Blogs on Beer: Anchor Brewing Co.

Brewers’ Banter was originally created in attempt to share the great stories that are told by craft brewers everyday on their blogs. It also serves as a great guide to interesting beer-focused blogs that you should follow.

With so much history and a reputation for brewing excellence, Anchor Brewing’s blog is something any self-respecting craft beer aficionado should check out often. Many blogs tend to post event-related info that isn’t very useful after the fact or if you don’t live nearby, but the Anchor Brewing Blog is chock-full of evergreen information that tells the history of not only the San Francisco brewery, but of craft beer in general. Here are two posts that caught my eye.

Brewing Insights: Open Fermentation

In today’s modern brewing, fermenters are typically enclosed stainless steel tanks, wherein the entire process takes place. Carefully managed yeast strains are employed and temperatures are controlled. Before the advent of modern metals, beer was fermented in tanks or vats of various configurations, mostly made of wood. Some were lined with copper or otherwise sealed and all were either open to the air or vented for pressure relief. Some breweries, mostly Belgian, relied on wide, shallow, open fermenters to capture wild airborne yeast. Others left their fermenters open to facilitate cooling, Co2 venting, or to allow access for a variety of production processes and procedures. Read the full post>>

Say What? Says Who? Benjamin Franklin on Beer–or Not

Anchor historian Dave Burkhart debunks the most frequently misquoted and misattributed sayings about beer and San Francisco: “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

We at Anchor Brewing have no doubt as the truth of this statement. But of the author? Well, it simply wasn’t Benjamin Franklin. Read the full post>>

Andy Sparhawk

Andy Sparhawk, the Brewers Association's acting editor-in-chief for CraftBeer.com. Andy is a Certified Cicerone® and BJCP Beer Judge. He lives in Westminster, Colorado where he is an avid craft beer enthusiast. On occasion, Andy is inspired to write on his experiences with craft beer, and if they are not too ridiculous, you might see the results here on CraftBeer.com.

CraftBeer.com is fully dedicated to small and independent U.S. breweries. We are published by the Brewers Association, the not-for-profit trade group dedicated to promoting and protecting America’s small and independent craft brewers. Stories and opinions shared on CraftBeer.com do not imply endorsement by or positions taken by the Brewers Association or its members.