The taproom is essentially a mini-museum of signs, glasses, bottles, openers, taps, trays, equipment and wooden barrels from a variety of breweries. Brewer smiles as he proudly explains this is only a small portion of Anchor's collection. Where do you think we got these accents. The mini-museum is presided over by a beautiful wooden bar but it's the windows to the left that attracts visitors' attention. These provide a stunning view of the brewery's copper-domed kettles and tun.
Tours begin there, at the top of the gravity system where the beer is brewed.
Your tour continues on past a hop room, kegging and bottling lines, and eventually to the cellar. It's in the bowels of the brewery amid piping that would make General Leslie Groves jealous where the brewery's most unusual, and quiet, brewing technique takes place. Here is where they add newly fermenting beer to an aging batch in a process called krausening. This is how they carbonate Anchor Steam and provide the lively effervescence for which the style is famous. As the tour ended Mr.