If we requested you what makes San Francisco iconic, we think about you’d point out a couple of issues: cable automobiles, fog, and Anchor Steam® Beer.
You understand that morning mist is as emblematic of this West Coast metropolis as lakes are of Minnesota.
However what you won’t know is that Anchor Steam Beer has change into as tied to this city’s roots as, say, Pilsner Urquell in Plzeň, Czech Republic. Or Spaten Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.
Have a look at the beating coronary heart of San Francisco and also you’re certain to see Anchor Steam Beer pumping out and in of its proper and left ventricles.
Nearly like a fragile ecosystem, the very local weather endemic to this metropolis helped create steam beer. And in return, steam beer turned the life blood of this metropolis.
Anchor Steam Beer specifically has survived fires, earthquakes, deaths of a number of homeowners, years of Prohibition, and threats of chapter. But every time, this amber beer rose from the ashes.
Over 150 years, Anchor Brewing Firm has advanced right into a legendary brewery making many iconic beers.
However extra so than another, Anchor Steam Beer endured. That is the liquid gold that stored the heart beat of this San Francisco brewery alive from the very starting.
Anchor’s Early Years: A Gold Rush, a German Carpenter, and California Widespread Beer
James W. Marshall found gold on January twenty fourth, 1848, on a property close to Coloma, CA. What ensued turned generally known as the Gold Rush. Folks actually rushed to the Western frontier for his or her likelihood at placing it wealthy.
Together with Anchor Brewing Firm’s first brewmaster Gottlieb Brekle. A German carpenter who got here to San Francisco along with his bride in 1853-1854, Brekle reinvented himself as a brewer.
In 1871, Brekle bought a beer and billiards saloon within the Russian Hill space of San Francisco for $3,500, turning it right into a brewery he named the Golden Metropolis Brewery.
In 1896, after a number of homeowners and identify modifications, Ernst F. Baruth and his son-in-law Otto Schnikel Jr. bought the brewery.
The 2 made one extremely necessary change: They renamed the enterprise, Anchor Brewery.
Throughout the Gold Rush, San Francisco’s brewers needed to make what was the preferred model of beer on the time—lager.
However making lager on the West Coast wasn’t simple.
A Mountainous Climb to Brew Lager on the West Coast
Historically a German and European model of beer, lager really interprets from German as “to retailer.” A reference to the actual fact German brewers would put away these beers in cool places like caves to ferment. Why? As a result of lager used a yeast that thrived in a cooler setting.
In mid-1800s Europe and America, if a brewer didn’t have a cave useful, they used a cellar cooled with ice. As a result of bear in mind, trendy refrigeration wouldn’t change into commercially widespread till the late 1800s.
And whereas breweries on the East Coast had quick access to ice, Californians might solely discover it within the Sierra Nevada mountains. And even that ice couldn’t be shipped to the coast till after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.
So in San Francisco, brewers needed to get inventive. “Out right here in these primitive situations in the course of the Gold Rush, what the heck have been they going to do?” asks David Burkhart, Brewery Historian at Anchor Brewing Firm, whose thirty-one years on the brewery led him to compile a guide on Anchor’s historical past known as The Anchor Brewing Story that will probably be launched this November. “How have been they going to make a beer beer?”
With slightly little bit of genius.
A Quick/Lengthy Historical past of Steam Beer
One of many solely American-grown types of beer, steam beer has a wealthy if not barely murky historical past.
Technically categorized as a California frequent, steam beer refers to a method of beer with a dominant malt basis fermented at extra ale-like temperatures, however brewed with lager yeast, leading to a clear, crisp taste profile.
However right here’s what makes steam beer so fascinating: How on earth might San Francisco brewers ferment a beer at colder temperatures with out caves or ice?
The reply turns into one of many backbones of steam beer.
San Francisco brewers could have been a “little brief on ice, however they have been lengthy on ingenuity,” says Burkhart.
Fairly merely, they used what they’d round them. In different phrases, a foggy, temperate local weather.
One of many intelligent concepts brewers got here up with was to chill their beer in a big, open, shallow vessel known as a coolship…on the roof or high flooring of their breweries.
Right here’s the way it labored: After boiling the wort (unfermented beer), the liquid wanted to chill earlier than brewers might pitch (add) the yeast, which might not survive in excessive temperatures.
