As the cruise ships are set to start arriving in Southeast soon, It's time for the 2026 update.... The biggest change this year is the loss of the Midnight Sun Loft at the brewery, and the closure of Gakona. Alaska's a big state. I've broken this up into regions, mostly based on where folks are most likely to visit. That said, I'm definitely not done (and haven't visited all the spots listed), and will try and post some updates when I can (and other AK BA's feel free to chime in if you think I'm way off!) Thanks to our fun liquor laws, onsite pours in taprooms in AK (with some very limited exceptions) are limited to 36oz per person, per day and the last pour is available at 9pm (just recently expanded from 8, so lots of places still close at 8, but I'd guess that'll change for tourist season just about everywhere). With some changes in our alcohol laws last year, we're unlikely to see any new brewery taprooms open outside Anchorage and Fairbanks, unless there's nothing there and it's in the middle of nowhere. SOUTHEAST ALASKA (aka the panhandle) A lot of folks come in on a cruise to one or more of the ports below. Here's what you need for a good beer time in Southeast: Ketchikan Bawden Street Brewing - The formerly lone brewery in the first city. opened in 2018, nice little taproom. Baleen Brewing - Shares space with a coffee shop downtown. I didn't know about this one, and haven't visited yet Other spots with decent beer in KTN: The Asylum - Largest selection of handles within walking distance of the ships (maybe in the whole town, too.) Fat Stan's - Small, but decent draft selection. Good pizza. Juneau Alaskan Brewing - the big dog. There’s a quasi-affiliated taproom downtown. (https://www.alaskanbrewingpublichouse.com/) On tap literally everywhere in town. You can grab a cab/uber/lyft/shuttle out to the new taproom near the brewery if you’re looking to have a one-off or something limited, as they usually aren’t on tap anywhere else. Usually a couple of food carts for food options. Might check recent untappd checkins to see if there’s something of interest on before venturing out. Harbor Mountain Brewing – Freshly opened in May 2025, in the old Barnaby (RIP) space. Located behind City Hall, just across from the main docks. Popcorn. Simcoe the Brewery Cat also stayed along for the transition. Barnaby will be missed by the Juneau community, but the crew at HM are sure to fill the void nicely! Different beers than the Sitka location, so worth hitting both if you're making the rounds Devils Club Brewing - Beautiful taproom, great beers, great food. Forbidden Peak Brewing – In Auke Bay so will require cab/uber/lyft/shuttle if you’re visiting on a ship, or you might end up on a whale watching excursion based out of the harbor across the street. Amazing views, OK beers. Also serves food. Other spots for a beer downtown: Hangar on the Wharf - largest selection of handles in the city. good food. great view. handles rotate quick during the season. worth a stop. Alaskan Hotel - Dark hole in the wall. Live music. good selection of handles, and probably something on you won't find anywhere else in town. Skagway Skagway Brewing - Great beers, great food, great atmosphere. Be sure to drink the spruce tip. Klondike Brewing - The new kid in town. Haven't made it to their location yet, but had some really top notch beers from them. Excited to see what's in store. Haines Haines Brewing - The only game in town, and there's nothing sad about that, as Paul's beers are top-notch. Sitka Harbor Mountain Brewing – Zach and company are brewing some of the best beers in Southeast. Wide variety of top notch beers. New for 2026 - The pizza spot that used to occupy the kitchen is no longer there, and they are doing other in-house food. Hoonah: (Icy strait point) Icy Strait brewing - It sounds like they're back up and running, so if you are on a cruise that stops at Icy Strait Point, you could wander into town and have some beers. ANCHORAGE (AKA Los Anchorage, the big city) Anchorage is the other main entry point for most folks visiting the state. I've broken up the ANC spots roughly based on geography: South: The big update for South Anchorage is the loss of the Midnight Sun Loft. RIP. Anchorage Brewing - Definitely a must-hit. There will likely be beers here that you won't find anywhere else, both