Bleeding Heart Brewery celebrates two years of beers

PALMER — Bleeding Heart Brewery celebrated its second anniversary of opening the doors in the garage on the Marty Family farm by drinking beer made with 100 percent local ingredients, the first of its kind in the state.

Bleeding Heart originally began as a Kickstarter project in 2014. Zack Lanphier and Stefan Marty operated for two years without selling a drop of beer. Since their opening in 2016, the response has been astoundingly positive. Bleeding Heart Beer is now served on tap at nine bars in the Valley, Anchorage and Girdwood. The 'Palmer Wild Tower' was brewed with malted barley from Van Der Wheele farms, the key to breaking the barrier and becoming the first 100% Alaska Grown commercially made beer.

More beer is what their customers want, according to Lanphier. They sold out of the beer and merchandise they brought to the Fairbanks brewfest and have seen similar response at events throughout the state.

"We're the little guy, which allows us to be a lot more creative and a lot more innovative because it's 30 gallons at a time,” said Lanphier. “It allows us a lot of freedom."

Bleeding Heart still operates as one of the smallest breweries in the state. Production has increased as Zack and Stefan's success allowed them to hire more employees. Monica Wright serves as beertender every time they are open as well as August Naranjo, ‘beer ambassador.’ An associate brewer brews every other week so that the single barrel system they still use can crank out more beer.

Humdingers Gourmet Pizza Co. served pizzas at the birthday party. Open Thursday through Sunday, there is almost always a food truck in the parking lot to serve food that goes along with the beer. A flatbed International Harvester sits on top of a pile of manure in the farm adjacent to the garage that houses the brewery. A fire pit was added in the winter and has remained popular during the summer.

"Food makes people drink. More food, more beer. Good equation," said Lanphier. "Beerquation."

Without a large storefront in a centralized location, Bleeding Heart has always been active online to establish a presence and a fan base.

"We burn bridges with one hand and burn bridges with the other," said Lanphier.

Their raucous videos, produced locally by Nomad Cinematics, often featuring Robby Warner help them drum up business for events at Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, and their second birthday party.

"If you and I would literally ever think twice about anything we did, Bleeding Heart wouldn't be a thing," Marty said to Lanphier. "If we think it's funny in the moment, it's gonna happen and we're not gonna think it about it again until after we're done doing it."

Local has always been the focus for Bleeding Heart. Their coffee porter 'Grounds for Divorce' uses local coffee beans; they commissioned a beer done with berries sourced from their fans, and use local beets in their award winning Bleeding Heart Beet IPA.

"We make beer brewed by the community," said Lanphier. Part of our brewery is giving back to the community who supported us for two years while we weren't open."