Accordingly, brewers would switch the wort to these massive shallow vessels to chill. On the highest flooring, the unfermented beer was uncovered to the cool, gentle San Francisco air by means of louvered home windows.
“When the new wort got here in touch with the chilly air, guess what?” says Burkhart. “Steam would waft from these louvers. If you happen to appeared up at a brewery again in these days, together with ours, you’d say, ‘Wow, that appears like steam popping out of the brewery.’”
Brewmaster Tom Riley, a thirty-eight-year veteran at Anchor Brewing Firm, helps set the scene: “Folks coming into port or rolling round city would see steam coming off the highest from these steam beer breweries.”
Nearly making a fog all its personal, steam beer slowly seeped its means into the material of the town.
As Anchor Brewing Firm Assistant Brewmaster Dane Volek put it, “It’s the gorgeous and distinctive a part of the method…that actually units steam beer aside.”
However that’s just one idea on the origin.
See, in all actuality, the beer’s nickname is nearly as opaque as, nicely, a San Francisco morning.
“We don’t know for certain,” says Burkhart. “I was pissed off with that, however now I feel…the ironic fantastic thing about it’s we’ll by no means know.”
What Are the Different Potential Origins of Steam Beer?
Burkhart and Riley introduced a number of different theories across the origin of the nickname steam beer. Every as fascinating as the previous.
For instance, as soon as the beer had fermented, brewers in San Francisco would switch it on to a picket barrel for a secondary fermentation part, forgoing the historic European follow of letting the beer relaxation in a chilly alpine cave or cellar filled with ice.
With the concept to get the beer out there as shortly as potential and stop spoilage, these barrels would exit as little as two or three days later in horse-drawn wagons certain for numerous San Francisco bars and eating places.
When bartenders went to faucet the kegs, they’d to take action fastidiously, contemplating beer nonetheless fortunately fermented away inside. “If you happen to had a hotter fermentation, it was sooner and produced extra CO2,” says Riley. “Properly, take into consideration that inside a closed barrel. You’ll construct up numerous stress, so if you tapped into this stuff, it will hiss and foam sort of just like a steam engine.”
Burkhart takes this story a step additional. In these days, bartenders would typically pour a pint from three totally different kegs in three totally different levels of fermentation to make sure the proper “head of steam.” This buildup of froth on the top of a beer ensured all these important aromas and flavors reached a patron’s nostril and palette.
“‘Head of Steam’ turned a nickname for the bubbling, stunning head that might linger a very long time in your glass,” says Burkhart.
Poetic and romantic, these theories all have their place as a lot as a extra sensible one Burkhart throws into the combo.
“[Steam] was additionally what I name a buzzword,” says Burkhart, who references how the phrase atomic turned widespread within the Fifties or the phrase digital caught on within the Nineties. “Steam energy was huge…so again in these days something “steam” was all the trend. Even when an organization had nothing to do with steam in any respect, corporations needed to affiliate with the phrase.” Burkhart factors out that, in the event you appeared by means of a metropolis listing on the time, you’d discover steam bakeries, steam sweet makers, steam all the pieces, so it was fully potential that steam beer was “just a bit little bit of early Gold Rush advertising and marketing,” says Burkhart.
We could by no means know the precise origin of steam beer, however truthfully, that’s part of its lore. And whereas the origin (and truthfully steam itself) could also be an elusive entity, steam beer has made an indelible mark on Anchor’s historical past.
How We Attempt to Condense Over 150 Years of Anchor’s Historical past into 300 Phrases
Actually we solely want one phrase: Steam.
It’s wits and ingenuity that crafted steam beer, making it an eloquent illustration of Anchor Brewing as a brewery.
As a result of delve into the historical past of this 151-year-old brewery and also you’ll discover extra ups and downs than a stretch of avenue in San Francisco.
If we needed to boil it down, that is Anchor’s historical past: fires, earthquakes, Prohibition, close to chapter (a few occasions), survival, steam.
All through all these disasters Anchor Steam Beer prevailed.
Anchor appears to have all the time been powered by its personal steam. Or has it been Anchor Steam Beer that’s all the time powered Anchor?
How Anchor Brewing Turned Tied to Anchor Steam Beer
Though the brewery began with Brekle in 1871, it wasn’t till twenty-five years later underneath the possession of Ernst F. Baruth and his son-in-law Otto Schnikel Jr. that the identify turned Anchor Brewing Firm.
