BEERCATION – ANCHORAGE – POSTSCRIPT (HISTORY & TRIVIA)
Anchorage’s first brewpub since prohibition, Midnight Sun opened in 1995, five years after the first brewpub in Indianapolis, Broad Ripple Brewpub. Bert Grant’s Yakima Brewing & Malting Co. in Yakima, Washington, better known as Grant’s Brewery Pub, was the first brewpub to open in the U.S., since prohibition, in 1982. (I consider this to be the seminal moment in the craft beer revolution.) It was followed the next day, by the opening of Red Hook Brewing’s Pub in Seattle. With the availability of these beers and those from other microbreweries, some bars in Anchorage began carrying them in the 1980s. One such place was Mr. Whitekeys’ Fly By Night Club which appeared to have a private airplane flying into its roof. They would often have Grant’s Scottish Ale available and their menu stated that there would be a fifty cent tax imposed on the purchase of any mega brewery beer, showing their support of the fledgling microbrew industry.