Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 9

103 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 9 ALASKAN BREWING COMPANY traditional mining areas in Europe. So the old world dominated the hiring practices of these mines and all of the transplants coming from Europe drank a lot of beer.” Before prohibition, there were over 40 breweries in Alaska. But when the Larsons started their company there were none and so they took a page from history. Geoff recalls, “We found an interview with an early brew master who talked about the brewing techniques and challenges of Alaska because of how cold it was. He said there was only one ale yeast that he could ferment at cold temperatures, which is a throwback to a style in central Germany called Alt (Altbier, or “old beer” from the Rhineland Region), and we basically replicated that historical recipe for our flagship beer Alaskan Amber. Back then that brewer was using what was called a Bohemian Hop, which has morphed into now being called Saaz Hops. He got it from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1907, just before World War I. So when we started, to match his innovative spirit, we went to the Czech Republic, basically the same place, and imported the same type of hops. We’re giving our customers a little bit of history in a bottle.” Alaskan Brewing Company began in 1986, when the Larsons were in their mid-twenties and got the “harebrained idea” as they put it, to start a brewery in a place with no roads and no farms. Juneau is an interesting place, dependent on the outside world for grains and produce. Not surprisingly, the banks said no to a loan. The couple then started talking to friends and looking for potential investors, and even the ones who said they could not invest thought it was a great idea that they should run with. That’s just the way living in a frontier area like Alaska is – entrepreneurial but also a place where people take chances and see where it will go. After securing 88 investors, Marcy and Geoff returned to the bank with the capital they needed to begin. Right from the very start, they were determined to run the business differently