Anchor Steam Beer

Origonaly Published August 2010

Many people take pride in drinking American beer, looking down on those un-patriotic “imports.” But, really, how American is the beer they drink? Budweiser, “The Great American Lager”, is produced by a Belgian company now known as Anheuser-Busch InBev. Many of the other iconic American beers such as Miller, Coors and Blue Moon are sold by MillerCoors. This company is a joint venture between SABMiller, based in the United Kingdom, and the Molson Coors Brewing Company, which is half American and half Canadian. Even PBR, the ubiquitous drink of hipsters these days, is contract brewed by Miller Coors. In fact, Boston Beer Company (the brewers of Samuel Adams) is the largest American-owned brewer, closely followed by D.G. Yuengling & Son.

The most depressing part of this, to me at least, is the beer produced by these large conglomerates. The vast majority of the beer they brew is of the American Golden Lager variety, which is a modification of the Pilsner style beers native to Germany. In fact, rice has been used to replace substantial portions of the grain used to brew these beers; this results in decreased development of the flavor profile, but has the advantage of being inexpensive. In fact, the only widely distributed example of a traditional American lager is Yuengling Traditional Lager. This beer is brewed with the use of Corn as an adjunct instead of rice, which is a tradition that pre-dates the American Revolution and contributes a distinctive taste to the beer.

At this point you may ask why I have been bashing the American breweries and the beers they brew. First, I’m not a fan of their beers; I prefer other beer styles to golden lager, and I like taste in my beer. The second reason is I’ve been laying the groundwork for the introduction of this week’s review, Anchor Steam Beer. Anchor Steam Beer is the sole remaining commercial example of the 19^th century beer brewed in San Francisco around which the modern California Common Beer style was modeled.

The brewery that became Anchor Brewing Company was founded when Gottlieb Brekle arrived from Germany and began brewing in San Francisco. The brewery suffered repeated fires throughout the years, and by the 1950s was suffering from poor sales owing to the popularity of light lagers and variability of their beer due to poor sanitation in the brewing process. The brewery was purchased in 1965 by Frederick Louis “Fritz” Maytag III, heir to the Maytag appliance and dairy farm fortune, who promptly began to teach himself the brewing process. By focusing on sanitation, Fritz was able to turn the brewery’s often sour offerings into a clean beer with increasing demand. The demand quickly outstripped the capacity of his small brewery, but instead of expanding production at the expense of quality as his competitors had, Fritz helped smaller competitors learn the art of brewing and refine their products. This unusual business model helped to spawn the microbrewery revolution and succeeded in lifting pressure from the Anchor brewery while increasing the availability of good beer.

The California Common Beer style started in and around San Francisco in the 19^th century when German brewers, such as the founder of Anchor Brewing Company, attempted to brew the lagers of their homeland in a different climate. Lager yeasts are adapted to ferment more slowly than ales but at lower temperatures, providing a crisper, cleaner beer. The brewers in San Francisco, on the other hand, were subject to a warmer climate with no cold springs or ice fields nearby with which to cool their beer. To counter this, they allowed the cool ambient air to blow across shallow, open fermentation tanks. As the yeast adapted over time this method resulted in a hybrid beer, similar in concept to the Kölsch, with a mix of lager and ale characteristics. This style should showcase moderate to high amounts of American hops, but with woody or minty characteristics such as the Northern Brewer variety instead of the citrusy or piney hops generally utilized in IPAs. The beer should pour amber or copper in color, including an off-white head with good retention. The beer should have a moderate toasted or caramel maltiness with significant hop bitterness but only moderate hop flavor. A slight fruitiness is not out of place, especially given that the beer is fermented at a high temperature for a lager. Overall this should showcase the Northern Brewer hops but with a toasty or caramel maltiness to back it up, and a slight fruitiness can make the beer more interesting.

The Anchor Steam Beer poured a clear, deep amber color with no yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle. The small head dissipated surprising quickly, and the carbonation was higher than expected; this may result from my pouring technique, since I’ve noticed it with a number of beers recently. The beer had a distinctive hop aroma, which seemed had more citrus than I expected, as well as a slight sweetness which I’ve never encountered in another beer. Up front the beer was surprisingly creamy with a moderate body, reminiscent of a Kölsch, but I did not detect much fruitiness. The beer had an immediately noticeable toasty maltiness which complemented the bitterness. One aspect that I did not expect was that when swallowed quickly, I got a vegetative character from the hops.

Overall, this was a very good malty, bitter beer, but with a unique combination of characteristics that I had not experienced before. So, have you ever had a truly American beer? If not, I highly recommend giving this a try.