Alaska bier flows in Mat-Su's German pub: valley man builds Schwabenhof using a '41 Dodge and 64 notched logs.

• Author: Sullivan, Patty
• Position: Bill Weith's beer pub

With each log Bill Weith scribed and fitted last summer, passersby in Palmer and Wasilla grew more curious about what was taking shape on the hill.

Between the two spreading towns on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, an octagonal building grew log by log, soon having six windows overlooking the Chugach and Talkeetna mountain ranges, Some drivers joked that the brief gaps for windows in the wooden fort must be gun placements. Others pulled off the road and told him to fix his sign. "You got the umlaut wrong over the "O" in Schwabenhof," they insisted (there is no umlaut).

So Weith's biergarten began. The retired Alaska State trooper laughs at the attention. Not much sways him. From April to September, he' singlehandedly raised the walls of his full-scribed Swedish cope.

LOG BY LOG

A scribe is similar to a protractor. It measures angles and draws on the log where it should be cut, so one log fits snugly with the next. Alone, Weith notched all 64 togs and wedged them into place. No nails or cement were used - only staggered rebar to keep them from rolling. His oft-worn red suspenders aren't for looks; they hold up his pants. The 56-year-old lost 35 pounds stacking timber. He built his house this way and after the three years it took to complete, swore he'd never notch logs again.

"But I kept my tools," he laughed, thus the German pub within Swedish walls was born. Weith is, of course, of Swedish and German descent.

One tool, as versatile as Weith himself, was parked out back: a 1941 Dodge military six-by. He drove the beast up the Alaska Highway from San Francisco in 1976, clocking 35 mph while sitting on a box for 102 hours. Using a winch, boom and this Dodge, Weith hefted the spruce into his beloved octagon. He believes it will be a pub like no other in the state.

ALASKA MICROBREWS ON TAP

Eighteen microbrews will flow from basement taps in the keg room, most of them Alaska labels. Weith wants at least two beers from every Alaska brewery. "To spread the wealth around," he said.

Beers will slide across the bar in 17 ounce steins, that top inch reserved for the creamy froth that Budweiser drinkers are afraid of.

Skillets will sizzle with German cooking, bratwurst and knockwurst for starters...