So whereas the brewery has been producing steam beer for the reason that 1870s, the beer didn’t technically change into Anchor Steam Beer till near the flip of the century (which is why Anchor “solely” celebrated the a hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of Anchor Steam Beer final yr, however concurrently that yr celebrated the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the whole brewery).
Sadly, from there the historical past of Anchor skews right into a collection of unlucky occasions. Baruth died instantly on Valentine’s Day in 1906, and a hearth destroyed the brewery two months later after San Francisco’s nice earthquake. Lower than a yr later, Schnikel Jr. died when a streetcar ran him over in January of 1907.
Brewmaster Joseph Kraus stored Anchor alive till slightly factor known as Prohibition shut down the brewery for 13 years.
But, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt repealed Prohibition in 1933, Anchor got here again from the ashes.
“We’re very a lot a phoenix,” says Riley.
In truth, Kraus picked up proper the place he left off. And so far as Burkhart can inform from his analysis, Kraus is the one brewmaster to carry out that feat—straddling Prohibition as proprietor/brewmaster with the identical brewery, “an ideal instance of the unbroken continuity of our historical past,” says Burkhart.
However once more, simply after reviving Anchor Steam Beer from a thirteen-year hiatus, the newly opened Anchor burned down in February of 1934.
Kraus rebuilt the brewery with a brand new associate, Joe Allen, and Anchor appeared to chug alongside till Kraus’ loss of life in 1952. By late 1959, America’s love of mass-produced lagers had led to Anchor’s declining gross sales, forcing the getting old Allen to shut the brewery.
Lower than a yr later, Lawrence Steese purchased and reopened Anchor. However Anchor continued to wrestle and, simply 5 years later, Steese was compelled to think about shutting down the brewery.
Once more, Anchor confronted sure extinction.
Till August 1, 1965, when a younger Stanford graduate by the identify of Fritz Maytag heard of his favourite brewery’s imminent demise whereas having fun with dinner and an Anchor Steam Beer on the Outdated Spaghetti Manufacturing facility.
Fritz Maytag Saves Anchor and Anchor Steam Beer
The very subsequent day—on August 2nd, 1965—Maytag, the nice grandson of the founding father of the eponymous washer empire, visited Anchor Brewing for the primary time.
That very same day, he agreed to purchase a fifty-one % stake on this historic brewery.
So many occasions Anchor appeared on the point of collapsing into oblivion, and but the brewery and Anchor Steam Beer survived.
Was it coincidence then that I simply occurred to interview Burkhart on August 2nd, 2022, actually fifty-seven years to the day when Maytag made his fateful resolution?
Burkhart’s first phrases have been, “At this time is without doubt one of the most momentous days in craft brewing historical past as a result of at present celebrates the fifty-seventh anniversary of Fritz Maytag’s historic go to to Anchor Brewing Firm.”
We couldn’t make up these tales if we tried!
“At the moment, he was solely pondering of himself as an angel who flew in to avoid wasting the day, not, ‘oh my gosh, I need to change into a brewer.’”
That may come later.
Maytag Revolutionizes Anchor’s Brewing Philosophy
Whereas Anchor Steam Beer has all the time been romanticized as a historic beer, there’s no denying that it wasn’t all the time essentially the most constant when it got here to high quality.
It’s a sore level that plagued Maytag, ultimately sending him down a rabbit gap.
Burkhart recounts one story that turned the ultimate straw. Within the Sixties, earlier than a giant social gathering on the brewery, Maytag went to the taproom to style the beer, however discovered it had soured. So he obtained in his automobile and drove throughout city searching for an excellent keg of Anchor Steam Beer. Lastly, stopping at Artichoke Joe’s, he found an appropriate one, actually shopping for it again from the bartender and bringing it to the brewery.
“He determined that day, that’s sufficient,” says Burkhart. “I’ve to fret a bit much less about getting the beer on the market and slightly bit extra about getting the beer to be higher.”
Accordingly, Maytag bought Jean de Clerck’s A Textbook of Brewing, a two-volume guide about the best way to brew and the best way to analyze what you brewed, and commenced educating himself all about beermaking.
Even going as far as to herald a microscope he had had for the reason that age of fifteen, to scrutinize the beer Anchor had been producing. “He obtained an opportunity to take a look at all of the little micro organism swimming round in his product again in these days,” says Burkhart.
