California Pilgrimage - Pilgrimage to California

When people think of San Francisco they think of the Golden Gate Bridge cable cars, Tony Bennett's heart maybe even Alcatraz but I think of something closer to my heart: I think of beer. There's been a blossoming of beer and brewing in California at this festival in San Francisco there are almost 200 beers on show most of the them are styles of beer that you might expect to find only in the British Isles ales, porters, stouts even barleywines they come from a new generation of tiny breweries that have sprung up all over America in the last decade. More than 50 in California alone to a beer hunter America's Northwest beckons like a new frontier and Americans are beginning to discover that there's more in the kingdom of beer than a standard six-pack from the supermarket. What beer are you drinking? Ah, this is the Lighthouse lager from the Santa Cruz Brewing Company. The Grapevine extra special bitter Triple Rock wheat beer Red Tail ale beer from Mendocino, Cally. Right now it's an empty glass I'm surprised with all the California beers that are coming up now all the microbreweries coming up with such exceptional beers there's a lot more flavour to it just a lot more distinction, difference and everything it's just not a piece of flat beer. The new generation of American brewers they're often called micro brewers look to one man as their father figure for 20 years Fritz Maytag has owned and nurtured the brewery that makes San Francisco's most famous brew Anchor Steam beer. It may seem an unlikely mission for a man who studied American literature and then Japanese at Stanford. But this is California and it was the 60s. Back in August 1965 I used to hang out in a wonderful place called The Old Spaghetti Factory where they had Anchor Steam beer on draught only, for many years and I went in and ordered a beer as I often did and the owner said to me Fritz, you know, the brewery's going bankrupt and they're going to close this could be your last beer and it's a terrible shame and as a matter fact you really should go down and see it because you would like that kind of thing and it's gonna be gone and now's your last chance they're closing on Friday. There had been an Anchor Steam Beer Brewery in San Francisco since the mid 19th century by the mid 1960s it was in reduced circumstances eking out a meagre existence under a motorway fly-over. I looked around and it was a charming little old but very poor or not very clean little building with one person running it Literally just on its last legs but I found it to be intriguing, it was an entity and it was a local thing it was a real local entity and the idea of saving it appealed to me right from the beginning. The brewery could be bought cheaply enough so Fritz made a small sacrifice he comes from a wealthy family who make washing machines and Fritz sold some of his shares in the family business to buy Anchor Steam that was the easy part. It took 10 years to make the brewery viable Fritz brewed the beer himself, worked the bottling line made deliveries and everyone of his team was equally adaptable eventually the brewery was breaking even. Why did you decide to move from under the freeway? Soon after we were in the black I realized that I could do what I probably that I could do what I had always dreamed to do and it was to buy a building that would be our own that could make the way we wanted it eventually the whole pieces has come together and you've got your dream Yes, we did. We put it together it's a beautiful brewhouse. Do you wanna take a trip? This the brewhouse that we finally put in we love so much It's a very beautiful brewery what are the guiding principles behind the design of this? Michael we wanted first of all for the copper kettles and the cooking area to feel like a kitchen and to be a warm and homy place but on the other hand I wanted around the brewhouse I wanted all the offices where the people are actually working to be looking right out on the brewhouse so that we would see each other from across the brewhouse and all feel that we're a part of it and the brewhouse was right outside our door there are some spectacularly beautiful breweries in the world, I think of Carlsberg in Copenhagen or Feldschlosschen in Basel is there something about the brewing a beer that means that a brewery has to be beautiful? Well I would I would like to think that a brewhouse has to be beautiful and I don't want to find out if you could do it if the brew was not beautiful it seems to me that that it should be beautiful I think there's a feeling that I have learned by being in the brewing business people want the beer to come from a good place they hope that it comes from a good place they want to trust the people that make the beer. Anchor Steam beer is made by a unique and traditional process fermentation takes place in abnormally shallow vessels these helped cool the brew in the days before refrigeration in the heat of California brewers improvised this method which enabled them to use lager yeasts at temperatures more suitable for the fermentation of ale. The beer had so much natural carbonation that the casks were set to steam when they were attacked. This is Anchor Steam Beer it's a firm-bodied beer with a clean maltiness and especially a very assertive hop character and of course it's got delicate fruitiness that comes from a unique method of fermentation It's a sort of beer that I love to drink during happy hour in one of the classic San Francisco bars and I wouldn't altogether mind if it came as a guest beer in my local in London. Steam beer was born in America but Anchor also produces its own interpretations of a whole range of classic European styles. I like things that are unique in their own right for a reason so if I get interested in beer then I want to know about the types of beer and the past histories and the reasons why certain things were made the way they were we've tried here as a theme in our company to go back the roots of things and to try to make beer really as simply as possible as long as it's historically valid Anchor Steam is a business its beer has to survive in one of America's most competitive consumer market. But sometimes there's a distinct whiff of utopia about the place a strong spirited community fostered among the workforce and this spirit extends beyond the walls of the brewery. This is the start of a Californian pilgrimage Every year Fritz takes a party from the brewery on a journey to witness the beginning of the barley harvest One farm, in fact one field, is chosen to supply the barley from which the brewery makes its vintage dated Christmas ale. It's terribly important that in our company we’ve not to make the mistake of becoming having a factory added to of becoming a mass-producing company I want our whole company to participate in that sense that there is a risk with farm and that the supply of our raw materials just does not come from the telephone, it comes