Alaska

Little-Known Alaska Breweries May Be The Best In The Country

Published

2 years ago

December 7, 2022

Little-Known Alaska Breweries May Be The Best In The Country

California, Colorado and different states have a repute for brewing nice beer. America’s largest state often goes unmentioned, however Alaska’s high breweries could also be second to none, says Alaska beer author, creator and lecturer Invoice Howell.

“It’s usually been stated of craft beer in Alaska that now we have one of the best beer that nearly nobody has tasted,” says Howell, who has written 4 books, together with Alaska Beer. “The Final Frontier has a very distinctive beer tradition and produces a few of the best beers on the planet, however, if you happen to haven’t truly visited Alaska, you’ve probably by no means heard of most of them.”

Craft beer author Invoice Howell enjoys a chilly one in Alaska the place he recommends many favourite … [+] breweries.

Elaine Howell

Howell can’t title a single favourite brewery, as a result of he says there 13 co-favorites amongst greater than 50 craft beer producers all through the humungous state. Right here is his baker’s dozen of decisions, together with his feedback.

Anchorage and its environment

Anchorage Brewing Firm. “A brewery with a global repute, proprietor Gabe Fletcher’s creation is a temple to beers fermented and aged within the wooden. The visible attraction alone of the rows and rows of foeders at Anchorage Brewing make it well worth the go to, and that’s earlier than you expertise the really wonderful brews, starting from fresh-brewed IPAs to combined tradition fermented fruit beers. An absolute must-visit for beer-lovers.”

Bleeding Coronary heart Brewery. “Established in 2014 after a extremely profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign, this eccentric brewery was initially positioned on a farm outdoors Palmer, a city about 40 minutes north of Anchorage. As is so usually the case, distinctive beers led to distinctive progress, with the brewery finally relocating into the center of downtown Palmer. The brewery is famend for such choices as Beet IPA (brewed with Alaska Grown beets), Grounds for Divorce Espresso Porter (brewed with regionally roasted espresso) and Valley Trash: Soiled Blonde (an homage to a beloved beer from a defunct native brewery).”

Girdwood Brewing Firm. “A half hour drive south of Anchorage, Girdwood Brewing Firm is positioned within the ski resort city of the identical title. Brewers and an identical twin brothers Rory & Brett Marenco have been brewing award-winning brews in a stunning setting since 2017. Make sure to strive their wonderful No Girl No Cryo New England IPA and Hippy Speedball Oatmeal Espresso Stout.”

King Avenue Brewing Firm. “From its opening in 2011, King Avenue Brewing Firm has been one other instance of remarkable beer fueling distinctive progress. After seven years in its authentic modest location (now occupied by Turnagain Brewing), house owners Shane Kingry and Dana Walukiewicz relocated to a custom-built brewery subsequent to Anchorage Brewing Firm. Canned variations of their widespread brews could be discovered on the market in liquor shops all throughout Alaska.”

Midnight Solar Brewing Firm. “The oldest brewery in Anchorage and the second oldest brewery in Alaska, Midnight Solar has developed a well-deserved repute for excellence, reaching properly past the state borders. Whereas it produces beers in many various kinds, MSBC might be most well-known for its large, barrel-aged brews like Arctic Satan Barley Wine and Berserker Imperial Stout. It additionally provides wonderful meals in The Loft, its upstairs faucet room.”

Fairbanks and the Inside

Black Spruce Brewing Firm. “A relative newcomer to the Alaska beer scene, Black Spruce Brewing has made fairly a splash since opening in 2018. On the 2022 Alaska Craft Brew and Barley Wine Competition, Black Spruce’s Heaven Hill Barrel-Aged Reginald Van Horn Barley Wine took house the gold medal, beating out many better-known and older breweries. Since then, ‘the little brewery that might’ in Fairbanks has solely gotten higher.”

Denali Brewing Firm. “From extraordinarily humble beginnings in 2009 as a tiny brewpub, Denali Brewing Firm has grown into the second-largest brewery in Alaska. Situated within the small city of Talkeetna, about 100 miles north of Anchorage, Denali was one of many first breweries within the state to start canning. Its beers are extensively obtainable, and it additionally operates a meadery and a distillery.”

HooDoo Brewing Firm. “When it opened its doorways on Halloween 2012, HooDoo Brewing turned the primary brewery to function in Fairbanks since World Conflict II. Since then, proprietor Bobby Wilken has led the cost to convey nice craft beer to Alaska’s second-largest metropolis. HooDoo has a distinctly European aptitude: a stunning outside beer backyard, a former German hearth truck that’s used to move beer to festivals and distinctive flagship brews German Kolsch, Bavarian Weissbier and German Helles.”

