Olds River Inn expands brewery

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It was a summer the Olds River Inn hopes never to repeat. Like many Kodiak businesses, the coronavirus pandemic took a big bite out of its customer base. Tourists stayed home. The Coast Guard barred its members from Kodiak eating and drinking establishments. And while locals helped the inn stay afloat, the 40-minute drive from Kodiak to Pasagshak didn’t help, at least not for weekday business.

But Fred Barber wonders if it was a taste for his beer, made in the inn’s basement brewery, that may have saved the day.

“I still don’t make enough beer,” Barber said. “I run out all the time, because people like my beers.”

One of the inn’s most popular brews is called Rockit India Pale Ale, named after the Kodiak Pacific Spaceport up the road.

Soon there will be more of that. Barber just expanded his brewery. He added a “unitank,” a giant, gleaming enclosed metal kettle that sits on a stand, which makes it about as tall as Barber is.

“You can ferment in it. And you can carbonate and finish your beer in the same unit, so it basically tripled my capacity,” Barber said.

Although the brewery expansion came too late for sales this summer, Barber says he’s ready for next year.

“I would like to have enough beer to sell out of my store,” Barber said, “and to never run out in my restaurant.”

Barber says he’s ready to toast an end to a difficult summer season with reduced hours — that left him with only 25 to 40 percent of his normal business.