Timing is everything. Sean McLaughlin first started commercial salmon fishing in Juneau with his father in 1985, when Alaskan Brewing Co. founders Geoff and Marcy Larson were conceptualizing the brewery.
 Timing is everything. Sean McLaughlin first started commercial salmon fishing in Juneau with his father in 1985, when Alaskan Brewing Co. founders Geoff and Marcy Larson were conceptualizing the brewery. Sean always wanted to work for Alaskan Brewing Co., and when his bride wanted to return to Juneau to live in 1997, he told her, "If the brewery is hiring, I'll work for the brewery." Well, the brewery was hiring and Sean will be celebrating 10 years at Alaskan come June.
Sean first lived in Juneau in 1989 right after high school graduation in Sheboygan, Wis. "I had my diploma in one hand and a ticket in the other," he said. He worked as a commercial fisherman, including two trips to the Bering Sea. "I didn't like it either time," he said. "There's a saying, 'You're gonna get rich, you're gonna die or you're gonna get rich and die.' I wasn't getting rich."
After hanging up his waders, Sean worked for Northern Sales, the Frito-Lay distributor in Juneau. He then left for Spokane, Wash., where he traveled to hard-to-access locations, drilling test holes where engineers wanted to build bridges and dams. "It was a lot of fun, but I was on the road a lot," Sean said. "I was gone 250 days one year."
When he and Genevieve married in Juneau, where they had met, they chose to stay after Sean landed a job as a Packager at the brewery. He has since worked in Brewing and Filtration before taking his current position in Production Logistics.
One of his most memorable moments at the brewery was in 2002 when torchbearers carrying the Olympic flame visited the Gift Shop. Another was in 2003 when he went crabbing with Kevin Brauch, host of the cable television show, "The Thirsty Traveler." "It was really fun taking him out and being on TV," Sean said.
His thirst for adventure extends beyond the brewery. Sean loves camping and subsistence hunting and fishing, in which he cleans and processes his own game and fish. He enjoys pairing beer with his meals and as well as cooking with beer. He even won an award at a brewery cook-off for his Alaskan Amber Crab Stuffed Mushrooms recipe. "I don't know if I can ever outdo myself," he said. But he says he's sure having fun trying. |
