Compiled by Mike Retzlaff
The start of California Common or Steam Beer began during California’s Gold Rush in 1849. Steam beer breweries sprung up in many communities besides San Francisco; pretty much anywhere there were enough thirsty people to support a brewery.
In 1852, a German brewer, Gottlieb Breckle arrived in San Francisco with his wife and young son. Where he worked at that time is unknown.
In 1871, Breckle bought an old beer & billiards saloon on Pacific Street for $3,500 and converted it into a brewery. He operated Golden City Brauerei until 1896 when he sold it to Ernst F. Baruth and his son-in-law, Otto Schinkel, Jr. They renamed the brewery Anchor Brewery.
In 1906, tragedy reared its ugly head. Ernst Baruth died suddenly. Two months later, the San Francisco earthquake came to town and left the brewery destroyed. The next year, 1907, just as the new brewery was opening just south of Market St, Otto Schinkel was run over by a streetcar. Two more German brewers (Joseph Kraus & August Meyer) and a liquor store owner (Henry Tietjen) stepped in to keep the business running.
In 1920, the 18th Amendment became the law of the land. Regular brewing ceased. Rumor has it that “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” became a normal state of affairs. The Volstead Act was not popular most anywhere in the country; the West coast was still largely the wild west and all but the most blatant offenders were ignored.
In April of 1933, after 13 years of Prohibition, the 21st Amendment was repealed which brought back good beer and Joe Kraus started brewing Anchor Steam beer again; at least out in the open. The following February, the brewery burned down. (Brewery fires were a regular fact of life in those days.) With a new partner, Joe Allen, they moved the brewery into an old brick building. Kraus died in 1952 and Allen kept the brewing going until 1959 when he shut it down.
In 1960, just under a year later, Lawrence Steese bought the brewery, reopened, and kept Joe Allen on as brewmaster.
By 1965, Steese was ready to shut it down again. This time, Fritz Maytag, then a grad student at Stanford University and an heir to the Maytag appliance company, sold off some of his stock in Maytag Corp. and bought a controlling share of the Anchor Brewery.
In 1971, Anchor was bottling Steam beer and distributing it. By 1975, the brewery was also producing Anchor Porter, Anchor Liberty Ale, Old Foghorn Barleywine, and the special Christmas Ale.
By 1977, Anchor was producing the 5 beers with 12 employees and had outgrown the old facilities. Fritz was looking for new quarters. In 1979, he purchased an old Coffee Roasting building on Mariposa St. on Potrero Hill and moved in.
In 1993, Anchor started distilling in-house with a pot still; the first brewery in the country to do so.
In 2010, Fritz Maytag announced his eminent retirement. He sold the business to Keith Greggor and Tony Foglio.
In 2017, Anchor Public Taps, a tap room facility across the street from the brewery, was opened. The regular beers along with experimental beers were served. The same year, the brewery was sold to Sapporo, USA with their vow to keep the business in San Francisco and preserve its tradition and legacy.
In 2023, the company announced that the iconic “Christmas Ale will not be produced this year. ” Soon after, it was announced that national distribution was being curtailed. The rat everyone could already smell was revealed when they quit brewing and announced plans to finish packaging the remaining stocks of beer in the tanks. That should happen by the end of July 2023.
The move is attributed in part to the Covid 19 pandemic and partly on business trends. Sales started lagging back in 2016. The facility is to be liquidated; hopefully someone will buy it and keep it going.
Anchor Brewing Co. is a true icon of American brewing. It is the brewery that started the Craft Brewing Industry in this nation. It is the brewery that maintained the Steam Beer style.
UPDATE – The Billionaire founder/CEO of Chobani Yogurt announced on May 31, 2024, that Anchor Brewing Company now has a new owner. Hamdi Ulukaya is Kurdish and grew up on a dairy farm in eastern Turkey. After moving to the US to attend a university in upstate NY, he opened a small feta cheese factory in 2002. He then founded Chobani in 2005 looking to recreate the wholesome Greek yogurt from his childhood. The company has done well and has expanded beyond yogurt to milk, creamers and other drinks.
A spokesman for Ulukaya stated that he is impressed with things that have a rich history such as San Francisco and Anchor Brewing Company. It is his aim to restore Anchor to the prominent position it deserves.
Crescent City Brew Talk 