Background
Carey Fristoe, Jake Hovenden and Stephanie Haskins opened Black Spruce Brewing Company in 2018 in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Jake and Carey were childhood friends growing up in Fairbanks Alaska. Both left Alaska to attend school at University of Oregon. Carey started home brewing in Eugene as an undergraduate. After college Carey studied for a year at the Hariot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland where he earned a Master’s degree in Brewing and Distilling. While in Edinburgh, he worked at the Bow Bar. Carey got his first assistant brewer position came at No-Li Brewing Company in Spokane and worked his way to head brewer. Later he brewed at Mother Road Brewing in Flagstaff Arizona.
The trio started planning Black Spruce Brewing Company in the middle of 2016. Stephanie and Carey were in Flagstaff where Carey was brewing at Mother Road Brewing Company.
Stephanie, a certified Cicerone has been in the industry for six years. She worked at Total Wine and More in Spokane and also worked in the business side of No-Li. Now with Black Spruce, she is the front of the house and does sales and marketing. Jake is the business side of the operation.
Experience
We arrived on a Saturday afternoon. Black Spruce is in an industrial complex that our Uber driver had a difficult time finding. The tasting room was much larger than I had seen recently in Alaska. There is a walk up bar to order, tables inside and an outdoor patio. They have incorporated a psychedelic vibe. There were not too many people when we arrived and appeared to be mostly locals. The tasting room offered 12 different beers on that day. Most of the beers were quite good and turned out to be the best I would find in Fairbanks.
Black Spruce does not offer food in house although there is often a food truck. No nearby lodging noted.
https://www.blacksprucebeer.com/
Outside Black Spruce Brewing Company
