This is the second week I get to write about a new brewery. Last week, I was happy to cover the Sept. 25 opening of Odd Man Rush Brewing Company in Eagle River. Icy Strait Brewing Company in Hoonah, in Southeast Alaska, officially started pouring beer on August 15. Icy Strait is Alaska\u2019s 25th licensed brewing operation.<\/p>\n
Like the brewers at Odd Man Rush, Icy Strait\u2019s brewer Dan Kane got his start homebrewing, but he never thought he\u2019d own a brewery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started homebrewing 20 years ago,\u201d said Kane.<\/p>\n
His business partner, Todd Thingball, isn\u2019t a brewer and doesn\u2019t want to be. The two met in Juneau where they both lived.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe became friends because I made beer and he liked it,\u201d says Kane. If you make beer, you make friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTodd had this house in Groundhog Bay, which is at Icy Strait out of Hoonah,\u201d says Kane. \u201cHe bought this house in Hoonah that\u2019s over 100 years old. He called me up one day and said, \u2018What do you think about opening a brewery?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane wasn\u2019t prepared for that, but he was prepared for a lifestyle change after a career flying for Alaska Airlines.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe talked me into this and here we are,\u201d said Kane.<\/p>\n
Traveling as much as he did, Kane got to visit most of Alaska\u2019s breweries. He was inspired, but with Thingball\u2019s offer, quickly got busy taking that inspiration to a new level.<\/p>\n
The house needed a ton of work. It\u2019s situated on pilings because the place is over the water, at least at high tide.<\/p>\n
\u201cTodd bought the house two years ago and it\u2019s gone through a total redo,\u201d says Kane. \u201cI came in at the end when the sheetrock was up and I dove in full time. We finished up the inside, the flooring, the tasting room and put in the coolers and the brew system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Thingball is the builder and Kane\u2019s the brewer; there\u2019s no doubt about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cTodd is the builder guy,\u201d said Kane of his partner. \u201cHe does some unbelievable building; people are openly fascinated with the architecture, our tasting room, the woodwork and the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n
The brewery itself is actually outside on the back deck.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a small three barrel system,\u201d said Kane. \u201cIt fits fine. I\u2019ve got the best view of any brewery,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The small, direct-fired propane system feeds two three-barrel fermenters and a seven barrel fermenter. Three- and seven-barrel bright tanks are used to condition the beer.<\/p>\n
I wondered about brewing in the winter, since Kane says the brewery\u2019s going to be open year round, something unusual in a small community of 900 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mild here compared to Anchorage. It only got down to 18 degrees last year,\u201d said Kane. \u201cI\u2019ve got some greenhouse panels going up to ward off the snow and the wind come winter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The community\u2019s in love with the brewery. Like in most other small communities, breweries quickly become a welcome, social hub. \u201cThey\u2019re so excited,\u201d said Kane of the residents\u2019 response. \u201cIt\u2019s like it\u2019s their brewery. It\u2019s like a badge of honor. I didn\u2019t expect anything different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane thought he\u2019d knew what Hoonah people would like. He quickly found out differently in a community that\u2019s mostly Rainier drinkers, according to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, wow, you know, I\u2019ve been into beer a long time. I\u2019m an IPA guy and my vision was that. I have four beers on tap. I have an American Hefe, a pale ale, and IPA and a light pilsner right now. I figured everyone would love and drink IPA. That\u2019s what the rest of the world seems to be doing,\u201d says Kane.<\/p>\n
\u201cNope,\u201d he concedes. \u201cThe Hefeweizen is my most popular beer; the locals are so into that. They absolutely love it and it\u2019s so easy to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane\u2019s facing what any new brewer in a small community does. He\u2019s re-educating and shaping the local beer palate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe funnest thing for me is bringing these people into craft brewing and craft beer,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m always teasing them; I\u2019m telling them, \u2018hefe is a gateway beer, you know. I\u2019ll be changing your palate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s working. Although the cruise ships slurp through a lot of his stuff, it\u2019s the locals that return and give him the best feedback. \u201cI have a lady that started coming in here. The other day she came back and said \u2018Dan, oh Dan, oh Dan! I opened up a can of Rainier the other day and it was so nasty. It\u2019s not even close to as good as what you\u2019re making.\u2019 I had another convert. This is so much fun,\u201d he bubbled.<\/p>\n
Kane\u2019s waiting for winter to branch out and start experimenting with more styles. A porter and a stout are in the plans as for more eclectic styles as the community learns to love them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely slows down in the winter here, but that will be the time to catch up and that\u2019s the time to make the crazy stuff,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The rest of Southeast Alaska is just fine with a brewery in Hoonah. Really, the small business is no threat. Kane and Thingball don\u2019t have global aspirations, although local establishments and even places beyond have asked about getting Icy Strait beer to serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cDutch Harbor, Juneau and bars in several other communities have contacted me. We don\u2019t even have a sign out. We just got underway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be the hometown brewery. We love it here. We\u2019re not looking to be the next huge brewery,\u201d he continued, understanding that it\u2019s the local community that will keep his pints pouring when all of the tourists are gone.<\/p>\n
In fact, Kane and Thingball have received a ton of support from the other geographically isolated breweries including Baranof Island Brewing Company in Sitka, Alaskan Brewing in Juneau, Haines Brewing Company and Skagway Brewing Company. \u201cI was up at Capital Brewfest last weekend. All of the other breweries are super excited that we\u2019re here and they all want to come and visit,\u201d said Kane.<\/p>\n
It was really Kodiak Island Brewing Company that gave Kane the most inspiration when he was getting started. Kicking around, he visited Kodiak and met with brewer Ben Millstein.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked him how far he distributed his beer,\u201d said Kane. \u201cBen said 36 miles. He likes his beer fresh and he likes control over it. He sells a lot of beer right there out of that brewery and I can do the same thing in my community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane said the brewery\u2019s success has far exceeded his expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m floored. I\u2019m just a basic brewer. It\u2019s been overwhelming. It\u2019s been very humbling and I\u2019m happy to make so many other people happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
You might think that a new, small brewery in a small community has along way to go, but I get the sense that Kane and Thingball are already there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is the second week I get to write about a new brewery. Last week, I was happy to cover the Sept. 25 opening of Odd Man Rush Brewing Company in Eagle River. Icy Strait Brewing Company in Hoonah, in Southeast Alaska, officially started pouring beer on August 15. Icy Strait is Alaska\u2019s 25th licensed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-30255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30255"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=30255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}