There is beer. 

And then there is Skagway Brewing Co. beer.

The difference couldn’t be more dramatic.

Made from Skagway’s clear, clean, and crystal waters, Skagway Brewing Co.’s slate of beers represents some of the best brewing the world has to offer.

"There are a couple things that make the quality of our beer very high,” said Skagway Brewing owner and general manager Mike Healy. "This isn’t to slight other beers, but ours starts with the best water. Skagway’s water has been ranked the best in the nation.

"But second, it comes from our philosophy of using a sustainable process that no one else in the world is using. We re-use Co2 that’s used to make the beer and sending it to our aeroponic garden. Instead of contributing to global warming, we use the recycled Co2 to grow the ingredients for our beers.”

Healy has nothing against what he calls "lawn mower beers,” such as Miller Lite or Miller High Life, the sort of brews you guzzle after a long day of yard work. Nonetheless, Skagway Brewing Co.’s wide menu of suds is guaranteed to satisfy any palate. Healy even likes some of those mainline brewskis.

But Skagway Brewing Co. offers distinctive beers that will make you forget other beers after cutting the grass on a hot day. The beers even appeal to those non-beer drinkers who would otherwise turn up their noses at the idea of quaffing suds.

"We have a couple of lighter options like Spruce Tip Blonde Ale that a lot of people like,” Healy said. "There are a lot of folks who drink that one and tend to go, ‘wow, this is really crisp.’ It’s extremely rare that we hear anyone say it’s bad beer. People really get into it, even people you wouldn’t think would get into it.”

Spruce Tip is made from 35 species of spruce—Sitka spruce is the tastiest—hand-picked in the spring. These trees give Spruce Tip a sweet, citrus flavor with a smooth finish. The beer is created using hydroelectric power to combine the flavors of Skagway’s crystal-clear untreated water.

The brewery, which brews all of its beer on-site, offers a diverse selection, from Boom Boom Brown to Chilkkoot Trail IPA, Farmhouse Saison, Abby-Style Belgian Dark, Prospector Pail, Smash IPA, Lager and Blue Top Porter. 

Healy’s favorite beer varies.

"My tastes fluctuate, but right now it’s our Blue Top Porter,” he said. "We get beer nerds that come in and rate our beers and the porter comes in at the top. It gets a lot of praise and just today I was asked if it could be shipped home. It almost happens on a daily basis.”

Alas, various complicated state and local laws prevent the beers from being shipped outside Alaska. That doesn’t mean you can’t take it with you.

The brewery does not have a large advertising campaign other than social media and works with cruise lines. But it doesn’t matter.

Word of the brewery does indeed get out, and Skagway Brewing Co. gets busy during tourist season, with waits sometimes reaching 45 minutes to an hour. Lunchtime is the busiest, but the brewery is soon to open a covered beer garden where you can pick up drinks during a highly worthwhile wait.

To make it easier to get a table, you can also make reservations online.

Skagway Brewing Co. is more than a brewery. The menu offers a wide variety of items, the most popular being the halibut fish and chips, which is fried with spruce tip ale in the batter.

"It doesn’t get any more Alaskan than that,” Healy said.

Everything on the menu is made-to-order.

What makes Skagway Brewing Co. entirely unique is its use of aeroponics. Greens and herbs are grown in an on-site aeroponics pond, which means your greens are as fresh as possible.

"We just didn’t like the herbs we were getting from Seattle,” Healy said. "We just didn’t like the quality. They leave Seattle on a Sunday, and we’d get them ten days later. With the aeroponic pond our greens are fresh, and the nutrients are extremely high.”

Currently, the brewery is growing lettuce for sandwiches and salads, basil, and cilantro. They’re also experimenting with notoriously temperamental tomatoes. Healy said it’s fun to experiment with produce.

But most of all, he stands by the high quality of everything on the menu: food, beer, and the atmosphere of Skagway Brewing Co.

"Our philosophy from Day One is to produce the best beer we can, and word of mouth is a really powerful tool for us,” Healy said.