I've got a massive soft spot for Anchor Brewing. I love their Steam Beer - it reminds me of a passage in wine writer Hugh Johnson's memoirs. Talking about the difference between new world and old world wines, he notes that big new world wines are like being in a room with lots of printed fabrics - curtains, sofas, wall hangings - and everywhere you look, there is another big print. It's all a bit unrelenting, overpowering, suffocating. Old world wines, he claims, are like being in the same room, but then you look out of a window and glimpse something beautiful, something just out of the edge of your peripheral vision, and then it's gone. When you look for it again, you can't find it, but you know it was there.That's how Anchor Steam Beer makes me feel. There's enough flavour in there that it's obviously a tasty beer, full of earthy, spicy Northern Brewer hops and a dab of caramelly malt, but always at the periphery there is something a little different. It's almost as though I'm actually projecting flavours into the beer - the flavours are familiar, but they are subtly changed by the weather, my mood, or what I had for lunch a few hours ago. In fact, now I write this, the phrase that John Peel used to describe his fascination with The Fall springs to mind: "Always the same, but always different". Either that, or there's massive batch variation, but such is my love and respect for Anchor beers, I can't truly entertain that as an option.
So news that Anchor has been sold came as a bit of a surprise, but I'm enough of a softie to believe that the beers are such icons in the history of American craft brewing (and perhaps even globally) that they are beyond change. One thing is sure; it is either the making or breaking of the brand. Either the beers will carry on unchanged, and the brewery will continue prosper in perpetuity, or the beers will change, and the love and support that Fritz Maytag has spent decades building up will evaporate overnight. For obvious reasons, I'm hoping for the former - the latter is not an option.
Thanks to Rick Kempen at Bier & Co for the bottle of Humming Ale.
Do you know who has bought them? Are we lucky enough for an AB-Bev or Coors? Someone that will flog the grog for tuppence in Tesco?
ReplyDeleteThe Griffin Group investment company, creators of Skyy vodka and investors in BrewDog. For the time being, you'll have to do without.
ReplyDeleteI notice from an American site that there are vague "plans" to brew Brew Dog beers in the US. Not sure in my knackered state what to make of that.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/2c479ty
I hadn't heard that, but it makes sense in the context of Stone talking about opening a brewery in Europe.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the news story link - I'll embed it here
I enjoyed Humming Ale when I drank it in San Francisco. I like their beers (except the Bock, that's not for me) but the one which I love the most is Old Foghorn - that's a great beer in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with you about Anchor being the founding father of US craft brewing. Even if a couple of others were there before them, these are the ones who have lasted the longest.
I think it will be a positive move. I am a fan however the last lot to come in to us had some ester issues, a big solventy character that was obscuring hop and malt aromas and certainly not representing the beers as they can be.
ReplyDeleteMark - does it sort of tally with my description? The bitterness was big to me - lmost overwhelming
ReplyDeleteKieran - I wonder what that was about? AFAIK Anchor are a very clean, precise brewery - it would seem odd for them to turn out substandard beer.
I didn't find the bitterness to be that big, as far as I can remember (but then my tastebuds had been battered by IBUs!). The keg stuff I had seemed nicely balanced, honeyed and then with the Nelsons at the end - it was also the beer someone recommended to me when I said I wanted something lighter and lower in alcohol.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I wonder if the aromatics took a beating in transit? It was shipped in winter and kept refrigerated in my possession, but it did cover a lot of miles to get to me. Only one way to check - a trip to Anchor!
ReplyDeleteA friend had noted the same issue at the brewery 2 years ago. The solventy description is perhaps a touch harsh, more an edge of acetate.
ReplyDeleteKieran - thanks for that. As I say, the issue of bottle variation (which is what I meant, rather than batch variation) had occurred to me, but I've heard that Anchor are pretty scrupulous with their hygiene practices.
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