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"People can come up and try all the beers we have and they don't have to pay for it," said Hand, who joined the brewery as a volunteer in 1989 and has been working there for 10 years. For the past two summers he's worked in the gift shop, selling Alaskan T-shirts, Alaskan pint glasses, soap made with Alaskan beer, Alaskan hats and, of course, all types of Alaskan beer.

"I'm having the time of my life," said Hand after a tour Wednesday morning. "We're paid to stand around and talk to people about beer."

A guided walk through the "tour hallway," in which visitors can see a portion of the brewing process without actually entering the brewing area, begins every half-hour through the summer months. From October to April, tours take place on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The gift shop is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The brewery probably distributes about two kegs a day in the summer in free samples - about 10 to 15 gallons, Hand said. Alaskan Smoked Porter, Alaskan Amber, Pale and Summer ales, Oatmeal Stout, and ESB are on tap in the gift shop.

Most people prefer the Amber, said Janelle Harrie, who also gives tours at the brewery. Many visitors have heard of the award-winning Alaskan Smoked Porter and are happy to be able to sample it, but the taste doesn't suit everybody.

"It's like drinking bacon," said John Hoffecker, who visited the brewery Wednesday with his wife, Susan, on the "bike and brew" tour offered by Cycle Alaska. After biking nine miles in three hours near the glacier, the tour company brings guests to the brewery, where they are given a tour.

The Hoffeckers said they are no strangers to breweries.

"Our vacations revolve around wineries and breweries, depending on where we're at," John Hoffecker said. The couple was impressed with Alaskan beer - he preferred the Oatmeal Stout and she the ESB.

Tours at the brewery give visitors a brief introduction to the beer-brewing process. Beer begins as a grain - the Alaskan Brewing Co. uses malted barley - that is milled, added to water and cooked, Harrie told her tour.

The brewery uses 300,000 pounds of malt barley per month to produce about 80,000 barrels of beer per year, she said.

After the barley is sufficiently cooked, hops - flowers from a plant that give the beer a bitter flavor - are added. The mixture is cooked again, then cooled and transferred to a fermenting tank, where yeast is added.

"Beers basically have four ingredients," Harrie said. "Malts, hops, water and yeast."

But the "brew crew" can't tell guests much more than that, said Hand.

"Every once and a while people will ask you a question you can't answer," he said. It's not that he doesn't know the answer, he just can't give away any secrets. "You give them too much information and they can copy your beer."