BEER IN THE SKY

A few weeks ago I posted on how many airlines are serving local coffees on their flights. By local I mean, staying true to their roots. For example, Alaska Airlines (with tons of service coming out of Seattle) tends to brew Starbucks on their planes (which of course, comes from Seattle). See where I'm going here? Alright, here goes.

The great thing about drinking in the sky is that more and more airlines are tailoring their menus for usually one of two things. The drink menu is either tailored towards your destination, OR they tailor it towards their home town. Staying local either way. Nice. So here are some of the best on-board beers and their local roots.

One of my favorites, and a new addition, Frontier Airlines (based out of Colorado) has begun selling Fat Tire on board. 1 - I love Fat Tire and 2- What a great way to say "Hey Colorado, we love you" by supporting the New Belgium Brewing Company, which is based out of their home state as well.

Continental/United has begun selling beers based off of where you will finally end up. For example, you can't get Asahi, Tsing Tao or Yanjing on domestic flights but if you take an adventure to Asia, they'll be right there on your menu.

Alaska Airlines offers, you guessed it, Alaskan Amber. A beer that is so local, Alaskan Amber prides their beer on being "brewed with water from glaciers outside of Juneau". And here is where Alaska Airlines changes things up, not only do they offer a local beer from their hometown, but they offer beers relative to where you're traveling as well. Heading to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines, they'll give you some Longboard Lager, brewed in Kona, to get that beach feel 37,000 feet up.

But if you want a free beer, you, so far, have two options. Porter Airlines or Horizon Air (now just Alaska). Porter, basically the JetBlue/Virgin America of Canada, offers a local Toronto beer, a Steam Whistle Pilsner. If you want another option, they also bring in some brews from Nova Scotia (staying true to Canada), a bevy of options from Alexander Keith's Nova Scotia brewery. Last but not least (and it could be phasing out, but we hope not) Horizon Air changes their menu every month to include both a beer and a wine from the NorthWest. Best thing, they're free. The only problem is, since Horizon took on all Alaska Airlines livery, we may lose the free beer. At least it'll still be local.

Now here is the challenge, I need to try ALL of these. Looks like I'm going to Canada, Asia and Hawaii. Sounds like a plan.

-Justin