on tap and in bottles. plus, it's an amazingly beautiful space. King Street – You’ve got to pass King Street to get to Anchorage, so you might as well stop. Solid classic styles. Turnagain Brewing – In the old King Street space, with a focus on Belgian styles, but a wide variety. Worth a stop when you’re in the area Magnetic North – Tasty beers in an out of the way taproom - if you’re hitting any of the South ANC breweries, it’s right there. Ravens Ring – Another new brewery in South ANC. No intel yet. Downtown: Glacier Brewhouse – One of the older spots in town. be sure to look at the seasonals and special releases at the bottom of the beer list. Amazing barrel program, but usually only on tap in Jan/Feb. Good food, too. Humpy's – Formerly the best beer bar in the city, stuff you likely won't find other places. Flattop Pizza is run by the same folks, and may have beers on that Humpy's doesn't. 49th State's anchorage location is downtown, with great food, an awesome rooftop deck in the summer. Always busy, so plan ahead. If you're a big group, reservations are pretty much a necessity in the summer time. If you're solo or a small group, you can sometimes score bar seating. Tent City Taphouse – The new king of beer bars in ANC. Stuff on from all over the state, hard to get beers you won’t find anywhere else in town. Undertap - I've not been able to check it out yet, but this taproom in the newly renovated and rebranded Wildbirch Hotel is the spot to find small batch beers from Midnight Sun now that the Loft is gone. The Crimson restaurant at the hotel also has a big MS tap list. If you're looking for bottles: Crush – probably the best downtown selection. Brown Jug Downtown – limited selection, but had gotten way better the last time I was in. Midtown: Mooses Tooth/Beartooth- Old guard, decent pizza, solid beers. Mooses Tooth is usually packed, Beartooth has different food and usually easier to get into. Onsite Brewing – small taproom in a strip mall. Worth the stop! Great Beers. Cynosure Brewing – Kind of in no-mans land compared to the other breweries, but worth a visit if you’re out in midtown. Their saison is damned near perfect. Brewerks – Near Cynosure. This one is new to me. Matanuska – One of their three locations. Wide range of beers. Widely distributed in state. If you're looking for bottles: La Bodega - great bottleshop, awesome staff, and go next door to Cafe Amsterdam and have a pint. Brown Jug Warehouse - probably the best bottle selection in town. Might as well swing by Moose's Tooth if you go here. The Valley (Eagle River/Palmer/Wasilla/etc) If you're driving north to Denali or on to Fairbanks, this is on your way. Odd Man Rush - Great hockey-themed brewery with classic and modern styles. Bleeding Heart – Great beers, definitely worth the stop if you’re on the way through the valley Bearpaw River – Solid beers. Makes a great stop with Bleeding Heart Matanuska – The main brewery in Palmer, and a taproom in Eagle River. Again, wide variety. Might have one offs. Last Frontier – No intel on this one yet, but looks like classic styles. Susitna - Solid beers that see statewide distro - I've not been to their location in Big Lake, but the beers that I've had have been solid Parks Highway (Talkeetna/Healy) Denali Brewing – Two locations, the Tasting Room and Brewpub. Slightly different menus. If you’re going to Talkeetna, might as well hit both! 49th State – Their original brewery/taproom/beer garden. It’s like an amazing whiskey bar that has a great brewery. Good food too! Only open during the summer season, so if you’re visiting off-season, hit the ANC location Not a brewery, but great beer selection: Prospectors Pizza – Pizza and beer in what we call “glitter gulch”, directly across from the park entrance. Also summer-only, but if you’re staying at the park, it’s your best bet for good beer. FAIRBANKS (AKA the golden heart city) Hoodoo – The first new brewery in Fairbanks. Classic styles, done to perfection. Don’t come here expecting the latest murk bomb or adjuncted stout. That said, it’s one of two absolute musts if you’re visiting Fairbanks. Amazing beer garden, rotating food trucks. Black Spruce - The oldest “new” brewery in Fairbanks. Where Hoodoo does classic styles amazingly, Black Spruce has your fix for the haze and sours, and an amazing barrel