This will probably be surprising but of the dozens of breweries I’ve visited I’ve never once taken the opportunity to tour the facility. I’m uncertain whether it was reluctance or an obsession in reaching the tasting room/bar quicker but that all came to a screeching halt with a recent tour of the San Francisco landmark, and American craft beer legend, Anchor Brewing Company. The tour was courtesy of the amazing Jann and James Robinson—who’d won … Continue reading →
It’s the first day of December and of course that means it’s time to break out your Advent calendars, and here on The Brew Site it’s the annual Beer Advent Calendar time as well, one of my favorite blogging times of the year! Each day of December from the 1st through the 24th I reveal a new Christmas (or other appropriately-themed holiday or winter) beer in Advent calendar fashion. The very first Advent calendar beer of … Continue reading →
Today’s beer pick has appeared on the Beer Advent Calendar every year since I started: Anchor Christmas Ale (also known as Our Special Ale). This is the beer that established the modern Christmas beer tradition in American craft brewing: first introduced in 1975, this is a dark, spiced ale with a recipe that is different every year (and is always a closely guarded secret). The label changes each year as well, featuring a different tree: … Continue reading →
Every year for the Advent Beer Calendar I’ve made it a tradition to select Anchor Christmas Ale for one of the days, and this year is no exception. The revitalization of Anchor under Fritz Maytag is in many ways the start of the revitalization of the American craft beer movement, and their annual Christmas Ale—brewed to a different recipe and featuring a unique label every year since 1975—is the venerable “grandfather” of the seasonal beer … Continue reading →
Let’s start off our Big Beer Week reviews with a classic: Anchor Old Foghorn, the venerable Barleywine from one of America’s oldest craft breweries. Barleywine is one of my favorite styles of beer, and Anchor has been producing their Old Foghorn since 1975—I wrote “classic” above, and to my mind this beer sits in the pantheon of American Barleywines. The current bottling has a strength of 9.4% alcohol by volume (their site gives a range … Continue reading →
