Alaskan Brewing Company

Posted in Alaskan Brewing Company, New Beers
Posted in Alaskan Brewing Company, Coming Soon

Alaskan Cran-Spruce Ale, A Rough Draft Export Offering

Alaskan Cran-Spruce Ale

Alaskan Cran-Spruce Ale takes aim at bottles in the near future. Cran-Spruce Ale is a part of the brewery’s Rough Draft Export Series. Each offering is a small batch, experimental offering.

Alaskan Cran-Spruce Ale is brewed with cranberries and spruce tips. The brewery has not officially announced this beer yet.

Style: Herb/Spice Beer (w/ Cranberries, Spruce Tips)
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft.
Release: TBA

5.2% ABV

Note: This is a “first look” preview. Details are subject to change at anytime by the brewery. 

Posted in Alaskan Brewing Company, New Beers
Posted in Alaskan Brewing Company, New Beers
Posted in Alaskan Brewing Company

Get Ready for the Return of Alaskan Raspberry Wheat

Bears, berries, and beer. Get ready for the summer return of Alaskan Brewing’s Raspberry Wheat. Part of their Limited Edition Pilot Series, Raspberry Wheat is made with 3,000 lbs of raspberries. This beer was once just a Rough Draft beer – a scratch series of beers only available at their tasting room – but due to its popularity it has been upgraded and has been released in late spring for the past 2 years in limited edition. Stay tuned for the official launch date and a full list of states receiving Raspberry Wheat.

Style: American Wheat Ale (w/ Raspberries)
Availability:  12oz bottles, Draft
Arrival: Coming Soon

6.5% ABV 

Posted in Alaskan Brewing Company, Press Releases

Alaskan Brewing Repurposes Spent Grain as Fuel Source (PR)

JUNEAU, AK – The Alaskan Brewing Company is now operating with a new fuel source: beer. More specifically, they are using the wet grain known as “spent grain,” left over from the brewing process, as the sole fuel source for their steam boiler. Alaskan is the first craft brewery in the world to use this brewing by-product in this way, reducing the company’s fuel oil consumption in brewhouse operations by 60-70 percent.

“We have the unique honor of brewing craft beer in this stunning and remote place,” explains Alaskan Brewing Co-founder Geoff Larson. “But in order to grow as a small business here in Alaska and continue having a positive effect on our community, we have to take special efforts to look beyond the traditional to more innovative ways of brewing. Reducing our energy use makes good business sense, and good sense for this beautiful place where we live and play.”

The brewery began the spent grain energy process in 1995 with the installation of a grain dryer. The equipment dried the wet, protein-rich spent grain in preparation for shipment to the lower 48 for use as cattle feed, due to the absence of farms or ranches in Southeast Alaska. Alaskan designed the grain dryer to use up to 50 percent of the grain as a supplemental fuel source to heat the dryer itself. This reduced the oil required in the drying process, and provided experience in burning spent grain that would later prove useful in designing the steam boiler.

In 2008, Alaskan became the first craft brewery in the nation to install an energy saving piece of brewing equipment called a mash filter press. The mash filter press, in addition to providing greater energy, water, and materials efficiencies, produces a lower-moisture-content spent grain than does the more traditional lautering process. This form of spent grain better lends itself to drying and for use as fuel for the brewery’s grain dryer and, ultimately, the new spent grain steam boiler system.

Over the latter months of 2012, Alaskan completed the final stage of the process with the installation and commissioning of the $1.8 million, custom-constructed spent grain steam boiler. This brewing byproduct is a unique and challenging fuel, so brewery engineers put their years of experience with drying grain to work with existing combustion technology to develop and fine-tune this first-of-its-kind process.

Alaskan expects that the new boiler will eliminate the brewery’s use of fuel oil in the grain drying process and displace more than half of the fuel needed to create process steam in the brewhouse. This translates to an estimated reduction in fuel oil use in brewhouse operations by more than half. With moderate growth assumptions, Alaskan expects to save nearly 1.5 million gallons of oil over the next ten years.

About Alaskan Brewing Co.

Alaskan Brewing Co. has been making award-winning beer in the remote, coastal community of Juneau, Alaska, since 1986. The Alaskan Brew Crew bottles the unique character of the Last Frontier with historic recipes, local ingredients, and glacier-fed water. The pristine location and popularity of Alaskan beer has inspired the brewery to apply innovative thinking and a respect for the local environment to their growth, making Alaskan an industry leader in sustainability. Alaskan Brewing handcrafts Amber, Pale, White, IPA, Stout, Winter Ale, Summer Ale, Black IPA, the award-winning Smoked Porter, and an array of limited edition beers in the Alaskan Pilot Series. Visit www.alaskanbeer.com to learn more and connect with Alaskan at Facebook.com/AlaskanBrewingCo and @AlaskanBrewing on Twitter.

Posted in Alaskan Brewing Company, New Beers