Raise your Anchor!!

You may have been it Delicious Heights ,It's about a1/2 a mile west of Trap Rock and has about 20 taps.

 

"Annoying"? Yes. "Pointless"? No, at least, owner Maytag had several points when he developed that code. First, it is obviously a mechanical coding device, which "punches" the code into the reverse side of label before being being put on the bottle. It is not a dot matrix, computerized mechanism. As such, Maytag wanted to devise a code that used as few digits/letters as possible, and he got one with only 3 characters.

Maytag also did not believe that the age of the beer on the shelf was as important for consumer to know as other factors. ""We believe in competing on the basis of the taste of our beer, not its age. "We don't go out of our way to tell everyone how old it is." [as he told The Wall Street Journal in “The Search for Fresh Beer”, Jan. 28, 2006] As also noted on Anchor's FAQ and on their case packaging, Anchor requests that their beers be refrigerated and that, at least, on the retail level is routinely ignored. Which does make knowing the bottling date more important.

Of course, many of us disagree with Maytag, and, to his credit, his website did explain the code at the time of his statement - cached version from that era.

Contrary to popular beer geekery's mythology, there were many other beer styles brewed in the US when Maytag bought into Anchor in the mid-1960s. Maytag himself spoke of, and supposedly, modeled some of his beers, on the ales brewed by Ballantine. In addition, porters, bocks, all-malt lagers, dark "Bavarian" lagers, IPAs, cream ales, golden ales, stock ales, even the occasional (and, often, draught-only) stout and sparkling ale, etc., were still being brewed. Sure, they were dying out. Blame your fathers and grandfathers for that. I know I did my part trying to help them survive.

 

You are lucky. That was my favorite thing about being in California. Craft beer was relatively cheap out there versus the east coast.

 

Found it out. Chimney rock. Thanks for hangin in there while I had a two day long brain fart.

 

One of the stores I go to had some variety 12 packs of Anchor that I wanted to try. Unfortunately they were at Room Temp, and there was no way to tell how old those packs really were.

 

I definitely can't complain! Every time I go to the Midwest I'm blown away at how cheap beer is there as well.

 

Anchor Porter all day, I lump it in with Eddy Fitz and Founders. California Lager and Christmas beer are nice too.

 

Anchor always tops my personal list of "under-appreciated" brews.

 

Why don't I drink more Anchor?

• I don't buy sixers as a general rule
• Few of their beers have ever been seen by me in a bomber
• They are seldom on draft where I go.

That being said, I respect their beer and plan on visiting the brewery next time I'm in SF.

 

I love Anchor, easily one of my favorite breweries. Its awesome that they just do their own thing. The fact that I have yet to see a session IPA is proof of that.

Anchor Steam has been one of my go-to beers for a long time, very unique and as said before he porter is fantastic. Very much an English style porter, which is always a welcome change from some of the more hop forward american offetings

 

I find on the east coast the beers often don't taste fresh and this is somewhat odd IMO because they are pasteurized. I don't think the process really helps the palate or maybe even the freshness. (In other words I wonder if oxidation is really delayed much by the process.) I have to ask myself why most other craft beers, for example, SNPA, can be distributed as far afield but taste better with just a basic filtration. On draft in San Francisco, all the Anchor Beers are great, the flash process for kegged beer probably affects it minimally and you get a rich taste. One of the great experiences of my life was drinking a SNPA and then Anchor Porter on draft at Tommy's Joynt on Geary.

 

I like (or liked) Anchor a lot, but I've gotten trace diacetyl from more than one of their newer beers in recent years. Not my thing at all.

 

Their Old Foghorn and Liberty Ale are swell. Haven't tried anything else yet, I do have their Porter here though.

 

I like their Porter, my recollection is that it is not overly "roasty" like many newer Porters are. That's why I like it, it's not "roasty" to the nth degree.

 

I love Anchor, so fanboy away. They've always had a special place in my heart, for a number of reasons, and every couple of years I'll make the loooonnnnggg trip across town to visit them. I'm a little sad that they now charge ($15!) for their tour and the tasting afterwards.

Their Lager has no reason to be as good as it is, and I discovered it's ridiculously good. A great addition to the Anchor family!

 

Love California Lager and Humming Ale (hard to find now in the fall though).
Went on their (free) tour 3 years ago when I was out in SF and it was freaking awesome! What a first class establishment! Can't wait to go again some day.

 

Didn't know they started charging. Doesn't surprise me though. I drank like 8 x 6 oz samples, got a cool poster, and got a great tour all for free. Doesn't really sound like a good business decision.

 

Funny. Two of the reasons I do buy Anchor. Don't buy bombers as a general rule. Love six packs.

Porter and Old Foghorn are great and what I typically get from them. Porter for a great, almost tootsie roll like taste. Less roasty, more chocolaty. Old Foghorn whenever I want an English style Barleywine. Is it the greatest, most mind-blowing Barleywine? Certainly not. But, it's a fantastic beer at an outstanding price. Same reason I buy SN Bigfoot when I want an American style.

 

I like everything of theirs I've had. I just don't like drinking six of the same beer in a row. Too much of the same thing.

 

Yeah I hear ya. Just typically won't stomach the bomber price per ounce myself, save for a select few truly outstanding ones. Anyways, off topic.

To Anchor, drinking delicious history!