Alaskan Brewing Co. beer-powdered-beer: crafting sustainability in sustenance.

• Author: Bonham Colby, Nicole A.
• Position: MANUFACTURING

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"It's been a good year for beer--particularly for the Juneau-based brewery that is the 49th state's namesake. With new product releases out last month, and a recent study touting millions in total economic impacts to the state's economy by Alaska's handful of beer distributors, Alaskan Brewing Co. is also enjoying kudos rolling in from its unique sustainability effort to serve "beer-powered-beer."

That move toward greater sustainability by fueling part of its operation from the spent grain left over from the brew process has made the company the first craft brewer in the world to use the byproduct as a primary fuel source. Such innovation is not incongruous for the company that was started by a couple who researched its early recipes from those first used during the Gold Rush years. Crafting its beer since 1986, Alaskan Brewing Co. is successfully spreading its signature Alaska images and Last Frontier-centric brands across the western nation from the labels of its popular craft beers.

Brewing a Beer Tale

Started by Marcy and Geoff Larson more than a quarter century ago, Alaskan Brewing Co. was the nation's sixty-seventh brewery when it started up in Juneau--and that city's first brewery since the end of Prohibition. The couple's story is quintessential Alaska: drawn to the state's natural beauty and lifestyle, but challenged to make a living and stay. After a friend suggested they start a brewery, the couple--a chemical engineer/homebrewer and accountant/ aspiring pilot--combined their brain power to create what is now a popular commercial presence throughout the western Lower 48, appearing on T-shirts, screensavers, and bottle labels from Washington state to Texas.

That first batch of Alaskan Amber was hand packed by the couple and ten volunteers.

It's a story that is ripe with all the touchstones of Alaska--the lure of adventure, some adversity along the way, eccentric and creative solutions, the challenge of sticking to a plan through the years, the possibility of payoff for hard-won efforts, and, finally, success. Add to that Alaskana story the eccentricities of the craft brew culture--a grassroots collection of homebrewers and artists that increasingly are finding a commercial market for their unique, niche recipes. Some, like Alaskan Brewing Co., incorporate sufficient business know-how and process to eventually create a viable commercial operation from their initial good idea.

Brewing the Bucks

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