where in the beer world?

Please don’t look at the photo above and think, “That jerk really is determined to stump the readers. Where’s the beer connection? Heck, where’s the beer?”

I picked this photo because I’ve been wanting to pass along a bit of beer history for a while. That might be the whole point of this non-contest contest: a chance for me to post a few photos I don’t seem to have an excuse to use otherwise. And ask you where in the beer world is was taken.

Also, some advance warning. It may be a while before I can post the details. Once we reach Europe in a couple of days finding an Internet connection will seldom get any kind of priority treatment. although I hope to participate in The Session on Friday.

And if you are still with me you deserve a hint on this one. It coulda been a brewery.

The answer: This is a building in Douglas (across the Gastineau Channel from Juneau), Alaska, that Geoff and Marcy Larson looked at quite seriously when they were looking for a location for Alaskan Brewing. It can’t be far from where the old Douglas City Brewing Company operated more than 100 years ago. Alaskan based the recipe for its Amber on one from Douglas.

Would this location have accommodated expansion as easily as the property the Larson eventually chose? Surely not.

It reminds me of a story I’ve been meaning to confirm, that Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan considered Crested Butte before locating New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins. NBB surely couldn’t have grown like it has were the brewery trying to ship beer out of Crested Butte — a beautiful town known for biking, skiing and its wild flowers but not at a transportation crossroads like Fort Collins.

Curious how important those first startup decisions turned out to be.

Could this be the stumper?

This photo was snapped during our current adventure. That narrows it down to 24 states, eight provinces and one territory. I’ll rule out Alaska and the Yukon for you.

Anway, this isn’t really a hit-the-buzzer-first-Jeopardy-type contest (Daria would kick your butt), so feel free to comment even if you don’t know where this barn resides.

Heck, I bet we’d all like to know if you can tell us what Koehler beer used to taste like.

(Here’s how this feature started, in case you forgot.)

This week’s “Where in the beer world?” includes a person . . . for those of you with facial recognition software.

A hint? We bought “scratch and dent” cheese at a store in a nearby town. These are cheeses presumably from small-batch cheesemakers of the region that didn’t end up quite right in the package, and thus cost a little less. This is one of America’s great cheese regions, but the S&D swiss did not do well in a family tasting. It seemed a like a good idea at the time, but later I thought, “Would I buy scratch and dent beer?”

I know I promised we’d be talking about prizes for sharp-eyed contributors (readers are four-for-four), so here’s the first: a $50 gift certificate at BeerBooks.com. Lots of great books there to choose from, but Carl Miller also has other cool stuff. Including a bunch of new photos.

Comments are open.

Just to mix things up, this week’s photo for “where in the beer world?” was not taken during our current adventure (which began May 21).

It was snapped on a previous trip.

Want a hint? It’s not the world’s most expensive hop cone.

For those unfamiliar, here is how “where in the beer world?” works.

Please leave your answer about where the photo was taken as a comment. Also feel free to comment on the picture, maybe come up with a caption, even if you don’t know where in the beer world . . .

Do you think you know where in the beer world the photo above was taken?

I hope that Round Three of this not-a-contest (though there will be prizes, details) turns out to be pretty easy for some of you.

The second photo should guarantee that, so consider it your weekly hint.

Comment away. I hope to get back to you eventually, but online access is going to be continue to be hard for us to come by in the next week or so (no complaints – much to be said for national park campgrounds if you don’t covet electricity and Internet connections).

That’s why this post is a day late and why there will be no Monday musing this week.

Location revealed (Wednesday, Aug. 6). The photo is of the door on the building attached to Allagash Brewing that holds it coolship. I called attention to it last December and finally got to see it last week.

Allagash founder Rob Tod had shown somebody else the room just the day before, but an industrious spider had already spun this web less than 24 hours later. There were more spider webs inside.

Allagash has brewed four batches using the coolship, two last winter and two more this spring. They now reside in Allagash’s barrel room in various size French oak barrels and used bourbon barrels (just because). It will be a year or more, brewmaster Jason Perkins said, before it is clear what will come of the beer in progress.

There’s more to report from the Allagash barrel room. A new/used foder acquired from Bonny Doon in California. Perkins was preparing to put Allagash Tripel in it the next day, along with a special collection of brewing bugs just itching to get out of a grundy tank in the barrel room. Film at 10.