E-Malt.com News article: USA: Alaska overtakes the other North-American states in beer production

According to 2012 data supplied by the Beer Institute, a resource for American beer distributors, Alaska ranks fourth in breweries per capita, just ahead of Colorado and behind only Vermont, Oregon and Montana, News Miner reported on August, 25.

As recently as the 1970s, Alaska had just one brewery: Prinz Brau, which folded in 1979. Alaskan Brewing Company opened in 1986. Based in Juneau, it has grown to become Alaska’s largest brewing operation. Currently, there are 24 operating craft breweries (which include brewpubs) in Alaska, with several others in the planning stages, according to Anchorage Press beer columnist James Roberts, a.k.a. Dr. Fermento.

The Beer Institute also noted that the Alaska brewing industry in 2012 was responsible for almost $500,000 in revenue. The Brewers Association, which tracks the craft beer industry, indicates Alaska ranked 17th in national beer production in 2012, producing 170,610 up from 157,107 barrels in 2011. Though this 8.6 percent growth rate ranks behind the 15 percent national average, production still equates to 10.3 gallons of beer for every drinking-age Alaskan.

James Roberts believes the brewery growth pattern has a direct correlation to historical European breweries, showing up in populated areas along the major travel arteries. Although it wasn’t until 1994 that one started to see breweries spread along the Anchorage-Fairbanks corridor, with breweries opening in Palmer, Wasilla, Talkeetna and Healy (49th State Brewing in 2011). Roberts, however, found it “really, really odd,” that Silver Gulch was, for a long time, the only Interior brewery.


28 August, 2013