Valley brewers react to Alcohol Control Board decision

PALMER — With a growing number of increasingly popular brewery taprooms in the Mat-Su Valley, local brewers were happy to hear the news that Tuesday’s meeting of the Alaska Alcohol Beverage Control Board resulted in a unanimous vote to reject a new definition for entertainment allowed at breweries.

“Really there probably should be no limit to the entertainment. We are one of the only states in the U.S. that has entertainment restrictions,” Jake Wade said.

Wade is the head brewer at Bearpaw River Brewing Company along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. They’re one of breweries with a tap room in the Valley alongside Bleeding Heart, Arkose, and Matanuska Brewing. While Tuesday’s vote was a win for local brewers who hope to keep entertaining thirsty patrons with events as well as beer, the continued fight for looser restrictions will resume when the legislature gavels in next year.

“It is literally illegal to dance in a brewery in the state of Alaska. So it’s a little silly, but the laws are really outdated and fortunately there’s enough sort of new younger breweries that have been opening in the last several years that have that mindset that we need to make some change here,” Wade said.

Wade and Bleeding Heart Brewery’s Stefan Marty are both hoping for looser regulations and restrictions on breweries. Matt Tomter, partner at Matanuska Brewing, believes that rather than loosen restrictions on current brewery licenses, Alaska should take the lead of Washington state and offer tavern licenses.

“I am super pro business, I hate government restrictions but I also recognize that we’ve got a system in place that exists,” Tomter said. “We looked at the existing laws and we built our entire business on the existing laws.”

Contrary to smaller taprooms, Matanuska is a large scale brewery that generates the majority of their revenue from selling their beer to distributors rather than within their taproom.

We want our beer on tap at restaurants all around the state,” Tomter said.

Tomter argues that if breweries were permitted beer and wine licenses and each taproom featured a kitchen to serve food as well, the playing field would be level between bars and breweries. Tomter also believes that requiring breweries to serve food in their tap rooms would be safer in the long run.

The solution is right in front of us. We’re choosing not to take the easiest path,” Tomter said. “My point is that we have a set of rules that works. People just have to work within the rules.”

Even though the vote on Tuesday did not accept new definitions for entertainment, breweries are still unable to offer televisions, dancing, board games, or bar games such as darts and pool tables.

Taprooms have to close at 8 p.m. and are restricted to a 36-ounce pour limit. Both Wade and Marty hope that examining the regulations around breweries will result in a higher pour limit and being able to stay open until 10 p.m. With limited opportunity to entertain patrons, events breweries have become a way for breweries to engage with the community.

“What we see as the most beneficial part of being able to have events at our location is fundraising,” Marty said.

Marty and Zack Lanphier started Bleeding Heart Brewery in 2016 in an 800-foot space at the end of a steel building on the original Colony farm that Marty grew up on.

Throughout their brief history, Bleeding Heart has hosted events to fundraise for breast cancer and celebrated the birthday of the Marine Corps by offering the first beer free to veterans.

Bleeding Heart’s Running of the Beers has also been a well attended event of people willing to run in the cold for beer.

“That event is primarily to say thank you to everyone that essentially keeps us afloat throughout the year,” Marty said.

On Tuesday, the Palmer city Council voted unanimously to approve Action Memorandum 19-083 which gave the Council’s statement of non-objection to Bleeding Heart’s license at a new location. After four years, the Bleeding Heart boys will be leaving the farm and moving into the back section of the Alaska Picker building on South Denali Street.

“We’ve outgrown the space. We’ve maximized the amount of beer we can produce in that area which is only 800 square feet and the parking situation has become a nightmare,” Marty said.

Marty and Lanphier’s relationship with Alaska Picker owner Kelly Turney far predates their work together as business owners. Bleeding Heart will serve their last beers on the farm at the end of this year and reopen sometime in late spring 2020 inside Alaska Picker. The move nearly triples Bleeding Heart’s amount of space, and Marty said they plan to add a small kitchen and outdoor seating options.

“It’s just cool to be in a historical building and the possibilities in that space are just limitless,” Marty said.

Marty hopes that eventually the location inside Alaska Picker will serve as Bleeding Heart’s taproom and that the brewing operation can return to a property on Springer Loop. Marty is amazed at how the brewing business has grown since he and Lanphier proposed a kickstarter in 2015.

“First of all we didn’t expect the kickstarter to work. For that to have been as successful as it was and then for the community around us to just latch on and create this super awesome space,” Marty said. “It’s just this really awesome melting pot of pretty much everyone that lives in this area getting along and I just feel super blessed that I was able to be a part of something like that and that we’ve created something that has essentially become bigger than us.”