Region & History

To understand what Steam Beer is, you have to go back to 1849. With the Gold Rush, San Francisco grew from a village into a port city within a few years, and the many men on the docks wanted beer. Ice and refrigeration were almost entirely absent.

Brewers made do with lager yeast, letting it work at warm temperatures. The result was a lively, sparkling beer that hissed when tapped. The origin of the name Steam remains unclear: some tell of the hissing of the casks, others of steam rising from the cooling ships on the rooftops.

One brewery from that era has survived to this day, albeit with a break: Anchor Brewing. According to the brewery, its roots go back to 1871. It got the name Anchor in 1896, when the German brewers Ernst Baruth and Otto Schinkel took it over.

Around 1965, the business was on the brink of closure. Businessman Fritz Maytag bought a majority stake at the time and took over the brewery entirely in 1969. In 1979, Anchor moved into a former coffee-roasting plant on Mariposa Street on Potrero Hill. Maytag is widely regarded as a pioneer of the American craft movement.

Jack McAuliffe took a different path. In 1976, he founded the New Albion Brewing Company in Sonoma, about 70 kilometers to the north, considered the first microbrewery of the modern era in the US. It closed in 1982. The Boston Beer Company rebrewed New Albion Ale in 2012 under McAuliffe's supervision.

From 2017, Anchor belonged to the Japanese conglomerate Sapporo, which halted brewing operations in July 2023. In May 2024, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya bought Anchor. As of October 2026, there is no official reopening date; in July 2026, two labels were approved. Steam Beer has no EU protected designation of origin, the name is considered a trademark of Anchor.