More Life in San Francisco

We had friends in town over the weekend and on Monday from Rhode Island. We've been friends since D.C., and they came out for a visit and brought their 8 month old along. Over the weekend, drove down the coast, where all the beaches are packed and saw a family with 3 kids all of whom were nekkid, including a 4 or 5 year old boy who once he dried off promptly went down face first into the sand, still nekkid. Gross. On Sunday, went to Napa and stopped at a few wineries. No big deal. But, they weren't flying back until Tuesday, so decided to take Monday off and entertain Andrew the husband with a trip to San Francisco's very own Anchor Steam Brewing Company for a tour and free samples.

Found our way to the brewery which is housed in a rather Art Deco style building. Walk up two flights of stairs, and at the top of the second floor is a guy in a white jump suit there to check off names for the tour- check. Walk in and wait in a room surrounded by various platters with beer logos and pictures on it, including such luminaries as Old Style, Ballentine, Schmidt's, Yuengling, but, alas, no Natty-Boh. At the end of the room was the bar, and in between were various beer making exhibits, several chairs to lounge around in, and in the very far corner a 3 shelf bookcase with Anchor Steam souvenirs. We wait about 5 minutes, then the tour begins- the tour guy proceeds to talk about the process Anchor Steam does to make their beer, shows examples of the 5 main ingredients in Anchor Steam, other than water, explains that every drop of Anchor Steam beer sold world-wide is made in this brewery, talks about the history of Anchor Steam, what a "steam" beer is and how that got incorporated into the Anchor Steam name, and how in the 70s they almost ceased to exist until it was purchased by one Fritz Maytag, and how he has turned the brewery around to be what it is today. The tour guy also explained the various types of beer made by Anchor Steam, of which we would eventually sample 6 of them- I only knew of 3 beers, so I was pretty surprised to learn they made more than just the Christmas beer, Liberty Ale and the namesake. Moved on to the kettles, apparently, the whole process is done in three very large kettles, or tums as they are apparently called. Anchor Steam beer is made in those 3 kettles 4 days a week, with the 5th day devoted to one of their other styles of beer. Walked down two flights of stairs to see the vats of beer waiting to be bottled- they keep the beer at 35 degrees to "condition" it before putting into bottles.

Saw the bottling line, but as we approached it all we heard was breaking glass- as I was to find out later, any mistake with the bottle, including things like misaligned labels are thrown away, except for a few which are saved for employee disbursement. Oh, how sad, you'd think that there would be beer outlets where there is nothing wrong with the liquid itself, just that the bottle is a little odd or the label is wrong. The tour guy said that if they were to let any mistake out that would effect the perception of Anchor Steam, and that can't be allowed. Fine, but do you really need to throw away perfectly good beer in the process? Perhaps just save all those bottles and have a distributor here in town sell those misfit beer bottles at a fraction of the cost, that way you're not left with unsold beer.

We finished up the tour with some additional information on some non-beer liquor that Anchor Steam makes. I am familiar with their rye whiskey, but didn't know they make three different kinds of rye whiskey, I also learned they make two types of gin, and that Fritz owns a vineyard in Sonoma and makes wine, port and grappa. I got the impression that the wine, port and grappa is not readily available for sale and is made in very limited quantities.

After that, we headed back into the room where the tour started and we began our drinking, in 8 ounce glasses. First up was the Anchor Summer. It was very light and refreshing; very enjoyable and 4.6% alcohol. Next, the Anchor Steam, which is the most popular and familiar of all the Anchor beers (4.9% alcohol). After that was the Anchor Liberty Ale which I liked a lot more than I thought I would (6% alcohol). The tour guide called it the first Pale Ale, and was first created to commemorate the midnight ride of Paul Revere, only it came out a year early in 1975. Next came the Anchor Bock (5.5% alcohol). It was a lot darker than I was expecting, having spent most of college living off of Shiner Bock. Which then lead to a discussion about Sam Adams' Double Bock, which the Anchor Bock seemed to be more similar. Andrew and I then reminisced about our experiences with Sam Adams' Double Bock and its effects. Next was the Anchor Porter (5.6% alcohol). I don't normally care for Porter's, they are too bitter for my liking and I don't really care for the coffee/chocolate overtones of the beer, but it was free and this was our 5th beer, so I wasn't dwelling on those negatives. Finally we got to the Anchor Old Foghorn (~9% alcohol!!!!). The Old Foghorn is called a barley wine and is much sweeter than normal beer, so much so that the tour guy said that it was best enjoyed after dinner. I can say that it was tasty, and at roughly 9% alcohol that's some bottle of beer. So, that was 6 beers each poured in 8 ounces. With the Porter and the Old Foghorn weighing me down the tour guy asked if anyone wanted another pour before he closed everything down- I asked for a return to the Summer so that I could start refreshed before meeting the girls for lunch.

Before I leave this entry though, I must bring up something else that took place whilst we were all tasting the beer. A gentleman next to me started talking to another Anchor employee who he apparently knew and started lambasting him for the lack of energy efficiency measures at the brewery, such as the use of incandescent lightbulbs throughout the brewery (the Anchor employee noted that Fritz isn't big on the light put out by the CFL), he then went on about how Sierra Nevada has solar panels, and does Anchor plan on installing solar panels, at which point the employee said, Look outside, how would solar panels help; it was overcast that day in San Francisco, as it is most days in San Francisco. After being harassed enough by Mr. Pat-Myself-On-The-Back, he then started asking the tour guy questions about their distribution and how much energy and carbon is used because they ship their beer around the world. Then he posits: How much better the world would be if we only consumed food and liquid from places within 150 miles of where we lived. The tour guy responded, Maybe, but I love my Scotch. Mr. Self-Satisfaction was having none of the snark and wondered if he could perhaps find a local maker of Scotch or drink something else that did not have as much evil carbon associated it with. Tour guy said Nope, he likes his scotch. I could do nothing but roll my eyes and sigh very loudly at the gall this person had to criticize Anchor Steam for providing a product that people wanted. Yes, god forbid that people outside of the Bay Area want Anchor Steam and that Anchor Steam wants to satisfy that demand. How dare Anchor Steam do that. I am so tired of listening to self-satisfied bay area people go on and on and on about how energy efficient they are, and how their carbon footprint is this or that (normally only after paying for a carbon offset to ease their own conscience). Nevermind that that the 150 mile limit may actually increase emissions and carbon, since large operations that truck in produce from far away is able to make up the carbon difference in volume; in other words, the local farm can bring in 200 to 2,000 pounds of produce from within 150 miles, but the large distributor can bring in 40,000 pounds of produce from within 1,000 miles, the carbon saved from the miles is offset by the volume of food brought in en masse. Course, that's only looking at the environmental aspect of the 150 mile limit, it says nothing about supporting local businesses or freshness or anything like that.

So Andrew not only got to taste some of San Francisco's own Anchor Steam, he also got to come into contact with a smug San Franciscan.

Ohhh, and one other thing about the tour: apparently it was new mother outing day, as there were 7 mothers carrying newborns on the tour, without dads. At the end of the tour they weren't shy about drinking the beer either.

Anyway, when in town during the week, I highly recommend taking the Anchor Steam brewery tour, but reservations are required. I mean it's 3 free beers, and good beer at that.