Dude Where’s My Steam Beer?
April 27th, 2010 by Mick WilcoxWarning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/psblogs/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
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As I was perusing the Internet today I came across this post http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/26/BUOD1D55P1.DTL . If you don’t feel like following the link it basically says that Fritz Maytag has sold Anchor Brewing to a pair of investors that want to preserve the brand yet expand its market share.
Is this possible can you preserve a brand yet change it? I love Anchor Steam. I like to think of it as a “wedding beer”. You can take a keg to a wedding and ever single beer drinker will be happy. Craft beer drinks like it and yellow beer drinkers will think they have elevated themselves. The only problem is I know of only one place that I can find it on tap, The Treehouse Cafe, thank you Arny.
Why is this beer special? Well in America it is the only beer that can be called a steam. Anchor trademarked the name back in 1981 and has succesfully defeneded their trademark every where but Canada. I believe Shakespeare said it best “A lilly that festers smells not so sweet as a weed”. You can call it steam but it’s not.
What is Steam Beer? It’s the same as a California Common. A beer brewed using lager yeasts fermented at ale temperatures. But the romance of the beer comes from the story. Back in the day Anchor didn’t have a traditional way to chill the wort indoors so they had to pump it into shallow bins on the roof of the brewery and use the winds of the pacific to cool it. And of course while it cooled there would be huge billows of steam coming off the brewery. That’s the story I heard, and I am sticking with it. I know some brewers like to think that it has to do with letting steam of the boil due to carbon dioxide build up but YAAAWWWNNNN…wheres the romance in that?
If you haven’t tried it, try it. If its been awhile get it. It’s the real deal.
Tags: Anchor Brewing Co., Treehouse Cafe
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
April 27th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
I grew up on the Steam!