The Last Frontier’s, 49th State Brewing Company should be at the top of your list when visiting Anchorage!
I have to first pay homage to my bartender, Brian. Some of the best customer service I have experienced. He was super helpful, personable and just genuinely cared. This made the experience enjoyable. If you’re reading this, thanks, Brian!
I can’t remember the last bar I visited that offered free pub snacks. I was greeted with a bowl of caramel-jalapeno popcorn that tasted great with all the beers and made me hungry.
Speaking of food… Wow! They have options for everyone. They offer locally sourced meat from a nearby farm. Brian mentioned the spent grains from making the beer are sent to the farm to be used as animal feed. Brian recommends the chicken tenders for you carnivores.
For you herbivores, the Vegan Cashew Pizza and Avacado Fries are delicious! The avocado fries were dredged with what tasted like falafel seasoning then deep fried. What really blew me away is that not only did they have an Impossible Burger - its served as a double stack. For those thinking; “What the hell is an Impossible Burger?”. Its a 100% plant-based meat imitation that tastes like ground beef.
Now on to the good stuff; da beer!
The 907 Lager had a very interesting taste for a lager. More flavor than your run-of-the-mill lager that ends on a sweet note.
Helles V2, the great American beer experiment in the making! I was told the brewmasters were on a quest to make the most ‘crushable’ beer. They are pretty damn close with this one! It drinks like water with a very mild bitter taste after a chug.
My mistake was trying my first American made smoked beer, their Smoked Marzen. It won a gold medal in 2015 at the Great American Beer Festival. The first taste was amazing, fun and interesting. It was on the second taste that I realized that beer competition judges use a taster glass. The rest of the half-pint was like drinking a campfire while on a date with an old hag named Hickory.
Unfortunately, after the smoked beer, I had to call it a night.
The 49th State Brewing Company is one of the best and is certainly a top destination for locals. If you’re visiting in the summer, the pub offers an open-air deck that provides 360-degree views of the city and mountains.
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