Background
Bobby Wilken, Owner and Brewmaster, opened the doors of HooDoo Brewing Co. in October 2012. HooDoo is named for a nearby mountain range. Wilken caught the brewing bug while home brewing in college. He finished his business degree and went on to the Siebel Institute of Brewing in Chicago and Munich, Germany. While in Europe, Bobby toured breweries in England, Belgium, and Germany. Upon returning to Alaska, he joined the crew at Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau. After a four years brewing Alaskan’s award winning beers Wilken moved into the laboratory to focus on quality control and recipe development.
HooDoo Brewing Co. is a family enterprise led by Wilken and his sister, as well as their spouses. A train whistle sounds last call for each night.
Experience
HooDoo Brewing Co. is located in an industrial section of Fairbanks. Our Uber driver found it quite difficult to find the right gravel alley that led to the tasting room. HooDoo is in a converted warehouse of high ceilings and is handicap accessible. Seating is limited inside with large brewing tanks in the background of the room. The patio is huge with wood tables, multiple fire pits, corn hole and giant jenga.
We showed up on a Sunday afternoon and the place was packed with long lines to order a beer. As usual, the 32 ounce limit was in force requiring one to calculate before ordering. There were 7 different beers available that Sunday. We grabbed some beers and found some friendly locals to share their table. The beers we sampled were drinkable but not among our favorites in our Alaska trip.
HooDoo offers tour of the brewery where one can see the original home brewing system with which Wilken first started making beer in college. The original is still used for small test batches. Food is not available from the brewery but there are food trucks often available.
When in the area also try Black Spruce Brewing and Silver Gulch Brewing.