Kenai Peninsula

St. Elias Brewing Firm. “When it opened in Could 2008, St. Elias Brewing was the one brewpub on the Kenai Peninsula. Its specialty is connoisseur pizzas paired with wonderful brews produced by proprietor/brewer Zach Henry. Henry has proven an admirable willingness to experiment through the years, producing eclectic brews, together with a Inventory Ale (sturdy, extremely hopped and barrel-aged with Brettanomyces for greater than a 12 months) and a Burton Ale (a virtually extinct fashion from Britain). His Czech Pilsner is one of the best within the state.”

Homer Brewing Firm. “When it opened in September 1996, Homer Brewing Firm was the one manufacturing brewery within the state outdoors of Anchorage and Juneau. The imaginative and prescient, in accordance with Karen Berger, one among three founders, was ‘a want to reside in Homer, create an revenue and the love of beer.’ Homer Brewing solely distributes its nation ales to faucets within the native space, guaranteeing that flagship brews like Damaged Birch Bitter and Pink Knot Scottish are all the time completely contemporary.”

Kenai River Brewing Firm. “When it opened in 2006, Kenai River Brewing in Soldotna was one of many first breweries within the state to benefit from a change in state regulation permitting taproom gross sales. Since then, KRBC’s excellent ales have been embraced by the local people and elsewhere within the state, because of a sturdy canning operation. KRBC is positioned in a custom-built facility in downtown close to its namesake, the Kenai River. It has a stunning faucet room, serving scrumptious meals. There are often a dozen or so brews on faucet, together with wonderful Sunken Isle, an English-style IPA, and Skilak Scottish Ale.”

Southeast Alaska

Alaskan Brewing Firm. “The granddaddy of all craft breweries within the state, Juneau’s Alaskan Brewing Firm has led the best way since its founding in 1986 by Geoff and Marcy Larson. Brewing extra beer than all the opposite breweries within the state mixed, Alaskan’s merchandise are bought far past the Final Frontier. Nevertheless, solely locals get the chance to style the beers in Alaskan’s Tough Draft Collection — limited-release beers that the brewery makes use of to check and refine recipes.”

Haines Brewing Firm. “With its brews obtainable virtually completely within the small coastal city of the identical title, Haines Brewing Firm epitomizes the ‘native is greatest’ method of many craft breweries in Alaska. Based in 1999 by Paul Wheeler and Jeanne Kitayanna, Haines Brewing has earned a repute, amongst Alaskan beer aficionados, of a hidden gem. Captain Cook dinner’s Spruce Tip Ale is taken into account by many to be the head of this uniquely Alaskan fashion, whereas Black Fang Imperial Stout is a perennial favourite.”

Alaska beer author Invoice Howell sits on the bar with Denali Brewing Firm’s Mom Golden Ale at … [+] the Seaview Cafe in Hope, Alaska.

Elaine Howell

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Related Topics:alaska anchorage barrel-aged beer best breweries Fairbanks Featured homer ipa kenai

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Alaska

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport busy with holiday travelers

Published

4 hours ago

December 23, 2024

Press Room

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport busy with holiday travelers

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) -Many of the people arriving to and departing from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Sunday agreed that Anchorage’s main airport isn’t as tough to navigate as most right now.

On Dec. 22, three days out from both Hanukkah and Christmas, travelers at the airport were lined up, checking in, waiting for baggage, or going through security; all of those, demanding a wait. However, several travelers told Alaska’s News Source about their experiences and what they were expecting during their flights.

Matt Howard departed from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina around 5 a.m. “It was the busiest I’ve ever seen it,” Howard said. He estimated he touched down in Anchorage around 6 p.m., adding Ted Stevens was much “less frantic” than the other airports he was at, but thought the evening time frame might have been a contributing factor.

Flying in from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, Kimberly Lamar said she visits her mother in Alaska at least once a year.

“It was pretty overwhelming, trying to get through from Atlanta,” she said. “Then I got to Seattle; it was hard to get through to the gates of Seattle. And finally, this is the easiest airport I’ve actually been in all day.”

Born and raised in Alaska, Gideon Mahoney was traveling to Colorado where he recently relocated. “I’m actually really surprised, right now it’s easy and we were a little late, so…” Mahoney said, glancing at the line for security.

Growing up in Alaska, Mahoney said flying into Denver International Airport can be overwhelming at times.

