• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

California Through My Lens

California Travel, Food, Hiking & Road Trips

  • Start Here
  • Explore
    • Beaches
    • Bizarre
    • Caves
    • Food
    • Hikes
    • Historical Structures
    • Natural Wonders
    • Waterfalls
  • Drive
    • El Camino Real
    • Highway 395
    • LA to Las Vegas
    • Pacific Coast Highway
    • Route 66
  • National Parks
    • Channel Islands
    • Death Valley
    • Joshua Tree
    • Lassen Volcanic
    • Pinnacles
    • Redwoods
    • Sequoia & Kings Canyon
    • Yosemite
  • Cities
    • Los Angeles
    • Palm Springs
    • Sacramento
    • San Diego
    • San Francisco
  • Resources
    • Day Trip Ideas
    • Road Trip eBooks
    • Hotels
    • My Favorite Travel Products
    • Travel Videos
  • Browse By …
    • Map Of Locations
    • Cities
    • Counties
    • National Parks
    • State Parks

Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco

Last Modified: December 20, 2019

0shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

If you follow my blog, you know I love visiting places with unique California history.  While California has a lot of historic breweries, Anchor Brewing Company has been high on my list for a long time. This brewery has been hard for me to check off as it is in San Francisco and often has a 6-month wait to schedule a tour during popular months. All that to say, I was finally able to check it out, and it was worth the wait!

Anchor Steam 2

Details

  • Tour is free, but you need reservations, and you need to get them in advance.
  • Two tours a day, but plan about two hours for the tour and any samplings you do.
  • I wrote this in 2015, so some of the information may have changed.

Anchor Steam 7

When we arrived at the brewery for our 10 AM tour, I was blown away by the size. It’s crazy to see how much San Francisco real estate the brewery takes up. We checked in for the tour and waited in the impressive tap room for it to begin.

The Tap Room

Anchor Steam 8

The taproom had a lot of fun memorabilia on the history of the company and was a very open and welcoming place to relax. We met our tour guide Bobby, who was great and headed into the brewery.

Anchor Steam 4

History

Read the full history on their site but here is a small synopsis:

 Gottlieb Brekle bought an old beer-and-billiards saloon on Pacific Street near Russian Hill for $3,500, transforming it into the brewery that, twenty-five years later, would be renamed, Anchor. Prohibition effectively shut Anchor down in 1920. There may have been a few “activities” during Prohibition and the era of bootlegging. Still, there is no record of Anchor Brewery doing anything—legal or illegal—during this time, other than waiting with the rest of San Francisco for the return of Anchor Steam Beer.

Anchor Steam 16

A young Stanford grad named Fritz Maytag learned that the makers of his favorite beer were soon to close their doors forever. Despite its primitive equipment and financial condition, Fritz rushed to buy 51% of the historic little San Francisco brewery —for a few thousand dollars—rescuing Anchor from imminent bankruptcy. After 45 years, Fritz Maytag, having inspired thousands of craft brewers, announces his retirement with the sale of Anchor Brewing to Keith Greggor and Tony Foglio. Anchor’s new owners make plans to preserve and expand the iconic brand’s operations and cement its position as a leader in craft brewing and artisan distilling.

The Tour

Anchor Steam 9

As soon as you start the tour, you are greeted with the three big copper vats that process the beer. These things are so awesome and the highlight of the tour as they are both beautiful and historic. When you see stuff about Anchor Brewing online, these vats are always what you see.

Anchor Steam 10

From there, you proceed to the massive pools of beer where the beer is fermenting, I believe. It’s as big as a swimming pool, and there are four of them.

Anchor Steam 12

All along this tour, there are rooms with all sorts of different purposes from storing beer to cooling it down, and they appear to be notched out of the long hallway you walk down.

Anchor Steam 13

One of these rooms was the hops closet, which was a room full of hops. There were many different types of hops all laid out in this room like a farm.

Anchor Steam 14

After that, we proceeded down into the chilling area where the beer sits, gets hopped, and gets the CO2 put back into it. Outside of the cooling zone, it was fun to see the crazy system of conveyor belts where the boxes of beer were moved around above your head, kind of like a scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Anchor Steam 19

From there, we proceeded up to the bottling line, and that process was seriously amazing. It had bottle washing, filling, and label stamping all as fast as you can imagine. They process an insane amount of beer down here each day.

Anchor Steam 1

After that, the tour finishes, and you head back up to the taproom for the tasting.

Anchor Steam 5

It is crazy how much beer you can taste for free here after the tour if that is your thing. They give everyone 4 oz pours of all 8 of their beers. It is a relaxed atmosphere where you can interact with the workers and just hang out and ask questions. They also have cheap merchandise, which is refreshing to see as so many breweries charge a crazy amount to buy any souvenirs.

All in all, Anchor Brewery is one of California’s best. The people are fantastic, and the tour is historic and fun. I highly recommend it if you can get on a tour, and even if you do not drink beer, you will enjoy seeing this unique part of San Francisco history.

Filed Under: Northern California Tagged With: featured, San Francisco, San Francisco County

Interested in supporting this blog?

This blog is simply a hobby and labor of love for me. If you have enjoyed the posts consider sharing it with your friends. I want as many people as possible to explore this state and you can help by letting them know about all of the great spots!

Join the Newsletter

Subscribe for the four day welcome series and to get the latest content every month.

    We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

    About JoshMc

    Thanks for checking out the blog, I am happy to be sharing my adventures with you! You can get to know me by reading my about me, which includes a video and additional information on the site, myself and my full disclosure. Also, follow along on Twitter here or read all of my posts on this blog here.

    Primary Sidebar

    About

    Josh from California Through My Lens I'm a travel junkie strapped down to one state, focused on seeing as much of it as I can and encouraging others to do the same. More about me.

    Popular Posts

    The Big List of Strange, Fun & Unique Attractions in Southern California
    Pacific Coast Highway: Where to Stop on Your Road Trip
    Top Hiking Trails in Southern California
    Fun Stops on the Drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas
    24 Things to do in Downtown LA
    17 Things to do in Lake Tahoe
    Donner Pass, Summit Tunnel Hike: Old Abandoned Railroad

    Categories

    Other Resources


    Footer

    Search the site

    Additional Information

    Privacy Policy

    About Us

    Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Coronavirus February 2021 Update: Please note that some information in the posts may have changed and some places may be closed.