From then on, Maytag turned obsessive about brewing extra constant, higher-quality beer.
A philosophy he realized had been ingrained in him because of his household’s journey to construct some of the revered equipment corporations on the planet. (Humorous to assume, if Maytag fridges had been round within the mid-1800s, we would not even have steam beer as we all know it at present).
Fridges Could Not Have Helped Steam Beer, However They Helped Maytag
“What’s the phrase that involves thoughts if you consider Maytag?” Burkhart asks me.
“High quality and consistency,” I reply.
“Shock! Shock!,” says Burkhart. Maytag needed to not solely make nice beer, however he needed to make it over and over and over. “One of many keys to a profitable beer isn’t just making one nice batch of beer, however making it repeatedly,” says Burkhart.
And Maytag needed to begin with Anchor Steam Beer.
Maytag Revolutionizes Anchor Steam Beer
To extend the standard and consistency of Anchor Steam Beer, Maytag refined and perfected the recipe. Beforehand, the brewery’s monetary woes had led to slicing corners on uncooked supplies. When Fritz purchased the brewery, for instance, Anchor Steam Beer was now not comprised of all barley malt. and its attribute amber tint, if it was amber in any respect, typically got here from caramel coloring.
Maytag modified all that, incorporating an all-malt invoice of 2-Row Pale and Caramel malt, which gave the beer that attractive garnet hue.
Beforehand, Anchor Steam Beer had included no matter hops have been accessible, typically Cluster, a well-liked bine on the time.
Maytag modified that too, incorporating Northern Brewer hops, a comparatively new hop on the time. “In these days, Cluster was a typical hop amongst breweries and he needed to make an unusual California frequent,” laughs Burkhart.
Maytag might make modifications as a result of he wasn’t essentially tied right down to a single recipe. “There was no recipe in a vault from 1858 or no matter that he needed to depend on,” says Burkhart.
However past the recipe, maybe crucial change Maytag made included upgrading the brewery’s tools to all chrome steel (apart from the copper brew kettle).
An idea international to most American brewers on the time, an all-stainless-steel, cleaned-in-place operation improved the beer’s high quality by mild years as a result of, as most of us know, “the important thing to creating good beer is sanitation,” says Burkhart.
It’s most of these improvements that turned the hallmark of Maytag’s possession. “He was not what I name an ambulance chaser; he blazed his personal path and did no matter he needed,” says Burkhart. “Fritz likes to say that, ‘we had the world by the tail. The world simply didn’t understand it but.’”
Properly, we actually know now.
What Makes Anchor Steam Beer so Iconic At this time?
Once we consider Anchor Steam Beer at present, it’s some of the iconic beers in America.
So how did a beer brewed on rooftops that just about went six toes underneath…a number of occasions…attain such status?
Firstly, Anchor Steam Beer has a romantic connection to San Francisco and the town’s historical past. “Steam for me is a hometown hero,” says Volek.
Riley, who was born and raised in San Francisco agrees, “This firm is as a lot part of the material of San Francisco as I’m.”
It’s a beer that actually and authentically represents this main West Coast city as a lot as cioppino or cable automobiles.
“I’ve all the time stated that if that Sunday, August 1st, somebody instructed Fritz that they have been about to close down the final cable automobile in San Francisco, he would have hopped in his automobile the following day similar to he did for Anchor Steam and discovered a solution to rescue cable automobiles,” says Burkhart. “That beer is so recognized with this metropolis.”
Survival stays on the root of Anchor Steam. A lot as San Francisco itself has survived earthquakes, fires, and extra. It looks like each time this beer was resurrected, the town itself discovered new life.
It additionally doesn’t damage that, for the reason that late Nineteen Thirties, Anchor has been the one brewery to make a California frequent. And to make use of the identify “steam,” an Anchor trademark.
Anchor Steam Beer turned the beer synonymous with steam beer. “Even at present, once I stroll right into a bar in San Francisco and say, ‘I’ll have a steam,’ they know what I imply,” says Burkhart.
Lastly, because of Maytag’s improvements, it’s only a rattling superb beer each time you drink it.
Tasting By means of Anchor Steam Beer
Anchor Steam Beer has a singular colour, aroma, and style.
