Third time’s a charm for newest Valley brewery

“Doc, you don’t know how happy I am to be brewing, in my own place, and finally open,” says Danyelle Kimp of QUAKE Brewing Company in Wasilla. It’s been a long time coming. All brewers struggle to open and it’s not uncommon to see delays that are out of control, but Kimp’s had his butt kicked particularly hard from the get go as he’s been determined to join Alaska’s craft brewing scene. It’s starting to wear me out too; this is the third time since October of 2015 that I’ve written about QUAKE’s opening and the first time it’s actually happened.

Kimp’s been rejected by banks, beset by bad buildings and screwed by landlords. I know of at least four locations Kimp’s tried to set up shop including a place on Boniface and East Northern Lights, a place on west Tudor Road, and the same location twice in Eagle River and now in Wasilla where his beer is actually flowing.

The Boniface and Northern Lights location was perfect. The east side didn’t’ have a brewery back then, the access was easy from all directions, and parking was ample. The banks didn’t see things Kimp’s way though. “I was depending on bank funding. It didn’t happen,” says Kimp of one of his biggest hurdles back then; not going broke funding the brewery with his own credit.

At the west Tudor Road location, Kimp wanted to open on March 24, 2015 on the anniversary of Alaska’s famous 1964 quake. Structural problems screwed him this time, and a dismayed Kimp had to look at other options.

"The biggest issue was the structural thing," says Kimp. "Half of the building was on solid ground and the other half was propped up. On top of that, the ground wasn't best. That's not good karma for a brewery called QUAKE." I noticed that a pot shop recently moved in. Caveat Emptor, you guys.

The Eagle River Fire Lake Plaza location seemed prime. Kimp lives in Eagle River, so certainly having a brewery he'd essentially live at for the first couple of years made sense. The place was bigger than the Tudor location, sat on flat ground with a solid foundation and boasted better parking. It was a 10 minute walk from his house which is convenient as he shared child care and school transportation duties with his supportive wife. It reminded Kimp of Pontotoc, Mississippi where he grew up and seemed to fit his ongoing southern-themed beers. "I feel like I'm at home," he said in a February 2016 interview.

This location wasn't destined to be home. Suffice to say, Kimp got cross-threaded with his landlord there, and the deal fell through. "I started this back in 2015," he laments. I was retiring from the service and had to think of what I wanted to do. The Eagle River thing was definitely a letdown, but I'm not a quitter and I'm home now."

QUAKE finally moved the needle on the Richter scale when Kimp started pouring beer on Tuesday, August 15 in Wasilla at 1540 N. Shoreline Drive, his new –and hopefully final – brewing home.

"Third time's a charm," says Kimp of his quiet opening. “The very first beer someone actually paid for was my Good Friday IPA. I served it to Zack Lanphier from over at Bleeding Heart Brewery in Palmer. He wanted to make sure he was the first customer and showed up at 5:01 on opening day.”

Kimp launched with five beers on tap out of the eight handles available on his dispensing system. “I’ve good the Good Friday IPA, Magnitude Stout, a roasted pecan stout with vanilla beans, Sweet Potato Ale, Avalanche Pale Ale made with smoked beech wood malt, ginger root and lemon grass, and a red IPA that I don’t have a name for yet. I’m calling it XRIPA for now, or Experimental Red IPA,” says Kimp of his initial offerings. As of this weekend, he ran out of the XIPA and another batch is in the fermenter.

“My place is interesting. It’s about 5,000 square feet. It’s in an airplane hangar. We have a lake view; it’s pretty sweet. I found it on Craigslist, the exact same day the landlord posted it,” he says. “The brewing system is just a one barrel system. After I ran into difficulties in Eagle River, I had to go back to the stone age. My boil kettle is literally a stainless steel 55 gallon drum and right now I’m conditioning in kegs. I’m fermenting in plastic fermenters. It’s all retrofitted. You gotta make it work, right?” says Kimp of his brewhouse setup.

“I had to rethink the business strategy after all this time and moving around. The brewery is big enough to handle something much bigger I’ll upgrade equipment and increase capacity when I can afford it. I don’t want to grow too fast. This is all dictated by my brewing skills and abilities, not just money,” he says.

“I have eight taps right now. They’re sticking out of a cooler; three are unused at this point. My goal is to brew a new recipe every week, but it remains to be seen if I can keep up with that. I’m going to try, but realistically, I’ll probably come up with something new every two weeks or so. I’m experimenting; this is just the start.” People seem to be taking to the beer though. “I’m getting some great feedback and I’m starting to get to know my customer’s tastes as well. I just want people to be happy,” says Kimp.

Kimp’s original dream was to open a brewpub and provide custom burgers with his brews. “Food has always been the goal, but of course I had to scale back,” says Kimp. In the interim, Kimp’s sourcing food trucks to visit the brewery on a regular schedule, a common tactic with upstart breweries. “It looks like I’ll be getting food truck support next week. First up will be Cali’s Smokey BBQ and Soulfood.” The dates haven’t been announced yet.

Kimp’s lease came with a surprise. “My landlord hit me with a history bomb. There’s a really old piano in here. She’s going to try to verify it, but the piano that’s on display was here in 1923 when President Harding laid the first railroad spike in Seward. She calls it the Harding Piano.”

Kimp’s an avid musician and tinkers with it. “From time to time, I play it. It’s out of tune, but it’s still playable. I’ll tune it myself when I have time to do it. It’s part of the lease; it’s insured,” he says.

“Someone’s already stolen my brewery signs,” says Kimp of the latest in an ongoing series of setbacks. I put up some signs and I’ll be damned if the next day they weren’t stolen. Now I have some spray painted signs just to help customers find the place.”

I’ve always admired Kimp’s steadfast, sheer determination through his trials and tribulations along his rocky path to success. “I don’t like quitting. It’s not what I want to do. It would have been wrong to quit; it just motivated me to keep going,” he says.

The brewery is open Wednesday through Friday between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 8 pm. If you don’t make it out there before then, Kimp will show up elsewhere with his fermented wares. “I’ll be at the Alaska State Fair. I’ll do the Mighty Matanuska Brew Fest again this year. I’m already signed up for the January Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival,” he says.

Things are finally shakin’ at Quake. Take the short drive to the Valley and feel and taste the rumble.

James ‘Dr. Fermento’ Roberts is a beer columnist for the Anchorage Press.