aging program. The other absolute must if you’re visiting Fairbanks, and they’re just a short drive from Hoodoo. Lat 65 – The newcomer. Great space, recent award winning beers. I’ve not had a ton from them, and the initial buzz was that they’d gotten off to a rocky start, but after a recent visit the beers I had were quite good. There’s also an in-house BBQ spot if that’s something you’re interested in. Midnite Mine – A true “micro” in Fairbanks, located upstairs in the famous (infamous?) bar of the same name. Small eclectic batches, and worth a stop. Silver Gulch – Recently reopened. There are better beers and food in Fairbanks, hopefully the service is better than it used to be. That said, the space is really cool and if you’re looking to tick them all, it’s worth a trip out to Fox. Not breweries: Lavelles Taphouse - Fairbanks’ first true beer bar, conveniently located downtown. Their taplist is on digital pour, so pretty easy to check and see if you want to stop by and grab a pint! KENAI PENINSULA South of Anchorage is the peninsula. A nice little hotbed of breweries as of late. Less detailed descriptions here, as it's been a while since I made it down there. I'll try to get updates for these in the near future. Again, roughly divided by geography: North: Girdwood - Arguably the best beers on the peninsula. Definitely worth a stop if you're driving down the highway. Usually has multiple food trucks. Cooper Landing - Solid beers and food. Nice taproom with large outdoor space. West: Saint Eilas - Classic Kenai brewpub. It's been a while since I've had their beers, but still going strong. Great pizza. Kenai River - Solid beers that are available in cans statewide. Likely some one offs or other beers not packaged available. Naptowne Brewing - A relative newcomer in Sterling. I've not been there yet, interested to check them out. Homer: Homer Brewing - Classic styles, definitely worth a visit. Also on tap just about everywhere in Homer. They used to package in returnable salad dressing style bottles. That was fun. Grace Ridge - New since I've last been out to Homer. I've heard good things. South: Stoney Creek - Another of the relatively new spots - on tap and in cans around the area. Limited hours at the brewery. Seward - The old guard in Seward. Only open during the tourist season. OUTLIERS These spots are more remote, and significantly less frequented by visitors. Again, I'll try to update details later. On the road system: Valdez Growler Bay Big Delta You need a plane/boat: Kodiak Copper River
I missed the news that Midnight Sun is no longer in business. That's a shocker. I always enjoyed their beers when I lived in Washington. I think they had quit distributing to Oregon. I always enjoyed Arctic Devil.
I was surprised to hear that too. I searched them up online and there are a lot of conflicting stories going around. Some say they’re closing entirely, some say they’re downsizing, and others say they got bought out by Denali. I was never a huge fan of Midnight Sun, but I definitely missed seeing their bombers in Fairbanks last year and could only find just a four-beer Variety Pack of cans from them. Hopefully they’re still hanging around.
The understanding that I have (and seems to be supported by data) is that they are still brewing - they just closed the taproom/restaurant above the brewery. The word is that there is a small brew setup at the Undertap that they're going to do small batches on, and will still be brewing as normal at the brewery.
I used to love Midnight Sun, especially when Ben and Gabe were there. They put out some classics over the years. Glad they aren't totally gone, though we don't see their brews near me anymore.
Excellent thread @blackcloud. This will be useful information on our cruise coming up in May. In Anchorage, when would be the best time to hit up Anchorage Brewing? We’ll be there Saturday & Sunday before flying out late Sunday evening. My brother in law is a surviving cancer patient 3 years. So he’s okay with beer but not so much with lots of people and crowds. I figure the weekend will be busy so maybe when they open would be a good time? Also, I didn’t see Chilkoot Charlie on your thread. I think I asked this before, but had to ask again. Sorry. I plan to visit. Last time there was back in 1988. Them old days and fun times. Cheers!
