SF part 2

Friday after waking up in a little bit of a haze, from LaTrappe the night before we headed to Anchor Brewing Company for what turned out to be a very, very special tour. This was not the first time I had been to the brewery, in fact this was the 4th and it began with the regular tour along with a rather large mass of tourists and otherwise and we saw the normal operations. To see those big beautiful copper tuns, and those large shallow cool ships where they pump the wort to ferment their famous steam beer is such a thing of beauty. While there are a lot of very cool small breweries in the US, this is to me one of the most important. If you have not read the story you should and you can by clicking here for the website. Fritz Maytag whose family has been made famous by both washing machines and that superb blue cheese took a chance in the mid 60's with a little brewery that was about to close and over 40 years later the brewery remains stronger than ever. Compared to the Dunedin Brewery where I work it is a very big place, but compared to other breweries that are considered "micro or craft" breweries this place is very small and the staff many of whom have been around for 20+ years at least make up a lot of it's tradition. As word has it Fritz has a lot to do with this too, still physically being at the brewery 4 to 5 days out of the week. After the tour was over, the group gathered back to in the tasting room for the customary tasting of all of the available Anchor beers available and this is where our tour got very sweet! I had arranged our tour through an industry acquaintance who has had a relationship with the brewery for almost 20 years, while I was hoping to see a little bit more than everyone else what I ended up getting to see still blows my mind!

Kendra came out to meet us in the tasting room, and proceeded to take us (after we all filled up our beers, mine with some very fresh Liberty Ale) down stairs and in the depths of the brewery where they keep their 3 very small copper pot stills. Anchor has been distilling since 1993 and produces 2 different types of gin (London style and Holland style or "genever") and 3 different Whiskies all made from a 100% Rye mash. The stills were beautiful to see, and the operation is still very small with a tiny footprint. The varieties of the whiskey were not around since they are so short on it due to it's popularity but we were able to try the genever which was absolutely wonderful. After this we headed back up to the brewery to have another half pint and then it was on to explore Fritz's other passion, San Francisco's only winery York Creek Winery. The winery is across the street in what used to be a soy sauce factory, we met up with Tom the winemaker and learned a little bit about the winery. Apparently Fritz had owned the land and grown grapes for years but sold them off to other wineries, even to this day he still sells most of the yield from each harvest to other wineries but what he keeps he turns into some very fine wine! We sampled directly from the barrels, two I remembered to write down that we tried were the MXB and the Estate Cabernet both from 07's harvest. I know this is supposed to be a beer blog but these wines were very enjoyable so if you do like to enjoy a little break from beer every once in a while I suggest seeking them out. They ship directly to a number of states and might be distributed in your area. In Florida which is my area they are currently looking for the right fit in a distributor but I hope they make it out our way soon. The wife especially liked them, which always earns me a few brownie points to come home with a good bottle of wine while shopping for the beers I am after at my local liquor store.. All in all our day at Anchor was one of the coolest brewery tour experiences I have had, and I have been lucky enough to get some really special tours in quite a few breweries. The tradition and the love that the employees have for the brewery and their part in what it has become I think has to be one of the biggest aspects of my feelings towards this amazing place..

More to come.. Toronado and Magnolia oh boy!!

Cheers!