PNW Trip Part II: Anchor Brewing Company

Before we left San Francisco I made it a point to get in a visit at Anchor Brewing Company. If all of the microbreweries in the United States were a family, Anchor would be considered the grandfather. In fact, the (now former) owner of Anchor, Fritz Maytag might just be the first real champion of craft beer in America. Anyways, I booked my tour several weeks in advance of the trip as various sites online stated that they filled up early.



The tour lasted about an hour, as its still a pretty small operation despite its wide distribution and success. My tour group got to see the all-copper brewing operation, the cold cellar and the bottling line area.



Wish I could have one of these at home. I don't think I've ever seen a copper brew kettle like this up close. It really makes you think of the Sam Adams Utopias bottle.



Tour guide giving us the 411. The most interesting factoid we learned was that during the 1989 earthquake in SF, Anchor had their famous Steam Beer brewing in the tanks. The power at the brewery went out and the beer sat in the kettle for awhlie before power could be restored. They continued the brew and found that it came just slightly different than their usual Steam Beer. They decided to commemorate the beer by bottling the entire run with the label upside-down.



Above the tasting bar you will see quite a few bottles. What you're looking at is a bottle of every single Christmas Ale Anchor has brewed since they started brewing it in 1975. That's one helluva vertical.



We got to sample 5 of Anchor's offerings: their flagship Steam Beer, Porter, Old Foghorn Barleywine, Liberty Ale and the newly-bottled Humming Ale.



Anyone visiting San Francisco should really make a point to go to Anchor. It feels like the mecca of microbrews that every beer geek should worship at. Just keep in mind its nearly required to book your tour early.



As I mentioned above, Anchor was recently sold to a group thats known for marketing Sky Vodka. While its been said this group has plans to expand the brewery, they've also stated they'll keep the roots of what makes Anchor a great brewery. My opinion? If they can keep it great and experiment more on top of that? I'm all for it.

PNW Trip Part I: New Belgium Ranger IPA

Back in early April, the girlfriend and I took a trip out west to road trip up the Pacific Coast from San Francisco all the way to Seattle. Of course, while we were planning the trip I tried to sneak in as many brewery/brewpub visits as possible. Consider this the prologue to the more in-depth bloggings about the trip.

The first day we arrived in San Fran was a bit of a whirlwind with trying to cram in as many touristy things as possible (none of which were beer-related). It only occurred to us at the end of the day that it would be nice to get some beer to bring up to the hotel room to sip on before hitting the hay. I quickly whipped out my trusty iPhone and used the Find Craft Beer app to find a place right around the corner from our hotel with a decent selection.



We came away with a 6 pack of New Belgium Ranger IPA. This is probably not all that interesting to readers west of Pennsylvania, but for this NY/NJ beer blogger, New Belgium beers are hard to come by. The beer itself was good, not great. It seemed to have a much hoppier aroma whereas the taste provided only a slightly bitter, more citrusness to it. Yet it was still a great way to end a long day of seeing San Francisco's best.

Stay tuned for Part II.

Brewdog Tactical Nuclear Penguin

Back in January I purchased what was then the world's strongest beer, Brewdog Tactical Nuclear Penguin. The question I was left with when it arrived was when in the hell to open a ~$60 12oz beer. Some time passed and TNP fell to the world's third strongest beer. Fast forward to April when the girlfriend and I had a housewarming for our new apartment in Jersey City. I figured this was as good as an occasion as any to pop this 32 percenter.



I ended up splitting it with my two homebrewing buddies Jeff and Tim. This was definitely a good idea because surprise surprise, this baby packs a punch. As you can see there was little to no head when we poured it, but it did have a nice dark brownish-red appearance to it. The aroma hits you hard with a scotch whiskey smokiness that is pretty inviting.



The most interesting thing about this beer (if you can really even call it that) is that its surprisingly drinkable. For its off-the-wall ABV, its really a good sipper. Is it worth the exorbitant price tag? For a one time thing, I'd say yes. Would I spend that much on it again? Probably not, but mainly because you can get a great amount of other craft beer in a much larger quantity for the cost.


smells like $60!

Oskar Blues GUBNA Imperial IPA

Hey all, its been awhile. I've been traveling a bit and then on top of that I've been busy with the full-time (non-beer) job. But I'm back! And I'm going to be redeeming myself. First with a series of back-logged posts, then with a chronicling of my journeys through the Pacific Northwest, followed by a post about my Dark Lord Day excursion. Lets not get ahead of ourselves though..



First up a brief photo-log of the newest canned offering by the gents at Oskar Blues, the GUBNA Imperial IPA. Hoppy beers in a can aren't new. Dale's Pale Ale packs a pretty decent hop-punch and is one of my go-to summer BBQ beers. Here's how Oskar Blues describes the GUBNA:

Emphasizing that complexity of character can arise from simple elements, this ale is made with 3 malts and 1 hop. Its light amber color and slightly spicy malt character are derived from the use of German Dark Munich Malt and Rye Malt respectively. North American 2-row barley combines with the other grains to lay the foundation for the hop onslaught to come. Summit hops are used exclusively in the boil for bitterness, flavor and aroma but it doesn’t end there. Post-fermentation dry hopping allows the 10% ABV monstrosity to gently coax the citrus rind and grapefruit aroma to join the 100 IBUs already present. This beer will greet you with a pungent citrus blast, provide a spicy yet round middle and finish with a brisk, clean bitterness.

The GUBNA comes in 4 packs and at 10%, it certainly would pay not to drink 6 of these in one sitting. I highly recommend you seek this one out as its one of (if not THE) hoppiest beer I've ever had in a can. Drink the first one from a glass. Then drink the second one out of the can. Yes its taboo. But its fun too.

Even More Barcade Photos

I've just been oozing photos from Barcade lately. With its low lighting and many arcade games, who knew it would be a great beertography spot?





Yet again, I'd like to speculate about the owners of Barcade opening a similar space in Jersey City. I've been scouring the web looking for clues. So far I've found this and this tweet by WiredJC that seemingly got no response. Hmmm.....