Anchor Brewing Company steam beer barrel
date: label: date made
content: 1900 - 1920
label: date made
content: around 1880-1900
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: One (1) barrel
label: Description (Brief)
content: Wooden steam beer barrel with six metal hoops and the letters "A.B" stamped on top. Along the bottom ring is carved "STEAM BEER BREWING CO. SAN FRANCISCO".
label: Description
content: This barrel was used to store steam beer produced at Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, California, and transport it to nearby saloons in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Brewers filled the barrel approximately 85% full with beer that had been fermenting for three to five days, then topped it off with more beer at peak fermentation—a German technique called Kräusening—to prompt the beer to ferment further in the barrel. As a result, the steam beer was especially effervescent, requiring six iron hoops, with iron bungs, to contain the beer inside. Unlike most lagers, which were stored, or lagered, for weeks, if not longer, Anchor’s steam beer was transported to thirsty customers in saloons just days after its barrels were filled.
label: Description
content: This particular barrel was used by Anchor Brewing Co. brewers into the mid-twentieth century. As a result of an ownership change in 1959, the brewery’s facilities were sold without the company name, Anchor Brewing Company, or the brand name, Anchor Steam Beer. Accordingly, the name “Anchor Brewing Company” was removed from this barrel and replaced with “Steam Beer Brewing Company.” The brewery continued to be known as such until April 1977, when brewery owner Fritz Maytag III secured the rights to return the name of Anchor Brewing Company to the business.
label: Description
content: In 1965, Maytag had purchased the historic but struggling brewery in San Francisco, California. With his entrepreneurial roots and zeal for science, Maytag revitalized the brewery. He perfected the brewery’s recipe for steam beer, a 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: 2023.0113.01
label: accession number
content: 2023.0113
label: catalog number
content: 2023.0113.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: barrel
label: Object Name
content: barrel, steam beer
label: Object Name
content: barrel, steam beer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 24 1/2 in x 59 in; 62.23 cm x 149.86 cm