“We’re working on figuring out how to deal with that,” he said. “We’re getting it.”

As for travelers who haven’t left just yet, Lamar’s advice was aligned with a prepared statement from Alaska Airlines: both said arriving early is the key for holiday travels.

“If you’re flying, make sure you leave early because those lines are crucial,” Lamar said.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

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Alaska

Hydroponics provide year-round growing for Alaska farmers

Published

12 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

Hydroponics provide year-round growing for Alaska farmers

On a recent December afternoon, Soldotna farmer Taylor Lewis preps for a day of harvesting crops. She walks to a tray filled with ripe lettuce and snips a head of it by the stem.

It’s just one of about 900 plants that Taylor and her mother-in-law Jayme Lewis will harvest and process this week – despite freezing temperatures and slushy snow outside. That’s because the duo works for Edgy Veggie, an indoor farm that grows produce year round.

“In the summer, a lot of our business drops off because folks are gardening at home. But in the winter, they’re not, because it costs money to heat your greenhouse,” Jayme said. “It costs a lot of money to heat your greenhouse.”

The company is a hydroponic farm, meaning they grow plants without soil. Hydroponic systems recycle and reuse nutrient-filled water, which minimizes waste. Specially made lighting and climate controlled conditions make it possible for Edgy Veggie to grow indoors during the winter months.

Climate controlled grow rooms like this one at Edgy Veggie in Soldotna make it possible to harvest greens and herbs year-round.

Around Thanksgiving, the company harvested 150 pounds of lettuce, enough to make about 800 salads. That took two days and was one of their biggest hauls of the year. Although not a typical harvest for the company, Jayme says she does see an uptick in business during the winter when Alaska’s produce is almost exclusively shipped up from the Lower 48.

“If you go to the grocery store and pick up a head of lettuce right now, by the time you get it home it will be wilted,” Jayme said. “That’s sad. Literally, that’s sad.”

Jayme says some local restaurants have sourced their vegetables from Edgy Veggie because they last longer and are fresher than grocery store produce.

Nestled between two train cars-turned-restaurants on the other side of town, Henry Krull walks inside his shipping container farm. He points to a wall that’s growing hundreds of bunches of butter lettuce.

Krull is the owner of fresh365, another Kenai Peninsula based hydroponic farm. Just like Edgy Veggie, the farm operates entirely indoors.

“The advantage of growing indoors, in a container like we have, is that we can control the environment,” Krull said. “We can grow no matter what’s going on outside. It can be 30 below outside, but it’s always 70 degrees or so inside.”

fresh365 also sees an uptick in direct-to-consumer sales in the winter. Otherwise, most of their sales go to other businesses, like local restaurants.

Lettuce sprouts, like these seen at Edgy Veggie in Soldotna, are placed in a specially designed watering system and grown without soil.

And while indoor farming means fresh, local produce year-round for Alaskans, it faces a number of challenges. Krull says growing in a hydroponic setting is much more expensive than traditional farming methods. So, to offset his farm’s energy costs, he installed solar panels, which were partially funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP.

But, Krull says the property doesn’t get much sunlight in the winter.

“The sun is a very valuable commodity, it’s valuable for not only producing electricity, but it helps to lower the energy costs,” he said. “And the energy costs of the farm containers we have is actually very, very high, because we can’t take advantage of the sun.”

Edgy Veggie, on the other hand, doesn’t even have solar panels. Jayme says their energy costs are high year round.

“Electricity, especially, is outrageous,” she said. “I wish that the state had some sort of option with the electric companies to help support farming. We’re providing a service to the community, honestly. We’re trying to, but it might run us out of business.”

Other challenges to hydroponics include faulty pumps and timers, ventilation issues and water leaks. Like traditional farming, hydroponic farmers say it’s backbreaking work.

fresh365 owner Henry Krull says the hydroponic farm recently started growing mushrooms, like — fresh365 owner Henry Krull holds a box of lion’s mane. The hydroponic farm recently started growing mushrooms alongside its greens and herbs.

But, for farmers like Taylor Lewis, offering fresh and local produce year round is a labor of love.

“Being able to supply our community with anything fresh is great,” Taylor said. “What we have as options in the grocery store – it’s not cutting it.”

“These belong in every community,” Krull said. “We’ve been able to prove that as a business model, it works. You can make a profit doing it, you can provide a good service to your community, and I think we can really do good for our community by providing something that is not readily available on a year-round basis.”

According to the U.S Department of Agriculture, only 5% of food Alaskans consume is grown locally. The state also has very short growing seasons.

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