various breweries are. I've included some contact information a link to the official brewery webpages where they exist. Keep in mind some of the offical webpages are under construction and do not include a whole lot of information.

While in Seward I would recommend taking one of the Kenai Fijords tours. I've gone six times and it is a great trip. You often seen glacial calfing and quite a bit of wildlife including humpback whales and orca. I've been on that trip six times and will likely go again.

Anchorage is the Mecca of brewing in Alaska.

Midnight Sun Brewing was already mentioned. Their beers are quite nice.

Glacier Brewhouse is a very nice brewpub. It is kind of expensive but has very good beer and very good food. They have as my wife puts it bread pudding "to die for".

Having said that, whenever we are in Anchorage my wife and I always go to Moose's Tooth. They have wonderful pizza and very good beer. Although they made their own beer the brewing equipment is not on premises so techinically they are not a brewpub. At any rate, they are always busy regardless of the time. If you go you will have to wait at least 5-10 minutes. However, it is worth the wait.

Somebody mentioned Humpy's. They have an impressive line up of beers. However, they tend to attract and younger crowd. Being an old fart I prefer the mellower Café Amsterdam http://www.cafe-amsterdam.com/am/.

In terms of things to do in the Anchorage area I highly recommend going to the Alaska Native Heritage Center Museum http://www.alaskanative.net/en/home/.

My wife and I also really like the Alaska Zoo http://www.alaskazoo.org. It is a small zoo but it is a really nice walk and a great place to "decompress". The zoo features Alaskan wildlife (e.g. Polar Bears, Musk Ox, Moose, etc.) and other cold weather animals (e.g. Yaks, Snow Leopards, Amur Tigers etc.).

Beer culture is alive and well in Alaska. In fact, the Arkose Brewery in Palmer is having their grand opening today (October 11).

I hope you have a wonderful time visiting Alaska and drinking your way across our great state!

Have a most excellent trip!!

Cheers,

Scott

[blatz]

A friend went to Alaskan Brewing while docked in Juneau.  Teenagers near the dock said "Finally, signs of intelligent life from the cruse ships!"  as they walked past with full Alaskan Brewing shopping bags.

Nothing important to add, other than Alaskan in Juneau is well worth it - you'll have to cab it from the dock - IIRC, its about $30 r/t.  Worth every penny - the brewery is not much to look at, but you can get your fill of Smoked Porter on draft, which is spectacular.  When I was there Geoff Larson even broke out a mini-vertical of 3 years worth of Smoked Porter. 

Eat as much salmon as you can.  At one grill out, I ate what the grillmaster estimated at 3lbs of salmon.  it was crazy good.

[hopfenundmalz]

I was the guy who mentioned Humpey's.

As a card carrying old far dude, I was never there late enough to notice it being the younger crowd.  More lunch late afternoon.  Didn't seem out of the norm for me, but the crowds keep getting younger for some reason.

[stihler]

Doh!

I'm afraid I saw the original posting this morning and somehow managed to misread it.

I had thought you were going to Homer, Seward and Anchorage. There was another post that mentioned going there and I guess I got my wires crossed. Sorry about that. What can I say? It was around 5:00 a.m. when I read it.

I wrote my in depth reply without actually rereading the original post. I won't be doing that again.

Oh well....

While in Juneau checking out Alaskan Brewing is worth while.

As somebody has already mentioned it is a bit of a ways out of town but it is worth the trip. The last time I was there, they had collections of four different "vintages" of the smoked porter that one could purchase. That is really cool.

I would not recommend visiting the the Red Dog Saloon. It's kind of a dive or at least it was the least time I was in Juneau.

The trolly tour of Juneau was very nice and gives a good idea of where things are in town.

The Silverbow Bakery has good food.

 I'm afraid I don't recall other places in Juneau worth checking out.

In Sitka there is Baranof Island Brewing. The establishment is new since the last time I've been to Sitka.

The Raptor Center, the Bishops house and St. Michael's  Catherdral are worth checking out in Sitka.

In Skagway there are Skagway Brewing Company and Gold Rush Brewing.

Skagway Brewing is right in town and it very good.

Gold Rush Brewing is more of a pain to get to and I'm afraid I have not heard very many good things about them.

A ride on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, especially if they are running the steam engine, is a must. But then again my wife and I really like steam engines.

If you make it to Haines you should check out Haines Brewing.

I'm afraid other things to do in Haines don't really come to mind at present.

I'm not sure what else to recommend. Most cruise packages don't go much beyond the Inside Passage but there are, of course, various add ons (for a price).

I am leaving my original posting just in case you or somebody else may end up in Anchorage and perhaps the Kenai Peninsula.

Sorry for being such a space cadet. How embarassing.

I hope this helps with your plans.


Cheers,

Scott