Scott Ungermann, Brewmaster at Anchor Brewing joins me to discuss the history of one of America’s oldest small breweries.
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Topics in This Week’s Episode (40:09)
- This week I welcome Scott Ungermann, Brewmaster at Anchor Brewing, which is one of the oldest small breweries in the United States.
- We discuss a bit about Scott’s background which brought him to Anchor brewing around 1987 for a tour, and led to him starting home brewing.
- Later he attended UC Davis and worked 18 years at Annheiser-Busch before joining Anchor Brewing as brewmaster in 2014.
- We start with a bit of the history of Anchor Brewing which started during the California Gold Rush. The current “Anchor Brewing” name dates back to 1896
- Anchor was one of the few small breweries to survive prohibition as well as industry consolidation in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
- We talk about the 1980’s when both Scott and I were introduced to Anchor Stem Beer.
- Scott discusses Anchor Steam beer which was preserved by Anchor and is now known widely as the “California Common” beer style. We also talk about how steam beer is still fermented in open fermenters.
- Scott provides some advice for those looking to create the perfect steam beer at home.
- We discuss the “micro brew” years in the 1970’s and 1980’s when Anchor moved from brewing steam beer into other styles like Anchor Porter and made some of the first American Pale styles.
- Scott briefly discusses Ninkasi beer which was made from bread in 1989 by Anchor
- We move forward to today and discuss how Anchor’s lineup has changed.
- Scott shares a few beers added after his arrival including Bay Keeper and Fog Breaker
- We talk about Anchor’s 45’th annual Christmas Ale which creates a unique holiday ale every year.
- Scott share his opinions on where he thinks craft brewing is going next after a decade of extraordinary growth
- We talk about Scott’s advice for home brewers
Sponsors
- Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
- And also Anvil Brewing Equipment. Anvil is a new line of kettles, burners and accessories from John Blichmann at Blichmann Engineering. They make top quality brewing equipment built to last a lifetime.
- Also check out BeerSmith, BeerSmith Mobile software and the new DVDs John Palmer and I filmed – How to Brew with Malt Extract and How to Brew All Grain are available now. You can subscribe to the BeerSmith newsletter for free to get some great articles on home brewing.
Thanks to Scott Ungermann for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!
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Mark Edelson joins me from Iron Hills Brewery to discuss the evolution of Craft Beer Brewing in the US.
