Maura Selenak
Maura Selenak was born in July of 1986. An accomplished swimmer from a young age, Selenak was once listed as one of the top-20 swimmers in the USA in her 8-15 age group. As a young adult, she attended Oberlin College in Ohio, where she competed on the women’s swimming team, and became an accomplished breaststroker. In 2005, she recorded a 1:07.58 in the 100-yard breaststroke, a performance that is still listed as the fastest time in Oberlin’s all-time records more than two decades later. During her sophomore season, she was identified as one of the team’s returning record holders with NCAA championship aspirations.
After college, Selenak eventually made her life in Juneau, Alaska, with her boyfriend, Ryan Howard. There, the couple’s interest in drinks developed alongside an interest in bringing people together. They lived for a time in an off-grid cabin and hosted gatherings where they prepared specialty drinks in advance so they could spend more of the evening talking with their guests rather than mixing drinks. The idea of hospitality, therefore, preceded the commercial distillery. Years later, that same emphasis on creating a place where people could meet and talk would become a defining feature of their distillery.
By 2016, the idea of founding an Alaska distillery had become considerably more serious. Selenak and Howard began developing what would become Amalga Distillery in downtown Juneau. They purchased the historic former Alaska Electric Light & Power building there. The structure dated to 1937, but one decidedly utilitarianfeature proved especially valuable: its large freight elevator allowed the distillery to move the heavymaterials and equipment required for production. By June 2016, the Juneau Empire had described Amalga as a gin and vodka operation, however, whiskey was not an afterthought. During a 2016 Alaska legislative hearing, Howard identified single malt whiskey as one of the spirits Amalga intended to manufacture, with plans involving Alaska barley, wheat and rye. The distillery installed a custom-built pot still made in Kentucky, positioning whiskey production as part of the operation from its beginning.
Amalga opened its tasting room in the summer of 2017. Selenak and Howard also married that year, marking the occasion with a photograph outside the distillery alongside their dogs, Walter and Wallaby, with Amalga’s copper equipment visible through the window. Still, gin could be produced and sold relatively quickly, but whiskey demanded patience. By 2018, Amalga’s single malt was aging on the premises while the young company established itself through its tasting room and its popular Juneauper Gin.
Selenak soon took on a role extending beyond her own company. As president of the Distillers Guild of Alaska, she became involved in the effort to establish workable rules for Alaska’s emerging craft-distilling industry. In early 2018, she testified before the Alaska Legislature in support of House Bill 269, legislation intended to clarify what distillery tasting rooms could serve. She emphasized the disadvantages Alaska distillers already faced, including unusually high shipping, energy, labor and material costs. A guild letter bearing her name warned that proposed restrictions on cocktails in tasting rooms could cripple an industry that was still in its infancy.
Meanwhile, Amalga’s whiskey continued to mature. In August 2020, the distillery released the first batch of its Flagship Single Malt Whiskey, describing it as the foundation for the whiskey that would eventually become a regular part of Amalga’s shelves. Subsequent batches demonstrated that “flagship” did not mean rigidly identical. Batch 2 received a Cognac-cask finish, while Batch 3 emphasized the underlying whiskey—fermentation, distillation cuts, malted barley and new American oak—with less finishing intervention. Batch 7 combined chocolate-malt whiskey with whiskey made from 100-percent Golden Promise barley before incorporating Cognac-cask finishing.
That continuing batch program became Amalga’s whiskey laboratory. Later releases incorporated combinations of chocolate, pale, crystal and honey malts and experimented with finishing barrels that had previously held Cognac, rum, Armagnac, and coffee liqueur. By August 2026, Amalga’s online store listed Flagship Single Malt Batch 25, evidence that what began as whiskey quietly aging behind a young gin business had developed into a sustained series of single malt releases.
Selenak’s contribution to Amalga has also been particularly visible in the tasting-room experience surrounding those spirits. She helped shape a room intentionally unlike a conventional dark bar, favoring an open, airy and welcoming environment where customers could learn about what Amalga makes. Communal tables, accessible seating and wide aisles reinforced the idea of the distillery as a gathering place rather than simply a production facility with drinks attached. That work received national recognition in 2024 when Amalga was named a James Beard Awardsemifinalist for Outstanding Bar, a category recognizing beverage quality along with atmosphere, hospitality, operations and contribution to the broader community.
Nearly a decade after Selenak and Howard began turning their idea into a working distillery, Amalga had become both a fixture of downtown Juneau and an established producer of American single malt. Its whiskey evolved through fermentation choices, malt varieties, new American oak and an unusually broad assortment of finishing casks, while the business around it reflected Selenak’s parallel emphasis on hospitality and community. The woman who once contemplated going to Scotland to become part of someone else’s distilling tradition instead helped establish a whiskey tradition in Alaska. By 2026, Amalga had reached its twenty-fifth flagship single malt batch, and Selenak remained at the center of the Juneau business she and Howard created.
Sources:
Juneau Empire, “Distillery in Downtown’s Future…,” Kevin Gullufsen, June 14, 2016, juneauempire.com
Oberlin College Athletics, “Women’s Swimming All-Time Top Times”,goyeo.com
Washington Post, “In Juneau, Locally Minded Chefs Are Redefining Alaskan Cuisine”, August 23, 2018, washingtonpost.com
Distillers Guild of Alaska, “Guild Letter”, Maura Selenak, President, 2018, via Alaska State Legislature, akleg.gov
Alaska Department of Economic Development/Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, “Board Meeting Agenda”, June 12, 2018, commerce.alaska.gov
Amalga Distillery official website, amalgadistillery.com
KTOO 360-TV (Juneau, AK), “Amalga Distillery Named James Beard Semifinalist”, Yvonne Krumrey, February 3, 2024, ktoo.org
Juneau Economic Development Council, “Crafting with Community: Amalga Distillery and the Spirit of Juneau”, June 11, 2025, jedc.org
Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee
