Born and brewed in San Francisco
Wafting across the slopes of the Potrero Hill District is a perfume every local has come to know and love. It’s the yeasty, fruity smell of fermented alcohol, cooking at the Anchor Brewing Company. Like 501 blue jeans and sourdough bread, Anchor Steam Beer originated in the improvised city of the Gold Rush era. While most beer requires ice to cool the fermenting hops, ice was not available here, so resourceful brewers put the fermenting mash on rooftops, where the cold Bay fog did the job. The steam that rose from the vats gave this beer its name. First produced in a Pacific-Street saloon, and then by two Germans, Ernst F. Baruth and Otto Schinkel, the history of the beer is as unique as its taste.
Anchor Brewing flourished through the 1890s, until three tragedies befell the company in the span of a few short years: Baruth dropped dead unexpectedly, the earthquake fire of 1906 burned the plant to the ground, and Schinkel was run over by a streetcar. The onset of prohibition didn’t help either. The business persevered, but by the late 1950s, mass-produced beer had become the standard, and Anchor seemed doomed. And then one night in 1965, Fritz Maytag (great-grandson of the appliance scion) was drinking Anchor on tap in North Beach, and heard that his favorite beer was about to disappear. He promptly bought the brewery and began a process of development that would spark the microbrew revolution, not just in San Francisco, but also across the country.
Info
Address 1705 Mariposa Street, San Francisco, CA, 94107, www.anchorbrewing.com, +1 415.863.8350 | Public Transport Bus: 10 (17th St & Wisconsin St stop); 22 (17th St & De Haro St stop) | Hours Open for scheduled tours only; reservations required.| Tip For a hearty morning meal before your beer tasting and tour, stop at the Plow at 1299 18th Street.
Touring the brewery is the best way to immerse yourself in this history. Tours follow the whole process, from bales of fragrant hops to the giant brass brewing vats, to the bottling line, and last but not least, to the tasting room, where four or five beers are included in the price of admission. Tours book up weeks in advance, and the first begins at 10am because, as the guides explain, “How can you drink all day if you don’t start in the morning?”
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