Full Steam Ahead

I recently learned that California has the distinction of having the most microbreweries of any state in our fine nation.  We love our craft beer, our weed, and our overpriced poke bowls. Therefore it seemed fitting to begin my journey into blogging by sampling the OG California beer, Anchor Steam from Anchor Brewing.  Anchor Brewing is California’s oldest brewery, with the original location dating back to 1896. The origins of the method used to brew Anchor Steam date back to the California Gold Rush of 1949.

While the true origins of the term “steam beer” have been lost to history, Anchor Brewing posits that  “steam” came from the fact that the brewery had no sufficient way to cool the boiling wort. The hot wort would be pumped up to immense, topless (wink wink) containers on the brewery’s roof, allowing the salty chilled air of the cerulean blue Pacific to bring down the wort’s temperature. Subsequently, the brewery would have a discernible cloud of steam around the roof, hence the moniker. 

Whenever I would see Anchor Steam in the store I dismissed it as a common-looking sort of lager, which is ironic because as my beer knowledge increased, I learned that AS is actually a style known as “California Common.”  Perhaps having had one too many bad knockoffs at Boston Beer Works turned me off from the style. But, I gave it a shot at the suggestion of a coworker. Well, color me delighted that I did!

I believe that beer, as with food, begins with a feast for the eyes.  Always pour into a glass and gaze at the beautiful colors that malt has to offer.  AS is an alluring shade of burnt amber and completely translucent. The carbonation was strong with this one, both present as rapidly moving bubbles in my glass, and as a malty rendition of the Charleston on my tongue.

At a respectable 4.9% this beer is a lovely session lager, leaving you wanting several more pints to quench the thirst of a hot California summer day. For those folks not into too much white head (haha head) the foam on my beer quickly dissipated, leaving only the faintest trails of lacing.

Why of course I use my hand to waft the aromas to my nose, why do you ask? *Cough Cough snob* Your olfactory senses will delight in notes of toasted biscuit sprinkled with caramel. Another waft presents with burnt sugar and sweet dulce de leche.  I found the mouthfeel to be smooth and velvety, like the fantasy I have where I bathe in the blood of the asshole who hit my car mirror this morning. It’s a drier sort of beer, but not astringent. It leaves one with a thirst for more, not because it is dry but because of the delightful feel.  Let your tongue feel like a twenty dollar hooker on rented satin sheets for the night will ya.

Now onto the flavor, oh the flavor! To best describe the sensation, take my hand and step with me into my time machine of earthly delights (tips hat to Bosch)

Picture yourself on a sunny California morning. The sunlight streams through the window of your little wooden prospecting shack nestled on the banks of the American river, deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  You are devouring a hearty breakfast of toasted wheat bread, every crunch filled bit dripping with luscious buttery goodness.

But wait, what goes! Your palate continues to be tickled as toasted biscuit melds seamlessly into dark cocoa and luscious burnt caramel. An alcoholic caramel hot chocolate never tasted so good! The golden colors and flavors of the caramel malt evoke dreams of that ever so hoped for glint of gold amongst the river water pebbles. To finish, we are presented with notes of a floral brightness and a fresh resiny pine that cleanses the palate like a breath of fresh air wafting through the evergreens of the mountain.

Final verdict, nothing common about it! Oh man, I crack myself up.

4/6 Grain Silos.