While we were on our Alaskan Cruise (you can read about it here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/princess-cruise/ ), we had docked at Juneau with a few hours. We decided to walk around the town, and found there was an interesting tour that we could take during the hours that we had. It was an Alaskan Brewing Tour ($25/person). We headed over to their downtown “Alaskan Brewing Depot” where you can purchase the tour, and then the shuttle will take you directly to the brewery.
As soon as we walked in, we saw shiny brewing equipment behind a large window. A room next to it was the first tasting room for the tasting tour. It was small and cozy, with wood furniture that bring out the warm, welcoming vibe in this room.
From this room, we could see the brewing equipment in the next room, which was pretty cool. They had beer bottles all around the room on a shelf, it was interesting to look at all the label design. All their beer is brewed and bottled at this facility here in Juneau, which is amazing.
A lovely duo opened up the Alaskan Brewing Company in 1986. This was the first brewery in Juneau since Prohibition, which is interesting. With that, they offer some beers that are similar to the ones from the gold rush era. Also, their beers are made with local ingredients, history and innovation.
Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and funny too. He told us great information about the company, founders and the beers. They had ingredients on top of the barrel, that allows you to be able to see and smell them right there. And, speaking of funny, they had a funny marketing items on the shelf too.
In this room, we got to taste three different beers on tap. The first one was Alaskan Amber. This one has a very interesting background. It was made with an old recipe from over 100 years ago. This Gold Rush-era brew has become Alaskan Amber. Pretty darn cool! What’s cooler than the recipe? Alaskan Amber is made from glacier-fed water from Juneau Ice Field. What! That is so awesome! It had beautiful amber color, clean, balanced and smooth.
The second one we tried was Alaskan White, wheat ale brewed with spices. It is based on the “Belgian-style witbier” which translates to “white beer.” White beers. This one was made for the Summer time, which had a funny story. With the polar bear with white background on the label, it was popular during the Winter. It messed up with their production volume, so they changed the color to bright sunshine yellow. It was a good call, as the sale went up during the Summertime after that. It has orange peels and coriander for crisp, citrus, and refreshing flavor perfect for Summer.
The last one was Icy Bay IPA. It was very hoppy, malty, crisp and dry. As all other beers that they offer, this one is also made from glacier-fed water. This one, even thought it is hoppy, it is not overwhelmingly hoppy or bitter, so that it is popular among the beer drinkers who are typically not fans of IPA.
After we tasted three kinds of beers from here, we were ready to move onto another room with full selections of their beer offerings. The tour guide gave us beer bottle caps, which are going to be used as tokens for the tastings. Nice system they have, easy and simple.
They had nice chalk board that helped with choosing which one to sample.
A couple who were on the liquid tour with us chose their four samples, as we chose our four samples. Very different look, right? With all the offerings that they have, we can pick so many different kinds of samples. We got Aurora Cherryalis, Husky IPA, Baltic Porter, and Smoked Porter.
Aurora Cherryalis had beautiful pinkish red color. It had fruity aroma with tart cherry flavor. Since I like fruity beer, this one was my favorite of all. It was nice and light, with some sweetness to it.
Husky IPA was very clean, with tropical and stone fruit flavors. It had pleasant aromas of tangerine and papaya. Really nice IPA for sure.
Baltic Porter and Smoked Porter were both very dark, and stronger than others. They were smoke-flavored beers, which was introduced by them, from what I heard. These beers may be aged in the bottle much like fine wine, which was another interesting fact. How do they get the smoked flavor? Prior to brewing, malts are smoked in a food smoker using local alder wood. It was a bit too strong for me, but certainly very interesting beers.
Alaskan Brewing Co. started with two founders and about 10 people. Since then, it has become one of the most award-winning craft breweries in the history of the Great American Beer Festival. Impressive! They now distribute their beers to 20 states. So, even if you don’t get to go to Alaska, you might still be able to taste their beers elsewhere. This was a super fun experience, and the super generous amount of beer that gave us was really a lot! I am not a heavy beer drinker, and I drank so much more beer than I could handle… With that, the price paid was super affordable, one of the best brewery tours we’ve ever been on for sure! If you ever are in Juneau, I definitely recommend this tour!
Alaskan Brewing Co. – 5429 Shaune Drive Juneau, Alaska 99801