St. Nicholas
date: label: date made
content: around 1965
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) painting of St. Nicholas
label: Description (Brief)
content: Wooden shutter painted over with an image of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of brewers, wearing a red robe. The painting was done by a former Anchor Brewing Company employee, and hung in the brewhouse.
label: Description
content: This painting, titled Brewers’ Icon, was painted by Dave Lyon, an employee of San Francisco, California’s Anchor Brewing Company, in the 1960s. St. Nicholas, the patron saint of brewers, is depicted with a hop cluster in his hand. The painting hung on the wall of the brewhouse, overseeing every beer brewed, from the 1960s until July 2023.
label: Description
content: In 1965, Fritz Maytag III had purchased the historic but struggling Steam Beer Brewing Company (later, Anchor Brewing Company). With his entrepreneurial roots and zeal for science, Maytag revitalized the brewery. He perfected the brewery’s recipe for steam beer, an effervescent style that had originated in nineteenth-century San Francisco, and brewed European styles—porter, barleywine, pale ale—then unfamiliar to many Americans. As a self-taught brewer and savvy entrepreneur, Maytag inspired many who dreamed of opening their own small breweries. Historians consider Anchor Brewing Company to have been the first post-Prohibition American microbrewery. Microbreweries, brewpubs, and “craft” breweries proliferated throughout the nation in the 1970s, 1980s, and beyond. In August 2023, Sapporo USA liquidated Anchor Brewing Company.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, San Francisco
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Anchor Brewing Company through Mike Minami
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2023.0113.04
label: accession number
content: 2023.0113
label: catalog number
content: 2023.0113.04
objectType: label: Object Name
content: painting
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 47 1/2 in x 22 1/4 in x 1 1/4 in; 120.65 cm x 56.515 cm x 3.175 cm