In 1987, 1988 and 1990 Alaskan Brewing won gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival for Alaskan Amber (known as Chinook Alaskan Amber the first two times). Michael Jackson featured Alaskan Amber in his 1993 Beer Companion in the Altbier chapter.
On Saturday it captured a silver medal at the 2012 World Beer Cup in the Irish-Style Red Ale category.
In the event this result poked your curiosity button, here are the guidelines for the styles in question used by the 2012 judges:
Irish-Style Red Ale
Irish-style red ale ranges from light red-amber-copper to light brown in color. These ales have a medium hop bitterness and flavor. They often don’t have hop aroma. Irish-style red ales have low to medium candy-like caramel sweetness and a medium body. The style may have low levels of fruity-ester flavor and aroma.
German-Style Brown Ale/Düsseldorf Style Altbier
Copper to brown in color, this German ale may be highly hopped and intensely bitter (although the 25 to 35 IBU range is more normal for the majority of Altbiers from Düsseldorf) and has a medium body and malty flavor. A variety of malts, including wheat, may be used. Hop character may be low to medium in the flavor and aroma. The overall impression is clean, crisp, and flavorful often with a dry finish. Fruity esters can be low.
Interesting. I had never thought of comparing the two, but I can see where they overlap. In my mind, an Irish Red is all about crystal malt and esters, usually from Irish Ale yeast. Altbier has a caramel/crystal character (despite having no crystal malt) and almost no esters as a result of long lagering. I’m not sure where I’d place Alaskan Amber since it’s been so long since I’ve tasted it, but I’m not too worried about it either; I’m just thirsty now.
I wish you’d bring this home and tell us whether you think this is 1) evidence of the foolishness of styles, 2) another example of how separate beer lineages can produce strikingly similar beer styles, 3) proof the the WBC has jumped the shark, or 4) a demonstration of the abject state of beer style descriptions.
Or … ?
I seem to remember seeing Mirror Pond being sold as a Pale Ale recently, when it was an Alt back in the day.
Seems like Altbier is a useful category that people like to drink, but it might be difficult to market as such. Both Irish Red and Pale Ale are more compelling categories to consumers, I wager.
Afraid I don’t yet have a fully formed opinion, Jeff.
Although I sometimes enjoy poking a bit of fun at the addition of new categories in the BA taxonomy I generally shrug my shoulders and remember that beer competition “styles” are not real world “styles.”
Multiple choice I’d check your No. 2, but cross out the word “styles” and think simply why beers, perhaps of different lineages, are the same and why they are different.
Ha, apparently I wasn’t the only one who stopped to reread the category to see if I saw it right… They’ve won quite a few awards over the years in Irish Categories with the Amber in World/Europe/American competitions… they’ve even won in an Amber/Red Lager category recently.
And by the descriptions, if you gave that beer to an average punter in a British pub – light red-amber-copper to light brown in color, medium hop bitterness and flavour – they’d say it was a standard bitter.
I do like this beer and had one last week. It is pretty damn far from being a great Alt. I gave it side by side with Uerige to folks to show how different similar things can be. It was pretty damn different. I do like the Alaskan Amber though…
Lets not get too wrapped up in this. This is the same competition that gave the top 3 ‘Bohemian Pilsners’ to Heineken, Heineken and MillerSAB.
The Alaskan Amber label says “Alt Style Beer” right on the label, though that always bugged me. It’s a tasty beer, but not really like the typical German or German-influenced alts.
So you could also frame this as the beer finally showing up in the correct category. Unless it’s too hoppy for an Irish Red.