International Beverage Company

Many people take pride in drinking American beer, looking down on those un-patriotic "imports." But, really, how American is the beer they're drinking? Budweiser, "The Great American Lager," is produced by a Belgian company now known as Anheuser-Busch InBev. Many other iconic American beers such as Miller, Coors and Blue Moon are sold by MillerCoors; this company is a joint venture between SABMiller, based in the United Kingdom, and the Molson Coors Brewing Company, which is half-American and half-Canadian. Even Pabst Blue Ribbon, the ubiquitous drink of hipsters these days, is contract brewed by MillerCoors. In fact, Boston Beer Company, the brewers of Samuel Adams, is the largest American-owned brewer, closely followed by D.G. Yuengling & Son. The most depressing part of this, to me at least, is the beer produced by these large conglomerates. The vast majority of the beer they brew is of the American Golden Lager variety, which is a modification of the Pilsner style beers native to Germany. In fact, rice has been used to replace substantial portions of the grain used to brew these beers; this results in decreased development of the flavor profile, but has the advantage of being inexpensive. In fact, the only widely distributed example of a traditional American lager is Yuengling Traditional Lager. This beer is brewed with the use of corn as an adjunct instead of rice, which is a tradition that predates the American Revolution and contributes a distinctive taste to the beer.

At this point, you may ask why I have been bashing the American breweries and the beers they brew. First, I'm not a fan of their beers; I prefer other beer styles to golden lager, and I like taste in my beer. The second reason is that I've been laying the groundwork for the introduction of this week's review, Anchor Steam Beer. Anchor Steam Beer is the sole remaining commercial example of the 19th century beer brewed in San Francisco, around which the modern California Common Beer style was modeled.

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