Alaskan Brewing Company Rough Drafts

JUNEAU, Alaska — That beer you're drinking likely started out as a test batch in someone's kitchen many years ago. Great beer recipes take a long time to develop into the consistently good beverages we like to drink. They don't just happen over night.

To that end, Alaskan Brewing Company, in Juneau, is using a state-of-the-art one-barrel brewing system to create test beers in their Rough Drafts Series.

The Rough Draft Series is an opportunity for brewery employees to design their own beers from scratch for the pure art of brewing, as head brewer Brent Kesey describes it. Those test beers give employees a chance to learn about the process of making beer. The beers are offered on draft at the brewery and in Juneau only, but they have the distinct possibility of becoming an Alaskan Brewing Company staple.

If a beer makes the initial cut, it might be eligible for bigger production on the brewery's original 10-barrel brew system.The best Rough Drafts can become the basis for Alaskan Brewing Company's Pilot Series, specialty beers packaged in 22-ounce bottles and offered on a limited-release basis. A truly great Rough Drafts beer could ultimately find itself bubbling away in the brewery's 100-barrel brew system as an Alaskan Brewing Company standard. The Rough Drafts generally are not available outside of Juneau and the brewery, but the Taproot, in Anchorage, currently has some of the latest Rough Drafts, Alaskan Wee Heavy Barral-Aged Ale, on tap.