Over the years the brewery suffered numerous setbacks, none worse than its closure during Prohibition and its complete destruction at the hands of the great earthquake of 1906.  However, like a cat with nine lives, the brewery proved resilient and was able to keep bouncing back.

Unfortunately,  even an old cat can run out of lives, and by 1965 the Anchor brewery was on its last legs and teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.  Its plight had become so dire that the brewers were reduced to using baker's yeast to save money.  It was in this desperate environment that washing machine mogul Fritz Maytag (yes THAT Maytag) learned of the brewery's imminent demise while  enjoying a glass of Anchor at a local bar.  Unwilling to see his beloved draught disappear, the ultimately brand-loyal Maytag stepped in as a white knight and bought Anchor at the eleventh hour,  saving it from extinction.  And the rest is history.  In 1979 Maytag moved his Anchor Brewing Company to its current location on Mariposa Street in San Francisco.  To visit this brewery today is to feel like one is stepping into a small, yet gorgeous cathedral of beer, with spotless copper kettles reminiscent of something you might encounter in Bavaria or Bohemia.

      In the ensuing decades, Fritz Maytag relentlessly fine-tuned his product with an almost religious fervor.  Today Anchor Steam Beer is revered as a truly unique craft product.  It is a true style of beer unto itself: not only the only style of beer in the world native to the United States, but it is the sole example of its style.  Its style is usually referred to as “California Common Beer” and is somewhat of a hybrid between a lager and an ale.  Although it is fermented using a lager yeast, it is fermented at much warmer ale-like temperatures in wide, shallow fermenting vessels that keep the yeast close to the surface, much like a top-fermenting ale yeast.  The resulting product has the most unusual attributes of marrying the round cleanness of a lager to the fruitiness of an ale.  It is an alternative relationship that works well, as many in San Francisco would attest!  To compliment this eclectic union is the crisp bite of Northern Brewer hops.  Joining this most maverick of brews  in subsequent years  has been a delightfully hoppy and aromatic Liberty Ale, as well as a lusciously robust Anchor Porter and a dizzyingly delicious Old Foghorn Barley Wine.  Anchor has even expanded into the spirits business by distilling a distinctive rye whiskey.

      I was most surprised to learn that just in April of this year the great craft brew trailblazer Fritz Maytag decided to finally pass the torch and sold the Anchor Brewing company to a new partnership.  The new entrepreneurs, liquor industry veterans Keith Greggor and Tony Foglio, have pledged to not only maintain the exceedingly high standards of quality established by Maytag, but to actually expand the scope of the operation.  But while the future certainly looks bright for Anchor, it is certainly hoped that the new owners never lose sight of the spirit of the product they have pledged to uphold.  As past experiences with other brewers have proven, bigger is not necessarily better!

Cheers,
Glenn