Brewing With Gabe Fletcher of Anchorage Brewing Co.

BC: Is there a first beer you brewed that you think of as your very first unique creation, a Gabe beer?

Fletcher: The first commercial beer I made was called Old Snagglepuss. It was an Old Ale aged in red wine casks and dry hopped with East Kent Goldings. It turned out really well. I always loved that beer. I had been at Midnight Sun for six or seven months at that point and back then one of my favorite beer styles was Old Peculiar. I was so inspired by it that I did something that was my version of that beer.  

BC: When did you develop your love of barrels and wood to complement the so-called traditional styles?

Fletcher: I really got into it when I started making Brett beers. I think that was a turning point for me, and that’s where I really fell in love with it. I especially liked doing part of the fermentation in barrels. That was different than just getting flavor from a barrel.  

A showcase of what's on tap at Anchorage Brewing's new tasting room.

BC: When did you first discover you liked wild, funky, sour beer?

Fletcher: The person who introduced me to it was Billy Opinsky, owner of Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse in Anchorage. All the years before anyone had even discovered gueuze and all these beers, he was cellaring the stuff – Cantillons and Hanssens and all that. I remember going to his house one night and he started popping open bottles of gueuze and it really opened my eyes to the range of flavors. I didn’t understand it, and I still don’t quite understand it but it was good!

BC: Was it your experiences with wood barrels that evolved into a love of what Brettanomyces brings to a finished beer? Or is it the other way around – did you love the beers first and then decide to create them in your own brewery once you became experienced with barrels?

Fletcher: Yes and no. There were definitely beers I wanted to create. I remember Pride from the Seven Deadly Sins series, which wasn’t my first Brett beer, but it was definitely one where I felt that I had really nailed it. I sort of figured things out as I went along and achieved the flavors I wanted. I don’t think I had the exact beer in mind as much as I wanted to see how far I could go with the barrel-aging process.

One of the beers that changed what I thought about barrel-aging and new styles was by Jolly Pumpkin. I remember drinking Oro de Calabaza for the first time; it’s still one of my favorite beers. We now actually blend it into one of the beers we make here. The flavors Ron Jeffries comes up with for the Jolly Pumpkin beers are unbelievable. That turned the switch in my head to wanting to open my own brewery and do all these great beers.