First published in BEER July 2006 as part of a page about beers from the USA available in the UK. See previous post for more beers from the USA.
ABV: 5.6 per cent
Origin: San Francisco, California, USA
Website www.anchorbrewing.com
The Anchor brewery of San Francisco has a special significance both in the US and worldwide as the surviving home of arguably the country’s only genuine pre-Prohibition native style, lager-ale hybrid Steam Beer.
The brewery dates from the 1850s, but was apparently on its last legs by 1965 when businessman and keen Steam Beer drinker Fritz Maytag bought in and started turning things round. Maytag ended up as sole owner, and both he and the brewery became beacons for the blossoming craft brewing movement.
Steam Beer is still a world classic, but its importance shouldn’t detract from the merits of Anchor’s other products, in particular this outstanding brew which pioneered porter brewing in the US when first launched in the early 1970s, at a time when the style was still near-extinct back in England.
The malt grist is a secret recipe but the brewery do admit to using Northern Brewer hops and water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, a flooded glacial valley in Yosemite national park.
The result is a very dark ruby, near black beer, with a thin but persistent fawn head. There’s a fruity blackcurrant malt aroma with some cream, liquorice and roast.
The palate is creamily rich but dry, with malted milk, cream toffee, date-like fruit, leather and a note of acidity, soon overlayed by spreading hops. A drying mix of hops and roast develops on a long finish with a charcoal sting, softened by malted milk and fruit syrup.
Truly one of the world’s great dark beers, and an unarguable demonstration of the achievement of US brewers.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/anchor-porter/48/
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