I've been there across a range of times, and outside some sort of special event, it has usually not been packed. I'd guess at open would be the most likely to be less crowded. That said, there's a lot of room to spread out, and lots of outdoor space as well, assuming the weather's nice. I don't list Koot's on this guide, as I try to keep it beer-specific, but Koot's is alive and well, and probably similar to how you remember it. It's not for everyone, but to each their own!
a couple of Anchorage things I forgot to add: 49th State - The Rail - The newest pub from 49th State, with a slightly larger tap list than the Anchorage pub listed above. Different food menu. It's down by the rail depot, so a little harder to get to and might end up being less crowded as a result. Airport Beers! If you're flying through Anchorage, there are a couple spots worth checking out. Silver Gulch has an outpost offering their Fairbanks-brewed beers, and food. My previous statements about the beer quality still hold here, but they're an option. Also has a small retail shop that has some other AK beers and booze to go. 49th State has a great pub just across the concourse from Silver Gulch, and the beer is way better! If your layover is short and you can only pick one, this is the one. They also have a small retail shop, and at least used to have beer to go, however a recent report is that there was none available. I'll be in the ANC airport a couple times next week, so can report back. From the folks at Denali Brewing, there's a Denali Spirits outpost in the B concourse where Humpy's used to be. Not sure if they have beer as well, but I'll check on that next week if I've got time to get down to that end of the airport. At the far end of the C concourse (between C5-C6) there's a small beer garden that usually has some good AK beer on tap, if you didn't get your fill at 49th State/Silver Gulch, or you're just looking to tick something else. The other major airports in the state (Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan) all have bars, none of them are really worth talking about, other than the popcorn in KTN (I personally recommend you add jalapeños.)
I'm doing a cruise at the end of the month, with stops in Skagway, Juneau, and Sitka. Any of those places have somewhere to get cans or bottles, or am I SOL?
Check with your cruise line, many do not allow, or have some limitations on alcoholic beverages that can be brought aboard while in port.
Yeah, I already did. I'm allowed to bring back alcohol, it just gets held until we reach the end of the cruise. I'm not looking to drink it aboard, just to bring it home.
My wife and I went on a Celebrity Cruise to Alaska a couple decades ago. It was a Cruise with Paula Dean, the Restaurateur with the television cooking show, and her family. Not a beer Cruise by any stretch of the imagination, but we did book an excursion for a Pub Crawl in Victoria Canada lead by her son Bobby Dean. This included about a half dozen high-end Pubs, featuring craft-beer and local beer tastings along with the appetizers and food pairings they had arranged for our group. It was a fun time. When we arrived in Ketchikan, I spotted the Baleen Brewing Company on the map. It was just a couple blocks from where our Cruise ship docked, so was easy to convince the wife we needed a beer or two after walking around and shopping. It appears there is a lot more of a beer scene and micro breweries in Alaska than there was when we were there. I drank a hellava lot of Alaskan Amber on that Cruise. Ironically it’s a beer I still haven’t rated since becoming a BA member. Not something you see on the east coast.
Sitka and Skagway have small stores. Sitka is tougher unless you're getting transport into town from the cruise port which is a way out. Juneau has multiple spots an easy walk. The largest selection is at Foodland. Also - each of the breweries in those towns have cans and/or crowlers to go. All that said - you won't see a lot in SEAK that you can't get in WA state, outside of the individual breweries.
You are lucky. I was hoping Princess would have Alaskan Brewing on board their ships. Nope. At least on the ship Discovery. Oh well. The best we had was Lagunitas IPA. Still better than the Aussie pale ale can I had. You would think they would have stocked up when in port in Juneau.
