An education in classic styles at the legendary Anchor Brewery

After spending yesterday handcuffed to a chair for a job fair / speed dating event for professionals, I was in need of some exploration. Luckily a friend I know through school had planned a tour of local Anchor Brewing, maker of Anchor Steam. Their tours are booked weeks in advance so I felt very fortunate to join Kaitlyn and her group.

Put that in your beer bible

The brewery has an incredibly rich history. Anchor has the distinction of being the first craft brewery in the U.S. Their brewery began in the late 1800's and has survived despite a number of disastrous events; the untimely deaths of their founding brewers, German immigrants, one of whom was thrown off a trolley and then run over, I kid you not; their brewery burned down 3 times in the early 1900's; they're the only San Francisco brewery out of 30 who was able to continue operating after the Great Depression; and in the 1960's they nearly went under due to the abundance of commercial mass-produced beers and an anemic number of years where their beers became sour soon after distributing.

They were saved by Fritz Maytag, son of the industrial giant who produced Maytag dryers, etc, and he updated the antiquated the equipment and installed strict cleaning procedures to insure there was no contamination during the brewing process, something every homebrewer now knows is vital but back in the 60's, apparently wasn't. Anchor Steam beer was back in action and soon Fritz decided that he wanted more in the way of styles. This is where Anchor Brewing goes down in the history books as the first Craft Brewery. It's hard to imagine nowadays a craft brewery only making one style of beer selling the shit out of it. Every brewery now usually has several different styles, a pale ale, IPA, a stout and usually a seasonal, but back then this was out of the box thinking.

Taproom at the brewery. The Christmas Ales are above. They have a different tree label every year drawn by a local artist, who is now 93 year old. THAT is the spirit of Craft Brewing. Maytag = Pioneer

He was also one of the first people to begin bottling beers, which turned out to be a bit of marketing genius. For the first time, people could take Anchor Steam home with them and introduce their friends to their favorite local brewery. In the 70's Fritz traveled to England to study the classics and returned to make several different styles, including the Liberty Ale, an IPA that is classical in style and considerably different than the coma inducing hopiness pioneered by West Coast breweries. 

The Liberty Ale is easy to drink, like a lager, but it's only 50 IPA's, which makes it easier to drink than a hop heavy pale ale like Sierra Nevada. The first sip yields a sweet and biscuit infused malt. A citrusy bitterness follows and appears for a moment, like a whiff of a woman's perfume as you walk down the street, and then disappears. Michael Jackson, legendary beer guru not the pop singer, pronounced this brew as his Island Beer. When I'm asked what my favorite beer from the year is, I usually treat the question as 'what would I drink if I had only one beer to drink for the rest of my life?' The question is similar to 'what would you drink if stranded on a desert island?' The questions are similar, however, Michael dives into his requirements much more pragmatically. It makes me rethink my approach to the 'favorite beer' question. His requirements take into question not only quality and sustained drinkability, but the percentage of alcohol (you can't drink high alcohol all the time on an island, you'd be drunk consistently) and what beer would you be able to drink under a glaring tropical sun? It's a serious question for a serious beer drinker, and he chose out of the thousands of beers, including the acclaimed Belgians, Anchor Liberty Beer. It's an incredibly well rounded yet complex pale colored brew. The malt, smell, bitterness and finish are inspired. I'm intrigued by the beer, but I'm not sure I could withstand a hoppy beer day after day. However, one cannot deny it's inspirational qualities. It's a classic of the style, a pinup model or coup de ville. While being one of the bad boys for Michael Jackson, this is THE ROCK rating for me. It's definitely a brew that should be on every beer drinker's bucket list. My Island beer would probably be German, something a bit more malty and easy to drink that's low in alcohol; perhaps a Franziskaner Hefeweizen or a Schneider Weisse.

What I found very unique about the brewery was the building it occupied. It was a former coffee bean roasting factor that Fritz bought back in the late 70's. The imposing outer walls gives way to a brick and mortar interior. There's only three kettles, a lauter ton, sparge system, and boil kettle that makes every batch of Anchor beer. I was surprised to find that a craft brewery which distributes to all 50 states (1 of 3) only uses one set of kettles to brew. They also use open top fermentation, which really surprised me. The freshly boiled wort is pumped into large vats where yeast is added. There is no blow off tube, and they instead pump fresh air into the room to keep the beer sanitary. The picture below is of the barrel room, which again is surprisingly small. Fritz must run a tight ship, it looks like to me there's not a lot of room for mistakes with such a large production quota and seemingly smallish brewing process.

The beer I was most excited to try was the barleywine, Old Foghorn. My brother introduced me to the brew in New York last year and while I was several beers into the night, I thought it was one of the best beers I'd sampled. I had already counted my beer for the day then so this is the tasting that will go down in the MIFB log.

The Old Foghorn is around 8% and it's sweet, crisp and smooth. There's a bit of frutiness, maybe apple or grape. There's also a thin layer of caramel and chocolate. As far as barleywines, this is on the lighter side of a very aggressive style. Again, this is an example of classic English style barleywine vs. bold American style. Another throwback that I will bestow a TRANSFORMERS rating. It's quite delicious, but I remember it being more complex. 

The above two beers were originally conceived in the 70's. One of Anchor's latest beers, brewed to celebrate the sale of Anchor Brewing to a larger distribution company in 2010 (who also makes SKYY vodka, another San Francisco origination), is Brekle's Brown ale. This might just be my favorite brown ale of the year, a style I generally eschew because of the typically nutty flavors. This style isn't syrupy like an English style brown ale such as Newcastle, but sweet and crisp and most importantly, distinctly satisfying. I'm looking forward to trying this away from a tap and in a bottle to see if it's as smooth. THE ROCK rating. 

Afterward, we headed over to the City Beer Store to finish off the beer drinking day with....wait for it...more beer. I was feeling buzzed after the 10am tour yet, still found it within me to drink two glasses of Russian River beer. Today I can say that I have the heart of a Craft Brewer enthusiast but a liver who hates me. Right now he's throwing darts at my brain for deciding to do this right before I depart to New Orleans tomorrow for my brother's bachelor party. Detox begins next week, but soon after I'll be back posting with beers I purchased at the City Beer Store. Thank you Kaitlyn for inviting me to join in on the fun! This brewery was unlike any other I've visited, with a rich history and classic beers that haven't changed for decades. Every beer they make is a classic style with incredible quality. Drink one today!