Under the shadow of the highest mountain in North America, about 1,000 people make their home in Talkeetna, Alaska. “It has this end of the road, cool feel,” said Sassan Mossanen, founder of Denali Brewing Co.

Mossanen and his wife Kristy Mossanen “fell in love” with this adventurous community. “There’s a lot of really artistic people, a lot of seasonal businesses that cater to the visitors, but it’s also a year-round community,” Sassan Mossanen said. “There’s a library and a school. We’ve got a grocery store and a clinic.”

Talkeetna is a jumping-off point for flight-seers, adventurers, rafters and mountain bikers. Mossanen started as a guide and experiential educator, but spending hundreds of days away from home each year was a hard way to start a family, especially off-road. He knew he needed to find something local year-round that would allow him to stay connected to the community.

Denali Brewing started in 2009. “It was the culmination of many, many years of dreams,” he said. “I started home brewing from a very young age, and I’ve always had great passion for cooking food and brewing, so the brewery was a natural evolution for me.”

Mossanen’s brewery has grown to be one of Alaska’s most successful craft breweries and Talkeetna’s largest employer. “If you want it to be a vibrant place, you need to create jobs,” Mossanen said. “That’s a huge responsibility that we really feel honored to be a part of. It’s the greatest challenge we have, but it’s also the most rewarding thing that we do.”

The brewery and the restaurant employ about 70 people and are transitioning to employee ownership, alongside sister companies Denali Spirits and Alaska Ciderworks & Meadery. Employee ownership provides a retirement benefit, and the Mossanens are equally committed to employment with living wages and other benefits.

“The only thing that made sense is to try to build a sustainable community of folks,” Mossanen said. “These are all my friends that I work with, and I care about them.”

He said that breweries across the state work hard to bring maximum benefits to staff and advocates drinking locally. “If you want to see greater benefits come to the employees, stop buying beer that’s made 3,000 miles away,” he said.

Denali Brewing also partners with local nonprofits like the Susitna River Coalition on beer collaborations that bring more awareness to their mission. In April, the collaborators released Wild Su IPA, just after American Rivers listed the Susitna as one of America’s 10 most-endangered rivers.

Brewing year round on a 30-barrel production system leaves the Mossanens with another responsibility—for an estimated annual two million pounds of wet byproduct, the so-called “spent grain.”

“I really dislike that it’s called ‘spent grain,’ because it’s anything but ‘spent,’ ” Mossanen said. “It’s a really valuable resource and should be treated as such. It can be a fantastic soil amendment.” The Mossanens want Denali Brewing to show other breweries in Alaska and across the nation how to reuse that grain in compost. 

To demonstrate the value of spent grain, the Mossanens and employee Michelle Crow applied in 2018 for a federal Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) grant from USDA for a 35-by-70-foot high tunnel. This hoophouse, built of plastic stretched over metal framing, extends the Alaska growing season. In the high tunnel, the composted spent grain is used to grow produce for their brewpub and tasting room.

Brewing uses the sugars but leaves the grain rich in protein, making it high-quality animal feed. Farmers take most of Denali Brewing’s spent grain for animal feed, but the brewery composts everything that’s left—about 100,000 pounds of spent grain annually. They add leftover yeast materials, hops, wood chips and more, turning the piles with a skid steer. “We have never dumped a single pound of spent grain into the landfill in 16 years of business,” Mossanen said.

Under the grant, the Mossanens tested the compost regularly to determine what changes they needed to make and rotated crops until their soil was balanced and well-nourished. Today, the rich, grain-amended soil in the high tunnel produces food for about six families and the brewpub.

“People are spending thousands of dollars on something that we’re giving away for free,” Mossanen said of the spent grain. “I would love to see this opportunity grow throughout the community.”

Sassan Mossanen hopes agriculture can continue to grow in the Susitna Valley. ”Given our remote location, the more food that we can produce in the state, the safer the state becomes, if there’s ever an emergency,” he said.

Another USDA grant, through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), helped the Mossanens invest in solar panels to power the brewpub which included conducting energy audits. “We’re growing a food supply in Alaska that is resilient and is deep and is able to provide more and more food for the citizens of this state, and we’re moving away from fossil fuels and shifting to alternative forms of energy,” Mossamen said.

Talkeetna draws high adventure seekers, but Mossanen wants visitors to get to know the people who make Talkeetna home. “We’re a community, and that’s really important to remember,” he said. “We’re a resilient, independent bunch of creative folks, and it’s worth slowing down and realizing that you’re coming and visiting people’s homes. Sit on the front porch of the restaurant. Realize that people live here, and that’s part of the joy.”