from the season, this weather and this situation. It's well over 300 miles from San Francisco to the farm at Tulelake near the Oregon border On their way north the brewers pass through the heartland of California's other great drink: wine. Fritz himself owns a vineyard in the Napa Valley which is a lot of your life beer or wine? No, beer Why is that? I think beer is something for ordinary people for the common man it's something that ordinary people drink and remain moderate talk about politics work on their village that somehow it goes with democracy people are frequently hesitant to talk about wine, they may not pronounce it properly or something. With beer, you know all about that beer belongs to everyone, I like that. Beer is like painting in watercolours you do it and that's it and making wine is like painting in oils you make the wine and then you analise it and then you blend it and you fine it, then you age it then you put it in one oak barrel and another oak barrel then you go on and on and you finally bottle it and even you say please don't drink it for five years but beer really almost entirely is something you brew it and that's it then you drink it. very Hello, hello. What can I bring you? What kind of beer do you brew here? we have three beers that we brew on draught we have a wheat lager, a golden lager and a dark lager. Ok, I'd like a dark lager, please These days there are a few better places to find a good pint of beer than the Napa Valley Establishments like this are beginning to pop up all over American wine country but they make beer they make beer upstairs and serve it downstairs or they make beer at the back and serve it at the front. The American name for them is brewpubs and they're not just in wine country I'm beginning to see them everywhere from California to the Carolinas It's good stuff Try the golden, the golden is excellent I like it, I like this dark beer. Did you try the dark? While a brewery like Anchor or an even smaller microbrewery has a tough job of selling its beer to pubs and supermarkets, a brewpub is its own outlet its beer is as fresh as it can be. In style and character the brews can be as individualistic as the dishes on the menu and a selection can be changed just as often. I think there's been a dangerous closeness to having beer almost become a commodity in our country and I'm not sure why that is but it was a close thing I think for a while we had almost lost the idea that beer could be wonderful there were different styles of beer and different types of beer the brewing companies could have personalities I think we were very close to losing that I think it's coming back now. Further up the road in Mendocino County the Hopland Brewery commands a special place in the hearts of the new generation of beer fanciers. a Red Tail please two of The Blues the brewery and tavern sit on a main street of the town which used to be the centre of a hop growing district this hop garden is maintained for nostalgic reasons today America's great hop growing regions are even farther north in Oregon and Washington Do you have a bathroom on the bus? Oh yeah! ... you have a long bottle. Have to go for a long way but it is the hardest thing to do we have done a lot of work with that the paper and... it is like a barley wine bottle. I really like the label... Six packs’ve gone out like wild fire The Hopland brewery is both a brewpub and a microbrewery it was one of the first brewpubs in the United States but it also traces its history to the very first microbrewery New Albion partners Michael Leavitt and Don Barkley were a part of those heavy days The brewery started in '76 or was it announced in '76 It was announced in '76 and in '77 made its first batch I was making yoghurt and ice-cream before very similar to yoghurt making yeast culturing and sanitation and all that so I went to work for free making beer and not coca cola drum that's right we were brewing about a 100 cases a week at maximum pretty difficult for us to make a profit in order to keep in business. It’s a great shame it did not succeed I don't know about succeeding because we're using the same yeast strain that we developed in New Albion for all of our products here. So this beer really is a descendant it's a descendant of New Albion. Good morning, 5 minutes after 11 o'clock 80% chances of showers in climate falls weather today Isolated thundershowers possible also. Highs in the mid 60’s tonight temperatures. Chances of showers and cold. What happens if it's raining up in Tulelake? Is there any mean other to cut the grain today? I think if it's raining But if it rains early on in the day ... I would guess if there's rain there a lit bit it all has to do that I'd like to malt the barley very quickly normally if it was just barley that was going into the system I think I worry more, we know we're going to take this immediately down the maltster and having malted because we need it very soon. Did you know when you chose to have your barley from a farm in this area, did you know how beautiful was countryside around here? No I didn't actually. We asked for a a fine farmer and one in California which following our leads and led us up here and honestly I've never been here I had no idea how beautiful it was. The little white areas indicate that it's not turned over here no it's not bent over like this that's a sign that the field is just on the edge of ready yeah, that's right perfect, perfect I think it's ready to go and should make good beer, wonderful. It's really enjoyable I really enjoy the fact that Fritz has got the vision to bring people from the brewery out so that they can see where the product originates from most people work in a factory and manufacture plant they just mix ingredients and make something but here we're actually getting our hands on we're seeing the barley as it gets out of the harvester someone the feel of origination I can smell it, I can taste it. I shouldn't respite a few friends of mine when they ask me about the same beer ... I know what and I can just pop out with an answer and they are really truly impressed. When Americans have an idea they give it all they've got other brewers care about the varieties the geographical origin of their barley and hops a few begin to specify it on their label but none anywhere in the world goes quite the lengths of Anchor Steam and Fritz Maytag. You've another vintage on its way yes sir been a it's been a great time and a great evening It's a very elaborate thing to do, I mean is it really worth the trouble? we've come to the country the actual expenses modest just really expenses loss they're sold but the value is unbelievable because it gives us an addendum with our Christmas relates to an actual farm and I'm think when our brewers put malt into the mash tun they'll remember that that's the stuff it gives our company something that's hard to explain Well, I look forward to drinking that something that started ... around the Christmas. Good