Anchor Brewing Company, San Francisco, CA
Old painted sign on the side of the Anchor Brewing Company, 1705 Mariposa Street, San Francisco, California. The Anchor Brewing Company began during the California Gold Rush when Gottlieb Brekle arrived from Germany and began brewing in San Francisco. In 1896, Ernst F. Baruth and his son-in-law, Otto Schinkel, Jr., bought an old brewery at 1431 Pacific Avenue and named it Anchor Brewery. The brewery burned down in the fires that followed the 1906 earthquake, but was rebuilt at a different location in 1907. The brewery continued operations into the late 1950s, but suffered heavily from the country's increasingly strong preference for the light lagers produced by the megabreweries. Anchor shut its doors briefly in 1959, but was bought and reopened the following year. By 1965, however, it was doing so poorly that it nearly closed again. Anchor's situation continued to deteriorate largely because the current owners lacked the expertise, equipment, and attention to cleanliness that were required to produce consistent batches of beer for commercial consumption. The brewery gained a reputation for producing sour, bad beer. In 1965, Frederick Louis "Fritz" Maytag III bought the brewery, saving it from closure. He purchased 51 percent of the brewery for several thousand dollars, and later purchased the brewery outright. It moved to this current location near Potrero Hill in 1979. During the 1980s Anchor Steam Beer began to achieve national notice and demand greatly increased, making it the first of the modern microbreweries. It is one of the last remaining breweries to produce California common beer, also known as Steam Beer, a trademark owned by the company. In 2010, the company was purchased by The Griffin Group, an investment and consulting company focused on beverage alcohol brands, and in August 2017, it was acquired by Japanese brewing giant Sapporo Breweries for $85 million.
Anchor Brewing Company, San Francisco, CA
Old painted sign on the side of the Anchor Brewing Company, 1705 Mariposa Street, San Francisco, California. The Anchor Brewing Company began during the California Gold Rush when Gottlieb Brekle arrived from Germany and began brewing in San Francisco. In 1896, Ernst F. Baruth and his son-in-law, Otto Schinkel, Jr., bought an old brewery at 1431 Pacific Avenue and named it Anchor Brewery. The brewery burned down in the fires that followed the 1906 earthquake, but was rebuilt at a different location in 1907. The brewery continued operations into the late 1950s, but suffered heavily from the country's increasingly strong preference for the light lagers produced by the megabreweries. Anchor shut its doors briefly in 1959, but was bought and reopened the following year. By 1965, however, it was doing so poorly that it nearly closed again. Anchor's situation continued to deteriorate largely because the current owners lacked the expertise, equipment, and attention to cleanliness that were required to produce consistent batches of beer for commercial consumption. The brewery gained a reputation for producing sour, bad beer. In 1965, Frederick Louis "Fritz" Maytag III bought the brewery, saving it from closure. He purchased 51 percent of the brewery for several thousand dollars, and later purchased the brewery outright. It moved to this current location near Potrero Hill in 1979. During the 1980s Anchor Steam Beer began to achieve national notice and demand greatly increased, making it the first of the modern microbreweries. It is one of the last remaining breweries to produce California common beer, also known as Steam Beer, a trademark owned by the company. In 2010, the company was purchased by The Griffin Group, an investment and consulting company focused on beverage alcohol brands, and in August 2017, it was acquired by Japanese brewing giant Sapporo Breweries for $85 million.