Anchor Brewing

Posted in Anchor Brewing, New Beers
Posted in Anchor Brewing, Seasonal Return

Anchor Christmas Ale marks its 42nd year

Anchor Christmas Ale

Anchor Christmas Ale is an annual tradition from the San Fransisco, California based Anchor Brewing. This year marks their 42nd release of the popular winter warmer. While the recipe and the artwork on the label are different every year, over 40 years of perfecting has made Anchor Christmas Ale a widely anticipated annual release. This year’s edition is no different.

This year’s Christmas Ale has a strong malt profile enhanced with wintry spices. The beer has a deep mahogany brown color with a creamy, tan head and boasts aromas of fruitcake, molasses, and fresh cut wood.  The beer tastes of a roasted caramel malt, with notes of spiced chocolate and nuts.  And it has a rich, smooth, and velvety mouthfeel. -Anchor Brewmaster Scott Ungermann

While each year brings innovation to the beer itself, half of the story is also in the ever evolving label. This year’s tree artwork is themed after the story of the “1000 Mile Tree,” a solitary pine discovered in 1869 in a barren landscape during the construction of the transcontinental railroad. The artist James Stitt also included a person sitting atop the “1000 Mile Tree” with a beer, “honoring an old legend that railway passengers sometimes attempted to climb the tree.”

Anchor Christmas Ale 2016 will be available from mid-November through mid-January. You can find it in 6-packs, 50.7oz. magnum bottles, and on draft in select locations.

Style: Winter Warmer
Availability: 6 packs, 50.7oz Bottles, Draft.
Release: November 2016

6.5% ABV

Posted in Anchor Brewing, Coming Soon, Headlines

A spin on a classic: Anchor Dry-Hopped Steam Beer debuts in September 

Anchor Dry-Hopped Steam Beer

Anchor Dry-Hopped Steam Beer is on the horizon from one of America’s oldest craft breweries.

The base beer for Anchor Dry-Hopped Steam Beer is Anchor Steam, for which the brewery is most well known for. The San Francisco based business has touted Anchor Steam since 1896, and is the only brewery allowed to call the style “Steam Beer.” Anchor trademarked the name in 1981. You’ll find it called California common elsewhere. Steam/Cali Common is brewed by fermenting lager yeast at warmer temperatures.

In a world full of hop choices, the brewery is giving the beer a bit of a new spin by dry-hopping this release; the final result having a stronger hop aroma then you’ve ever known from the classic Anchor Steam Beer.

San Franciso’s famous Anchor Steam brand beer is unique, for our brewing process has evolved over many decades and is like no other in the world. To give this classic brew a radically different traditional twist, we created Anchor Dry-Hopped Steam Beer. Made with its now special recipe, this brew is dry-hopped with a blend of new and traditional hops. The result weds the rich maltiness of Anchor Steam with the alluring fragrant happiness of our ales.

Anchor Steam brand derives its unusual name from he 19th century when “steam” seems to have been a nickname for beer brewed on the West Coast of America under primitive conditions and without ice. The word “steam” may have referred to the pressure of natural carbonation developing in the beers. Today the brewing methods of those days are a mystery, and for many decades Anchor alone has used the quant name “steam” for its unique beer.

 Anchor Dry-Hopped Steam Beer will debut in September in 12 ounce bottles and draft, through December, 2016.

Style: Steam Beer
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft. Sept – Dec.
Debut: September

5.1% ABV

Posted in Anchor Brewing, New Beers

Anchor Odeprot India Pale Ale

Anchor Odeprot India Pale Ale

Anchor Odeprot India Pale Ale

Posted in Anchor Brewing, Seasonal Return

Anchor Flying Cloud San Francisco Stout returns to Argonaut Series

Anchor Flying Cloud San Francisco Stout

Anchor Flying Cloud San Francisco Stout returns to the brewery’s lineup once again. Flying Cloud is an export stout, brewed stronger to hold up over a long journey. You’ll also remember it at Zymaster Release #3.

A ship and a journey is where Flying Cloud San Francisco Stout gets its name. In 1851, the Flying Cloud ship sailed from New York City around Cape Horn (the southern most part of Chile) to San Francisco in just 125 days, 21 hours. Let’s assume the beer made it all the way too.

The stouts savored in gold rush San Francisco were no ordinary ales. They were export stouts – dark, intense, high gravity brews created to survive the long voyage around Cape Horn. Inspired by this unique history, Flying Cloud San Francisco Stout is a Dublin-style brew made with English Maris Otter malt, two black malts, and flaked barley. Nugget and Golding hops provide a spicy, floral complement to the deep, dark chocolatey multi nice and dry finish. The average clipper took 125 days to sail from New York to San Francisco but not Flying Cloud, which, in 1851, made the trip and 89 days, 21 hours, anchor to anchor. No other ship sailed it faster until 1989. With it’s “extreme” design, it’s Capt. Josiah Creesy and his wife/navigator Eleanor, the Flying Cloud is an ideal symbol for this distinctly delicious brew.

The 235 foot Flying Cloud clipper ship was built in Boston, Massachusetts for $90,000 dollars. Anchor Flying Cloud San Francisco Stout will be available in 12oz bottles, and draft. (And will make it to the east coast if FAR less time.)

This release kicked off the brewery’s Argonaut Collection last year.

Style: Export Stout
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft
Return: March, 2016

7.4% ABV

Posted in Anchor Brewing, New Beers

Anchor Orange Splash Lager

Anchor Orange Splash Lager

Anchor Orange Splash Lager

Posted in Anchor Brewing, Headlines

Anchor Mango Wheat, a can potential

Anchor Mango Wheat

Anchor Mango Wheat looks to join a specialty series of cans from the San Francisco, California brewery.

The can design and layout (and beer, of course) started last year with Anchor’s Meyer Lemon Lager. (Note the similar artwork.) New Mango Wheat features mangos as the spotlight fruit, in a wheat beer base.

Anchor Mango Wheat will be a 12 ounce can offering. The brewery has not yet announced this offering.

Style: Wheat Beer (w/ Mangos)
Availability: 12oz Cans
Release: TBA

4.5% ABV