We are coming to the conclusion of our Princess cruise tomorrow. Will be coming into Whittier tomorrow am. Then taking the bus to the airport where we will be picking up our car rental and staying just south of downtown in an Airbnb. In Ketchikan we ate and had a pour at the Alaskan Fish House. Fish n chips and beer was good. We then stopped in Baleen Brewing and then to Bawden Brewing for a pour. Last stop was the Asylum, which was across the dock where our ship was sitting waiting for us. We really enjoyed Asylum and its beers on tap. Carlos was a riot. The place was packed, but the service was great. Beers on tap was probably the best. Don’t skip it. If you only had one stop, Asylum. In Juneau we Uber’d from the dock to Mendenhall Glacier. Be aware, Uber will not take you into the park. They drop you off near where the city bus top is and you will have to walk about a mile plus to the entrance. Except we asked the lady driver that my wife sister had a bad knee and had issues walking long distance. So she kindly removed the Uber sign from her dashboard and took us to the visitor center. Taxi’s will take you into & out of the park no problem and is cheaper than Uber. Uber going in cost us $55. Taxi to downtown/port dock was $45. The taxi driver dropped us off at Alaskan Brewing and took our wives back to downtown to get back on the ship. We went to the original location which was about 5 miles from the dock. We also found out, after we called the taxi to take us back to the dock from the brewery that they have their own van that will pick you up and drop you off from the ships. If you’re just going to Alaskan Brewing that is the way to go, free. Good to know for first timers. Wish we knew about it. Oh well. The taxi dropped us off at Red Dog Saloon after Alaskan Brewing. Yes, a tourist spot for sure. Maybe we should hit one or both of the other breweries in Juneau. But it was fun anyways. Skagway Brewing was alright. Spruce Tip was okay. The ipa was just okay as well. AK beers are okay for what it’s worth. After Skagway we stopped in at Red Onion Saloon, which was almost like Red Dog Saloon in Ketchikan. Another touristy spot. We are on our last night before heading to Whittier tomorrow morning which we will pick up our car at the airport and spend 2 nights in Anchorage. Maybe I’ll run into @blackcloud? Cheers.
Very helpful and enjoyable read. For those of us who don't get up that way nearly often enough, are there some recommendations you would make based on some of your mishaps (other than the shuttle to Alaskan brewing)? Sounds Iike you went to a lot of places you felt were tourist traps. If you had to do it again, are there other places you would have gone to instead?
The couple of tourist trap places were alright. We thought it was fun to hang with tourist and locals. Like I said Asylum was great fun. Sure the tourist were there get food and beer. Tap list was good. They had the same beers on tap as the breweries. I always head to the local breweries first. But in Ketchikan my brother in law and I already had 4 pours each before finishing up at Asylum. Don’t forget in Alaska most full pours are 12oz. Compared to our 16oz. I believe as @blackcloud said no more than 32oz a day. That’s 2 pours back home. In Juneau I would probably skip Red Dog Saloon and check out the other breweries. But it was already getting late and the wives were back on the ship waiting for us to board before the ship set sail without us. Definitely don’t skip out on Mendenhall Glacier if you’re not planning on any excursions. And Uber or Lyft is the way to go if you are more than one. The cost for excursions to Mendenhall was $150 per person. We paid around $100 for the 4 of us. It was nice the lady driver took us to the visitor center. I wish we had more time to visit Klondike Brewing. But again, we were already fuked up when we left Red Onion Saloon. Maybe we should of skipped ROS and gone straight to Klondike. I don’t think I drank that many Lagunitas IPA ever. But at least they had IPA’s on board the Princess ship. I’ve been to Anchorage 3 times from 1985-1993. But I wasn’t into the craft seen then. ChilKoot Charlie was fun back in the late 80’s when I was there in the AirForce. We also spent many nights at The Great Alaskan Bush Company bringing in a cooler full of cans and enjoying the ladies from all over the world. I won’t be visiting TGABC on this trip. Not when the wives will be us. I plan to visit 49th State and Anchorage Brewing for sure. Maybe Glacier Brewing. My brother in law is a cancer survivor for now, so he is taking it slow, day by day on this trip. He hasn’t drank this many beers since he got cancer 5 years ago. He gets tired quickly these days. My wife and I already booked our next cruise (9 days) in Norway & Iceland for next year in June. And put a deposit down for a third cruise in 2028. That’ll be for Asia or Australia & New Zealand. We still fly to places, but cruising is new and fun also. We’re trying to go to places United doesn’t fly to, or it’s hard for us to fly there on standby. Life is short and we ain’t getting younger. I don’t want to be traveling riding a wheelchair or walker. There are a lot of people in that situation traveling. No thank you. Not me. So I changed my life style, except for beer until my doctor tells me it’s time to give it up. Life is short. Enjoy it while you can. Edit, back in Juneau at Alaskan Brewing I would just drink the Amber Red. I thought that was their best beer. IPA’s just okay.
