Ross Johnson, Brian Swanson, and Reid McDonald, Founders of Odd Man Rush Brewing

Our journey in beer began where all great things start, the garage! Actually, truth be told, we did our first batch in Reido's kitchen but Reido's better half Shanda kicked the boys to the garage right after that first batch. It is there where we got addicted to the process of making beer.
The boys did 8 batches of extract brewing then moved into all-grain brewing, building their own 10-gallon system out of old 1/2 bbl kegs.  Didn't take long for the boys to fabricate a 40-gallon system to help keep up with demand!
Let's face it, every homebrewer who has ever brewed a batch of beer has had the thought run through their head, "How cool would it be to have our own brewery where people could enjoy ourbeer as much as we do!" We love beer and our home town of Eagle River, Alaska.

Fast forward to August 2015 when we brewed our first-ever commercial batch of beer on a brand new 10bbl system! Quite the jump from brewing 10 and 40 gallon batches to brewing 310 gallons of beer! The big system was intimidating for sure but we attended the 2014 Craft Brewers Conference in Denver and in addition to attending all the great CBC seminars and tradeshow, we were able to hit 25 different breweries where we would ask questions, take pictures, and learn as much as we could to any pro brewer who would give us the time of day.
‍
So, why "Odd Man Rush," you ask? It's one of the more obscure hockey terms. All the boys are former hockey players and the term Odd Man Rush refers to that heart-pounding moment when you've got more players charging forward offensively than the other team has on defense—a golden opportunity to score. It's those unexpected, gotta-seize-it-now moments that fuel our brewery and our beers.

One of the most asked questions breweries get is "What style of beers do you brew" Not really an easy answer for us as we like to brew many different styles and don't want to be pigeon holed into any specific style. We brew all sorts of IPA's, (hazy, West Coast, Cold, Raw, Black), stouts, lagers, kettle sours,  farmhouse saisons, and in the past few years started a small barrel aging program for both barrel-aged sours and stouts.

WE BRING OUR COMMUNITY TOGETHER THROUGH CRAFT BEER.
That is our mantra! We are very proud of the quality beers we produce and equally proud of the culture of community we have built in the brewery and our hometown of Eagle River, Alaska.
We have a quote that is painted on the wall of our taproom that further sums up our vision.
‍
"WE ARE THE FRAGILE PART OF THIS WHOLE THING. IT'S MEANT TO BE ENJOYED WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS AT THE MOMENT.
IT'S NOT ABOUT THE WHISKEY. IT'S ABOUT THE LIVES YOU TOUCH AND THE PEOPLE YOU MEET.
WHISKEY IS THE BY-PRODUCT OF A GOOD RELATIONSHIP"
FREDDIE JOHNSON
THIRD GENERATION EMPLOYEE
BUFFALO TRACE DISTILLERY
‍
This pretty much sums up our feelings about our little brewery.
Hope to see you in the tap room!

Cheers!