I discussed earlier British Rail’s pub on wheels, and the British Army’s mobile brewing units in World War II. To this must be added the British Admiralty’s project in the same war for shipborne brewing.
The latter’s story has been told numerous times. Here I tell both a similar and different one, to do with 1930s Alaska. It is another offbeat feature of that state’s brewing history, and history in general.
In more recent times Alaska had the failed Prinz Brau venture of 1976-1979, a pre-craft tragedy. Bill Howell in his book Alaska Beer offers a good account.
(An all-malt German beer didn’t “take” for a variety of reasons including branding, labour troubles, and competition from American beer shipped from the mainland. Maybe the German owners were ahead of their time, as for the Henninger venture in Ontario).
Brewing in post-Prohibition Alaska was sporadic. Bill Howell explained that three breweries got off the ground. The first closed after only a year, the other two in 1942-1943.
Alaska, as he put it, was on the front lines of a Pacific war due to the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians. Raw materials proved finally impossible to get, which spelled the end for the two brewers still operating when the U.S. entered the war.
The more successful of them was Pilsener Brewing Co. (PBC) of Ketchikan. Its stylish advert is pictured below (source: Alaska States Archives, see here).
An interesting feature of PBC was its seaborne branch, on the ship Alumna. American and Australian press reports highlighted this novelty. A story in January 1935 (via Trove Newspapers) stated:
Called the world’s floating brewery, the remodelled sailing vessel, Alumna, may set a new style in beer-making methods in America. Originallv a Pacific lumber carrier, but forced off the sea by competition of tramp steamers, the old craft has just been returned to service—this time as a complete manufacturing plant for beer, with a capacity of 250 half-barrels daily. A deck house was built forward to provide storage space for the raw materials and for the finished product; while 14 fermenting vats of 100-barrel-capacity each were installed in the hold. Present plans call for the beer ship to be towed along the Alaskan coast, making beer as it goes, and selling it at every port. Smaller boats will also distribute the product to fishing fleets and isolated settlements.
Three months earlier a San Bernardino, California paper reported the Alumna was already in Ketchikan. The town, at the southern tip of the state, is where PBC was based. It is not 100% clear to me but there may have been a land brewery, since Howell refers to a facility on Cliff Street in Ketchikan, and a branch on the Alumna.
I presume the Alumna brought in supplies for the land brewery but did some of PBC’s brewing. A Canadian resource on West Coast nautical heritage, The Nauticapedia, includes photos of the Alumna. It was built around 1900 as a four-masted vessel and was named for the owner’s daughter. States Nauticapedia:
In 1934 she was reduced to one mast and converted to a floating brewery for Pilsner Brewing Co. of Ketchikan AK. She was later converted to a floating fish processor.
(Source: MacFarlane, John M. and Douglas MacFarlane (2018) The Schooner / Barge Alumna. Nauticapedia.ca 2018. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Alumna.php).
This is the only reference I know of to ownership of the floating brewery by PBC, but it connects to the other background.
How was beer on ship made? Possibly with malt extract, the Admiralty plan in World War II. Or perhaps all-malt brewing took place if the ship was stationary while brewing and fermenting.
Press accounts stated that a floating brewery offered cost advantages. There was no need to buy land and fixed plant. Most of the cost to ship beer afar was therefore avoided.
One had to buy and equip a ship, but from there it was a travelling brewery, hence multiple branches combined in one facility. Today the idea should be revived, at least in certain areas.
Note re image above: Image is used for educational and historical purposes and was sourced from the link provided in the text. All intellectual property therein belongs solely to its lawful owner, as applicable. All feedback welcomed.
For a continuation, see Part II.
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