United Nations of Beer

Kassik's Kenai Brew Stop

by Matt Morgan
(Beer Delegate, IL, USA)

Kassik's Kenai Brew Stop
Kenai, Alaska, USA

Although this article is about beer, I don't want it to overshadow what an amazingly rustic and majestic state Alaska truly is.

A few days before our arrival, a brown bear mauled a local pastor in Clam Gulch, Alaska; right on the side of the highway where he was walking to the post office.

We were strongly discouraged from hiking in the area "without a gun or bells at least" and there weren’t any marked trails for the light hiking we were looking for anyway. We'd have to look elsewhere on the Kenai Peninsula if we wanted to camp and hike.

In the midst of our day trips to various site seeing locations, we saw a sign for a micro-brewery off the beaten path.

When I say micro-brewery, this is truly the definition of such. Kassik's Kenai Brew Stop is run by brew master Frank Kassik and his wife Debara.

It's essentially a brewery in their back yard, as their house shares the same property. My dream life, if they had alpacas and goats.

With only a seven-barrel brewing capacity, Kassik's has no bottling line and keeps up with demand via growlers, 2.5-gallon party pigs and recycling empty 20oz bottles from a popular energy drink filled at time of purchase.

Kassik's Kenai Brew Stop has been in business for a little over a year. The brewery grew out of Frank Kassik’s passion and talent as a home brewer.

As the demand for his brews increased, the Kassiks had to quit their day jobs and give the brewery their full attention.

Once we found the brewery we rewarded our navigational prowess by sampling the wares. The seven varieties on tap were all above average examples of their style.

Links to my reviews:

Gold Nugget Hefeweizen

Caribou Kilt

Moose Point Porter

Kassik's Kenai Brew Stop has eight different brews, including their rotating seasonal beers, Gold Nugget Hefeweizen and Holiday Nut Brown.

We played with the family dog on our last visit to drop off our empties and almost felt like locals. The family and home environment endears you to the brews, which are all really good style representations I'd order before any macro-brew.

I wanted to dedicate more of this article to Kassik's Kenai Brew Stop and rant about their hospitality and bright, clean brewing facility. However, Frank recommended a stop at Café Amsterdam in Anchorage before we caught our flight home. I'll tell you how we got on there in my next installment of our Alaskan beer adventure!