Flagship February daily feature - Anchor Steam Beer

Anchor Brewing's special place in American brewing history is well-documented. If you're not familiar, I strongly suggest checking it out over here. In my frequent trips to the Bay Area over the last twenty years, I've drank plenty of Anchor around town, at the SFO airport, and been to the landmark brewery twice. Somehow, in all my grand organization of pictures on my numerous hard drives, I'm not able to dig up the interior brewery tour pictures I have from the past. Just the more recent exterior ones I've included in my PDF below.

Around ten years ago, an unfortunate cross-country flight delayed by more than three hours, had me missing my invitation to the brewery's annual holiday party. But after this feature, I'm pledging to take them up on their offer for a re-visit (finally!) during my next trip to the city.

The last time I was there, the legendary former owner Fritz Maytag was on-site and joined our tour group in the tasting room for the end-of-tour samples. Maytag also attended his brewery's event at The Four Seasons in 2008 during the inaugural Philly Beer Week, making that event all the more special. From another personal angle, it was rewarding to speak with Maytag's friend and brewery ambassador, Andy Musser (rip), at events. It was always a fun conversation alternating between baseball (Musser was a Phillies announcer, too, if you weren't aware) and beer. Had such a conversation in the galley of a cross-country flight that he and I were both on maybe fifteen years ago. But, I digress....

The new era of Anchor sees longtime familiar faces like Maytag, Mark Carpenter (brewmaster since 1971), and others retired/moved on. The newest owners, Japan-based Sapporo, acquired Anchor in 2017, but the beer persists. I miss the Brekle's Brown, Bock, and interesting beers from the Zymaster Series, But, in addition to Steam, I still find myself eagerly seeking out the Liberty Ale, Old Foghorn, Porter, and the annual changing recipe that is the iconic Christmas Ale.

Now click the picture below for a full feature on Anchor Steam.

If you're just jumping in during the middle of this and want to know what this is all about, link back here to see the Flagship February overview as well as an ongoing list of all beers I'm featuring during the month of February.

Disclosure: For this project, I solely created the list of 28 beers featured here on The Brew Lounge. I was in contact with each brewery and neither required nor requested complimentary samples. I purchased today's Anchor beer at retail, but was also provided with the "stovepipe" can sent from the brewery as part of a media mailing.

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© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2018. All content is owned and uniquely created by Bryan J. Kolesar. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Kolesar is strictly prohibited. Excerpts, images, and links may be used with advance permission granted and only provided that full and clear credit is given to Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Contact Kolesar at TheBrewLounge@gmail.com

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August 2017: Beer News update, part 1

Had to hold up the publishing of these notes to share with you with the trio of big news events in our small little world of beer that popped up yesterday. Read on to learn more...

~ But first, let's get started with something that pairs well with beer -- baseball. An unfortunate loss. [Link to CSNPhilly.com]

~ Another big fish gobbles up a smaller one. [Link to Brewbound]

~ Best case scenario for all involved and it keeps an important brewery and its good people in San Francisco going. [Link to San Francisco Chronicle]

~ A sudden and unfortunate ending for a landmark in Philly. [Link to Eater Philadelphia]

~ Great spotlight shining on Jon Medlinsky and his destination Martha, just down the block from Phila. Brewing Company. [Link to Philly.com]

~ Casey Parker is a wild and crazy guy. [Link to Foobooz/Philadelphia Magazine]

~ If you need a reason to ignore/dislike/hate the so-called NEIPA, here's a handy list to pick from. [Link to The Full Pint]

~ Time to link to excellent writing from Pete Brown again. This time, topic: IPAs. [Link to Pete Brown's blog]

~ I guess if you need a laugh, here's a good place to start. [Link to Brew Dog's website]

~ And one last bit of acquisition news to close out this update. This from San Francisco as well. [Link to SFGate.com, plus bonus coverage from The Full Pint and Jay Brooks.]

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© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2017. All content is owned and uniquely created by Bryan J. Kolesar. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Kolesar is strictly prohibited. Excerpts, images, and links may be used with advance permission granted and only provided that full and clear credit is given to Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Contact Kolesar at TheBrewLounge@gmail.com

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Back to the Bay Area for a few video clips

I haven't linked to The Brewing Network in quite some time. Seeing them while in San Francisco reminded me of such things. Plus, now seeing a few of their short video highlights of things I know well, I figured now was as good of a time as ever to catch you up with them.

