Bear creek winery and lodging offers unique experience: at first the B & B supported the winery, Now the winery supports the B & B.

• Author: Stuart, Ben

Building a winery in Alaska is a lot like making lemonade out of lemons--when the nearest lemon tree is thousands of miles away.

Just ask Bill and Dorothy Fry, owner/operators of Bear Creek Winery and Lodging in Homer.

What began as a hobby in their garage quickly evolved into a passion and then into the couple's primary livelihood.

Now the Frys are banking on the fruits of their labor, literally.

"The first thing people ask us is, 'Where do you grow your grapes?'" Dorothy said.

Inconveniently located in grape-free Alaska, the Frys import concentrate for most of their conventional wines.

For their most popular concoctions, however, the Frys use local berries, rhubarb and wildflowers.

Take, for instance, their best-selling Fireweed Mead, made from local fireweed honey.

"People buy it as soon as they see it because of the name," Bill said. "You can't buy it anywhere else."

The winery currently sells 21 varieties of wines, ports and meads by the bottle.

At the Fry's tasting room-which opened in June-patrons can sample wine from labels such as Strawberry-Rhubarb, Blu Zin and Pies Porter--a German wine fermented with Elderflowers.

"We didn't plan on having so many varieties," Dorothy said. "We just like them all."

Apparently, so do their guests.

The Frys began producing roughly 200 gallons of wine in 2003. This year they plan to make more than 1,200 gallons.

Part of this increase is a result from a change in their business model.

At first, the Frys built a two-room bed and breakfast and offered hand crafted wines to their guests.

After scores of guests asked to buy and take home bottles of the wine the Fry's gave away, the Frys decided to diversify.

It took the Frys a year to build the 1,600-square-foot winery--complete with tasting room, fermenting room and cellar.

It then took eight months to process the paperwork required to legally sell their wines.

Now the two entities complement each other, the Frys said.

"At first, the lodging supported the winery," Dorothy said. "Now the winery supports the lodging."

Guests who stay at the bed and winery receive tours of the...