Once you pour Anchor Steam Beer right into a glass, you’ll instantly discover its colour. “I like that stunning copper hue,” says Volek. “The colour was all the time actually enticing to me with a pleasant, thick, creamy head… It’s an attractive beer that undoubtedly makes you consider beer if you see it.”
That richness carries by means of Anchor Steam Beer to its style and aroma. Within the physique, you’ll discover a “traditional woodiness, slightly herbaceous and wild flowery notes,” in keeping with Volek.
Whereas on the palette you’ll discover “that stability of bitterness and sweetness… I all the time say it has an actual beer taste to me,” says Volek. “It’s one thing that’s full and wealthy.”
A sentiment Riley echoes, “It’s an unpretentious beer in a traditional model.” However to Riley the true ‘X’ issue comes from the fruity esters produced by the yeast.
Again within the day, when Anchor didn’t have a constant brewing schedule, Riley says they couldn’t re-pitch (or re-use) yeast. As an alternative, Maytag would enterprise to totally different breweries round city asking them for a pitchable quantity of yeast. “We’re undecided which yeast ended up residing right here,” says Riley. “However one ended up being our dwelling yeast.”
A yeast that turned distinctive to Anchor, adapting over time to the one we discover in Anchor Steam at present. “Yeast acclimates to its setting,” says Riley. “The cells in there that just like the setting essentially the most will procreate essentially the most; it’s a technique of who’s the happiest within the bathtub.”
At this time, Anchor’s yeast offers Anchor Steam Beer a pleasant fruity complexity. However greater than that, it’s given the beer terroir, the attribute style and taste of its personal setting. Actually, Anchor’s yeast has the essence of San Francisco working by means of its physique.
A beer that’s withstood the check of time eternally has the time of San Francisco in each batch of beer.
“I name it the extraordinary on a regular basis beer,” says Burkhart. “In different phrases, I by no means get uninterested in it; it’s historical past in a glass, but it by no means grows previous.”
Particularly now, when yearly San Francisco hosts its personal tribute to Anchor Steam Beer by means of Anchor Steam Week.
Anchor Steam Week
In 2015, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee proclaimed the third week in August Anchor Steam Week.
A time to have fun this pioneering beer and brewery’s historical past, Anchor Steam Week often entails a collection of particular Anchor Steam Beer tappings at Anchor’s pilot taproom, Anchor Public Faucets.
This yr, Volek says we are able to stay up for three to 5 totally different Steam variants. They embrace: a darker Vienna-like lager fermented with Steam yeast, a barreled imperial Steam beer, and a high-gravity Steam.
Previous iterations have even included a smoked Steam beer and an unfiltered Steam.
General, Anchor Steam Week is a time to mirror and have fun. “We’ve actually grown up with San Francisco,” says Riley. “We’re the bedrock of this metropolis.”
And Anchor will proceed to be an…anchor in San Francisco and across the nation for years to return.
What Does the Future Look Like for Anchor Steam Beer?
For a beer that’s nearly gone extinct a number of occasions, the way forward for Anchor Steam Beer seems to be robust.
Thanks partially to Maytag’s dedication to consistency and high quality.
Enhancing Anchor Steam Beer has been an evolution. “From beer being made throughout California’s Gold Rush, it has advanced through the years and continues to get higher,” says Burkhart. “We’ve married one in all Fritz’s huge improvements, trendy expertise, with two of his secrets and techniques, conventional strategies and components.”
A heritage and behavior that Riley, Volek, and the whole Anchor Brewing crew have carried on through the years.
“Steam Beer proper now has by no means been higher, by no means been more energizing, and the standard has by no means been larger,” says Volek. “We’re protecting our eyes on the prize and dealing as onerous as we are able to to make Steam Beer higher and higher daily.”
Volek and Riley could have their eyes on the long run. However Burkhart reminds us that we are able to’t see the place we’re going if we don’t know the place we’ve been.
“Simply take into consideration all of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into Anchor Steam all through its historical past and the actual fact you’re consuming Anchor Steam and it survived!” says Burkhart. “There are such a lot of factors within the brewery’s historical past when that would have been it, it might have been over, whether or not due to a hearth, Prohibition, chapter, or no matter, and miraculously we’re nonetheless round.”
We’ll actually increase an Anchor Steam Beer to that. Whether or not it’s throughout Anchor Steam Week or a random Tuesday this yr or one other 150 years from now.
