I’m blanking on the name, but there was a brewery in the Russian River area north of San Francisco that predated Sierra Nevada. And it was a big influence on Sierra Nevada according to Brian Grossman’s autobiography.
Anchor Brewing is a lot more interesting historically. Founded in 1896 (or maybe 1871), was burned down several times, survived Prohibition, made beer, had poor quality control and distributed in only 30 bars, and was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1965. When Fritz Maytag, heir to the Maytag washer dynasty and a young Stanford graduate, liked the beer, heard the brewery was closing, and bought it. Turned it around, started bottling in 1971, and set the bar for “Steam” aka “California Common” beer that is still the definitive example of the brew.
Now, I’m not sure what legal loophole or grandfather clause allowed Anchor to be in business in those years, but Anchor Steam as it is now known has basically been around since 1971.
Speaking of high-ABV beers, the above-mentioned Union made a Strawberry Belgian Quad called “Under the Table” that was 13+ ABV! :eek:
I am in their “mug club”: you pay $100 and thereafter you get your beer in whatever mug you bring in = bigger for most people. I bought a 34 oz. mug on Amazon, which is 1 liter (so a little over two pints = 32 oz. per pour). A mug-ful of that would be like drinking 1 liter of wine all at once!
Now, the bar won’t pour ultra-high-ABV beers like that, in theory. But in reality, I got the bartender to pour me 2/3 of a mug of Resin from Sixpoint Brewery, which was on guest tap. And that is 9.1% ABV! The only reason it wasn’t a full mug was because I requested it to be 2/3, lol.
On my last tour of Europe (England, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy), the absolute best beer I had was a local French Brown (similar style to a Maredsouse).
So they have them - it’s just a case of looking. And that’s half the fun.
Depends on the person. One of my friends just spent three weeks in Germany. He says German beer is vastly overrated. 90% made from pils or wheat, which means it was like drinking Budweiser, Miller or Coors. Even with the 15-20 different beers he tried, he found the differences subtle and not like the wide variety in America
Why do you think I meant sophisticated? :dubious: Italian quisine is renowned for its simplicity, it’s a strange idea in the US that good food means fancy food.
Prior to prohibition, the nation was dotted with small breweries, some were good, I’m sure some were bad, but they were all different. After prohibition, there were only a few big breweries left so American beer all tasted the same. The nation’s palate was ruined for variances in what beer can taste like.
I’m a little late but IMO one factor is affluence. Starting in the 80’s people had enough disposable income to spend more money on beer. The rise of artisinal cheese has occurred over roughly the same period.
I’d guess that WW I and WW II prevented (or set back) the craft food industry and it wasn’t until the 80’s that economics allowed it.
Prohibition cannot be underestimated here, and should be a sobering example of how idiotic if perhaps well meaning legislation can be felt for a hundred years. It’s amazing. I don’t know how many breweries were shut down but it must have been thousands.
A similar effect was observed with coffee. Virtually every town of any size had a coffee importer/roaster/blender. Vacuum packaging and wartime needs intersected, “freeze dried” and marketing. Eventually Americans were left with a few huge conglomerates.
Anybody who thinks German beer is “over rated and a Pils or Hefe is like drinking Coors” really needs to see their doctor.
What I noticed was how reasonably priced it was. Admittedly the dollar was strong at the time, but a case of 24 (10 liters) was around eight bucks. They would even deliver.
Another surprising (to me anyway) was well respected German wine production was. France of course, has long had a reputation for wine but the Bosch are no slouches in this regard. Many people there tend to look down on beer drinkers as a class.
Also, in 1978, homebrewing became legal. I suspect that most, if not all craft brewing founders were homebrewers who expanded, as the big breweries had no interest in brewing much beyond light lagers.
Also, I think it took a few generations for American beer drinkers to no longer be conditioned to expect and want the standard American light lagers. I mean, I’d bet that men in my Dad’s generation (he’s about to turn 72), still default to Bud, Miller and Coors, if only because they don’t know any better, and are intimidated by the wide variety of odd-sounding beers and styles out there. Younger generations like myself got into the beer drinking world at a time when there were quite a few imports, and craft brewing was just starting. I turned 21 in 1993, and there were a few craft brews out there that we could get - Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams were the big ones. Not a lot of variety, but enough to know that the world of beer was bigger and more interesting than the big 3 breweries, and that we wanted to find out more.
