For many years I have babbled on, and at great length, about the terrible way we train our young people in the management of what is clearly one of our country’s greatest problems, that of youthful alcohol consumption.
1965 Fritz Maytag buys San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Co., brews a genuine California steam beer. 1976 New Albion, Sonoma, CA (1976-83) Prinz Brau, Anchorage, AK (1976-1979) was small (10,000 bbl capacity), but not strictly a craft brewer. Prinz Brau was the product of German brewery Oetker’s attempt to brew German beer under the Reinheitsgebot in... View Article
The year 1980 was pretty much the real beginning of what has become the craft beer revolution here in this country. Ken Grossman, owner, founder and CEO of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. of Chico, CA, plans to mark 2010 with a year-long celebration, in cooperation with Fritz Maytag and his San Francisco Anchor Brewery. To... View Article
At age 83, I remain the only person from my peer group who can still drink alcoholic beverages. My doctor knows better than to tell me I can no longer imbibe my favorite libations. He knows better, but after my heart surgery last January, I know he wouldn’t hesitate to proscribe them if he thought... View Article
No discussion of European beer is possible without recognizing that all of the distinctive classes of modern beer made around the world originated in Europe.
Whenever I visit the San Francisco Bay area, I always make sure to have some draught Anchor Steam Beer. This is California’s monumental contribution to America’s great beer heritage, and a cornerstone brew in our ongoing craft beer revolution. California common beer, as the style is known, remains one of my favorite styles, but finding... View Article
The Sake Handbook by John Gauntner, revised second edition 2002: Tuttle Publishing, Boston, MA. ISBN 0-8048-3425-3. Gauntner is probably the most prolific non-Japanese sake writer, although he lives in Japan. He publishes a free monthly Sake World Newsletter on the internet. The Book of Sake: A Connoisseur’s Guide by Philip Harper, 2006: Kodansha Intl., Tokyo,... View Article
Sake is a beer. Yes, that’s right, a beer, because it is made from grain: rice and water are the sole ingredients, unless one counts the fungus (Aspergillus oryzae) that changes the nature of the starches in rice from unfermentable to fermentable. This fungal action takes the place of sprouting the grain’s seeds, as is... View Article
Oh, wait. Not five-cent beer. What we need is five percent beer, although I actually drank what may have been the last five-cent beer ever offered. That was in about 1955, when a local Seattle tavern offered beer in a schooner-shaped jigger for a nickel! Great fun at the time, and one such beer was... View Article