Jump over there and you'll see them cover: the Opening Gala event and Meg Gill; Nanobreweries, Social Kitchen & Brewery, and Rich Higgins; and Anchor Brewery, Mark Carpenter, and the latest release Breckle's Brown.

More details on the sale of Anchor Brewery

Jay Brooks puts in a yeoman effort transcribing notes from lunch with Keith Greggor about the upcoming sale of Anchor Brewery in San Francisco, CA. Good details; Nice reporting. Leaking stories is no way to build trust, but I'd be naive if I pretended that happens from time to time.

Something New is Brewing at Anchor in San Francisco

Obviously, this is a very fresh story...and we're too far away from April 1st for this to be a joke. Until more news surfaces, I'll simply link you over to::: Beer & Nosh Jay Brooks (with interesting perspective and questions well worth asking) Beer Advocate

Sierra Nevada, the anniversary collaborations kickoff with Anchor

A tour of Anchor Brewery still ranks as a top 10er on my list of all-time beer "accomplishment" list. The history, the personalized tour, the people, and the tastings (oh my, the tastings) in Potrero Hill south of downtown San Francisco is something that I'm about due to get back and do again very soon. (take a tour of Anchor courtesy of 'Beer and Nosh' if you've never taken one in person.) With the 30th Anniversary brews that Ken Grossman has embarked on this year with other historical luminaries of the industry, his Sierra Nevada brewery is paying homage to some that have brought craft beer brewing in the U.S. to where it is today. The 4-part series kicked off last month with the release of an imperial stout brewed in collaboration with Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewing. What I would have given to be in San Francisco on April 1. There sure would not have been any snowfalls to thwart my efforts in getting there. Anchor's brewhouse was the backdrop for a dinner to celebrate the release of this beer. Ken and Fritz played host to beer aficionados (industry and non, alike...see how many you can spot in the pictures) that came to pay tribute to the brewing legacies of Sierra Nevada and Anchor, Ken and Fritz. In exchange, they provided an extravagant feast of food, beer, and brewing stories of old and new. The food, the beer, and the pictures of Jesse Friedman in San Francisco is enough to link to him. That he covered this dinner is all the more reason. A link to Jay Brooks and his own review is a wise link to make as well.

PBW 2009: Fritz Maytag brings Anchor to The Four Seasons

I may still have reservations about not attending The Four Seasons beer dinner with Fritz Maytag during Philly Beer Week. Fortunately, though, I'd stopped in for a bit of the meet and greet prior to the dinner. Certainly one of the highlights of my Philly Beer Week 2009.

Since Bruce Nichols attended, I asked if he might like to share his reaction to the dinner. Keep in mind that he is one of the Philly Beer Week "committee members." But, I'm guessing that if he really wasn't all that thrilled with the dinner, he would have politely turned down my offer to write a few words for The Brew Lounge.

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From Bruce Nichols: The Four Seasons Hotel can spot a star; they booked Fritz Maytag for a Philly Beer Week dinner early on and watched the reservations roll in. Then the waiting list swelled; then they opened an adjacent dining room. Lots of people wanted to spend an evening with the father of the craft brewing movement.

Fritz has been a supporter of craft beer in Philadelphia for decades; at a 1992 Michael Jackson event at the Penn Museum, he launched Ninkasi, his recreation of the ancient beer spoken of in a hymn to Ninkasi, Sumerian goddess of beer. Most recently, he spoke at the memorial celebration for Michael Jackson at the Museum during Philly Beer Week 2008.

This year, Fritz was enjoying himself. Before each course, he got up and said a few words about the Anchor beer being served. But at the table, he could not stop talking about the food. The chef had created a special five course beer dinner menu and Fritz was awestruck. He has probably soldiered through some less than sterling beer dinners, but this one hit his quality zone head on. He was a happy man.

What else was on his mind? He waded right in to current controversy over the significance of style labels in beer. "What makes a beer a bock?" came a question. His answer: "Because it says so on the label," came his response; a recognizably Fritzian distillation that dismisses dimwits and pundits alike. He seemed to take a position very similar to that of Randy Mosher, another Philly Beer Week visitor, who views style labels at best as "markers" rather than exact guidelines or descriptors of the beer itself. But that is another topic.

Andy Musser is Fritz’s local rep, and he brought us around to talking about Philly Beer Week 2010. How could Fritz help? I put the question to him directly: what would you like to do during Philly Beer Week next year?

Anything you want me to, he said—which I took as a sign that he knew something very special is happening around beer in Philadelphia, something he wants to continue to be part of. Fritz inspires, just by being himself. Come out and meet him yourself next year.