"BEER POWERED BEER"

The year is 1986.  You are an adventurous and energetic 28 year old living in Juneau Alaska.  You have made the decision to open a brewing company.  Sounds simple enough, right?

Here’s the problem. . . . with the exception of Honolulu Hawaii, Juneau holds an unusual distinction among all U.S. capitals.  There are no roads connecting the city of Juneau to the rest of Alaska or to the rest of North America.  The absence of a road network is due to the extremely rugged terrain that surrounds the city.  

Ferry service is available so you will find cars throughout the city however, all goods coming in and out of Juneau must go by plane or boat, in spite of the city being on the Alaskan mainland. So how and where are you going to market your product?

Who, in their right mind, would want to open a brewing company in a town that is only accessible by plane or boat and expect the business to survive, much less thrive?

This is a question that played over and over in my head as I headed off to find the Alaskan Brewing Company.

The Alaskan Brewing Company is located in Juneau Alaska but is not within walking distance to the port area.  I arrived via the Norwegian Jewel and we docked at A.J. Dock.  

Arriving into Juneau / docking at A.J.Dock

I now needed to take the complimentary shuttle from the ship to Mount Roberts Tramway Center.  As I stepped off the ship the covered shuttle stop was located just to my left.  

One of my favorite apps when traveling is Rome2Rio. 

A quick search for directions to the Transit Center indicated it would take 7 minutes walking.

It was a beautiful day and the boardwalk area is very scenic so I opted to walk

Heading to the Boardwalk

Walking down the Boardwalk toward the Transit Center

Front view of Juneau Transit Center

Another check of my Rome2Rio app indicated that bus #3 would be my best option to get from the Transit Center to the Alaskan Brewing Company.  The 23 minute trip runs hourly at a cost of $2 each way.

Route from Transit Center to Alaskan Brewery via bus #3

I finally arrived at the business office and was introduced to Matt Chambers and Lena Gilbertson. 

Alaskan Brewing Company Business Office Entrance

Matt Chambers and Lena Gilbertson

By way of modern technology, meet visionaries and entrepreneurs Geoff and Marcy Larson.  This video is entitled “Putting a Little Alaska in a Bottle" and it will give you a sense of their compassion, commitment and vision for Alaskan Brewing Company.   

Pioneers Geoff and Marcy Larson

The year was 1986.  Geoff and Marcy were 28 years old.  Geoff was a chemical engineer and a home brewer and Marcy was an adventure-seeking accountant and aspiring bush pilot. Their vision would eventually became reality with the opening of the Alaskan Brewing Company, the 67^th independent brewery in the country and the first brewery in Juneau since Prohibition.

Independently owned and operated, Alaskan Brewing Company continues to abide by a three-part mission:

1. To produce internationally recognized quality craft  beverages
2. To showcase quality-oriented manufacturing in Alaska
3. To have fun growing both individually and as a company

In the beginning it was Marcy who discovered shipping records from the Douglas City Brewing Company (1899-1907) listing the ingredients for its popular beers, along with a newspaper article outlining the brewing process. Geoff home brewed a batch of the Gold Rush era brew that would become known as Alaskan Amber.

In December 1986 Geoff, Marcy and 10 volunteers, tested 22 different batches of brew before settling on their now famous Alaskan Amber. 

Alaskan Amber

Production on their first 253 cases of Alaskan Amber would take 12 hours of hand packing.  From that fledgling birth, production lines today produce a staggering 300 bottles per minute, 3,800 cases in a 12-hour shift.   The Alaskan Amber still represents 50% of their volume and repeatedly ranks as their best selling beer year after year.  Coming in at second is the Alaskan White, introduced in 2008.

In order to stay competitive over the years, Geoff needed to adapt and change some of the processing procedures.  Matt was quick to tell me Geoff has a favorite saying: “We brew the way we do because of where we brew.”    

Matt Chambers leading my tour through the facility

 

 

 

In 2008 the company purchased and installed a mash filter press, allowing them to grind their grains to a fine grind, thus allowing them to use less water.  The process uses 10% less grain, saves 68,000 gallons of water per year and maximizes their yield.  

Water is one of the most important ingredients in beer and the Alaskan Brewing Company holds the distinction of being the largest water consumer in Juneau. With 1,500 square miles of ice and glaciers, the Juneau Icefield is larger than the state of Rhode Island and provides a pristine water source for all of their brews.  

Juneau Icefields

The biggest waste product in brewing is spent grain.  A normal brewery would sell their waste product to farmers as high protein feed.  With a lack of cattle in Juneau, Alaskan Brewing Company was forced to transport their spent grain once a week to Seattle.  The problem with this method is that it takes a week for a barge to travel from Juneau to Seattle and wet spent grain spoils within 48 hours.  Being forced to dry your spent grain before shipping it out adds considerable production expenses. 

Alaskan Brewing Company is now the only company in the world to use spent grain as a fuel source through the use of steam boilers.  The spent grain is still dried onsite but instead of shipping via barge to Seattle, the grains are placed in a steam boiler and burned, thus creating steam which is used to power their manufacturing and production equipment.  This process makes Alaskan Brewing Company truly unique.  The plant is powered by the waste product it produces during the brewing process, hence the adoption of their motto:  “BEER POWERED BEER”

It was time to head to the tasting room which opens at 11am.  You will find plenty of seating both inside and outside. 

Inside the tasting room

Merchandise shop inside tasting room

Now deciding what to taste

Colored label display of the brew offerings

During the tasting process I was educated on ABV and IBU. 

ABV is Alcohol By Volume
The higher the number the higher strength

IBU is International Bitter Units 
The higher the number the more bitter 

Available samples on my tour date

My flight selection

Alaskan Brewing Company added state #24 and #25 to their distribution list with Hawaii and Utah added in August of 2019. 

Alaskan Brewing Company is located at 5429 Shaune Drive, Juneau, Alaska 99801-9540.  Phone: 907-780-5866 and Fax: 907-780-4514.