Tracing the dawn of microbrewing to its source - the Anchor Brewing Company

Modern Brewery Age, Dec 4, 1995

The real dawn of the modern age of microbreweries began 30 years ago, Christopher Brooks wrote in an article in the current issue of Country Living, when in 1965 Fritz Maytag bought San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Co.

In an era of brewery consolidations and industrial beer, Maytag's investment netted a quirky recipe, debts and archaic equipment. "We had a handmade, one-of-a-kind primitive copper kettle and an unbelievably crude combination mash and lauter tun, with a terrible yield," Maytag said. "Not impossible to brew with it, just so unprofessional. We also had three steel tanks without refrigeration that were painted inside with some sort of varnish from time to time. Yup, it was unbelievable."

Another problem was that Anchor had no single-cell yeast strain of its own. "We would brew once a month, and if you use lager yeast at warmer than normal temperatures, as we do, it doesn't last," Maytag said. "In those days the area had five breweries, so we would go and get fresh yeast from them every time we brewed. I would alternate, because I didn't want to pester the brewmasters, going to Lucky Lager in January, to Hamm's in February, Falstaff in March, and so on."

He didn't worry about product inconsistencies. "In those days," he said, "if it was drinkable we were thrilled." Now Anchor operates in the first rank of technology. Last year's production topped 100,000 barrels, In Maytag's first year a scant 600 barrels were sold.

A time line of Anchor's progression might go like this: The Anchor Steam recipe was reformulated in the late '60s. A bottling line was installed in 1971. Anchor Porter was released in 1973. The company began to turn a profit in 1974 with a production of about 7,000 barrels. Three beers made their debut in 1975 - Anchor Liberty Ale, Our Special Ale (for Christmas) and Old Foghorn, a barley wine. Their new copper kettle brewery opened in 1979 and Anchor Wheat Beer was launched.

In the 1970s the industry was drifting toward a lighter use of malt and hops, and the few dark beers available were dark in color only. Anchor released its Porter, a black brew that was chewy, rich and roasty.

When Maytag first smelled the black malt from which it was made it resembled espresso coffee, and he thought he'd been sent coffee by mistake. "I'd never brewed with black malt and I didn't know what it was supposed to smell like," Maytag said. "It was delicious, the very first brew."

Anchor also flowed against the current with powerfully bitter Liberty Ale. "Anchor has played quite a significant role as a catalyst," Maytag said. "But at the same time we were simply part of a movement that was taking place in the United States in food generally and also in life. And it came to beer, just as it did to wine, bread and cheese. We were in the lead, but weren't necessarily responsible. I'm proud that we came up with various models. When I took over, I made Anchor Steam an all-malt, fresh-hops, no-additives beer."

Steam labels cite 1896 as the year of Anchor's origin. "I'm of two minds about celebrating the centennial," Maytag says, The brewery actually existed back in the 1860s and changed its name several times. We'll do something, I'm sure, but whether it will be a special brew I don't know."