Anchor Celebrates 140 Years of Brewing

We thought our SF Beer Week was over with our Saturday activities. But we couldn’t turn down an invitation to Anchor Brewing’s 140th Anniversary party. So, Wednesday afternoon, I picked Merideth up from work and we were headed back north on Highway 101 to the City.

To commemorate the occasion, Anchor debuted a new brew at the party, Brekle’s Brown. Named after their first brewer, Gottlieb Brekle, the Brown Ale is all malt, single hop (Citra) and comes in at 6.1% ABV.

My first beer was a Liberty, so my first sip of Brekle’s Brown was a quick one as I passed Merideth her beer. My immediate thought was it’s Anchor Christmas without the spicing.

Finally with my own glass of Brekle’s Brown, I would retreat somewhat from my earlier, instantaneous assessment. Brekle’s Brown is a light-bodied, light hopped brew with a lot of malt and caramel notes. It would be a really great session beer if it was 4.1% ABV and not 6.1%.

The food for the evening was the four ingredients in beer themed. Water was Steamed Pork Buns. Yeast was Pretzels made with brewers yeast. Though very delicious, the one stretch was malt: Brekle’s Brown beer battered Diver Scallops with Malt Vinegar. The star was the hops dish: Brown Butter Financier Cake with Caramel Buttercream and Hazelnut Toffee. Citra hops were infused into the buttercream and it was heaven! The servers at that station didn’t get to know me by name, but they certainly got to know me by face.

Overall, another great evening at Anchor. Merideth even got a picture with Jane Cunningham, great granddaughter of Gottlieb Brekle. That picture and all the pictures from the evening are in the image gallery below.