Celebrate Founder’s Day at the Anaheim Brewery on May 18th!

Friedrich Conrad

Birthdays are always a great reason to celebrate, so join us in wishing a Happy 164^th Birthday to Friedrich Conrad, proprietor of the Anaheim Brewery from 1872 to 1904.  Friedrich was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1849, and arrived in San Diego in 1866 where, as a boy of seventeen, he set up shop as a cooper (barrelmaker).  Friedrich moved to Anaheim in 1870 and opened a winery.  Two years later, he opened the Anaheim Brewery.

Our party begins at 4 pm, with authentic Bavarian pretzels, great food from our friends at K&A Catering, and scrumptious desserts from Brewcakes. Vintage swing band Riff Raff will open our entertainment for the evening, followed by Brother Yusef and his “organic deep-fried fatback blues.”

Of course, no brewer’s birthday celebration would be complete without a special beer, so we’ve brewed one!  “Conrad’s Kolsch” is styled after the top-fermented beers of Koln (Cologne), Germany.  It is a light golden, pleasantly hoppy ale.

Our label is an interpretation based on a fragment from an Anaheim Beer label dating from the early 1900’s, skillfully recreated by our friends Jody Daily and Kevin Kidney.  “Conrad’s Kolsch” will be available in bottles, growlers or draught.

Notice the phrase “In Pursuit of Happiness and Lager”?  In 1899, the Los Angeles Turnverein (a German sports club) visited Anaheim to compete with our city’s Turnverein.  The Anaheim Gazette reported that after the exhibition, the group “dispersed, and went in pursuit of happiness and lager.”  The reporter then added that “they came for pleasure, and they got it.”

You’ll find “Happiness and Lager,” too, as we will be tapping the LAST KEG of Anaheim Doppelbock at 4 pm sharp.

Ladies Love Helles

Ah, Spring.  The Beer Garden is bursting with newness.  Our tree is covered with fresh green leaves; the vines are a riot of yellow flowers with hummingbirds zooming from blossom to blossom.

It’s time for Helles.

In Bavaria, Helles is the quintessential Beer Garden drink.  Pale golden and medium bodied, Helles goes down easy, glass after glass.

Spaten Brewery Logo

According to the German Beer Institute, Helles is one of the rare beer styles with a definite birthday:  March 21, 1894.   The Spaten Brewery sent a test cask of blond lager to the port city of Hamburg on the North Sea.  Spaten wanted to compete with the pale Pilsner lager from Bohemia, but wasn’t sure how it would go over in their hometown of Munich.   Using the old salts in the Hamburg taverns as guinea pigs, they continued to work out the recipe for the next 15 months.  It wasn’t until June 20^th of the following year that Munich natives got their first taste of Helles, but what a taste it was.

Classic stoneware stein.

Until then, only dark beer was considered “real” Bavarian lager, perhaps because Bavarians love to drink their beer from traditional stoneware mugs or steins, and wouldn’t have noticed the color, anyway.  Much of Europe had switched to glass vessels, in which the lighter colored beers appeared pure and clean.  As the popularity of pale-colored beers in the rest of Europe grew, the Munich brewers followed with Helles Lager.

Can you spot the Helles drinker?

Even today, one in four beers drunk in Bavaria is a Helles.

Anaheim Helles Lager is refreshing beer with an emphasis on malt.  You may notice some bready flavors along with a very slightly floral hop aroma, but very little bitterness.

Every time we brew this beer, we notice how popular it is with women.  That made us think of singer and actor James Todd Smith, who in the 1980’s reminded people that “Ladies Love Cool James.”  We know him now as the incomparable LL Cool J.

So try an Anaheim Helles, H-E-LL-E-S, and remember “Ladies Love Helles.”

Holiday Hours – Taco Love

As we looked at the calendar for the holidays, we realized that with Christmas and New Year’s falling on Tuesday, we’d miss out on K & A’s delicious tacos.

So we declared Friday, December 28th and January 4th as honorary Tuesdays.

Let the Taco Love flow, y’all.

How was YOUR Oktoberfest?

Oktoberfest, for us, is an event that always leaves us with at least one unforgettable moment.  Maybe it’s the combination of good friends and good beer, but each Oktoberfest gives us one of those stories that will get retold over and over.  Like our friend Keith says, “You can’t make this shit up.”

In 1986, in Munich, it was the two German guys who we sat next to in the Hofbrau tent who (after many 1-liter beers) helped us find our bus home, even though all we could tell them was “it’s next to the ‘Drei Looper’ roller coaster.” [Drei Looper means Three Loops. It was amazing; you could see the Alps from the middle loop.]

 

Unforgetable Moment of 2011

Last year, it was the Mariachi Kid from the Orange County Mariachi Academy and RYTHMO, who, after their performance, jumped up on stage and joined the German band, sharing sheet music with one of the band members.

 

So what was it this year?

It may have been Mitch Caldwell’s expert tapping of the ceremonial keg.  Normally, we’d reserve the honor of tapping the keg for the mayor, but he was out of town this year.  So we auctioned off the privilege, with the proceeds going to Childrens’ Hospital of Orange County’s Childrens’ Oncology Department.  Mitch’s generosity earned him the rights to tap the keg, and he clearly knows his way around a hammer.

Or maybe it was this…

Early in the afternoon, soon after the band started playing, we noticed the drummer and another band member trying to repair the strap on the bass drum pedal.  If you were here this year or last year, and heard the excellent German American Brass band of Southern California, you’d know how important the bass drum pedal is.  The drummer told us what she needed was a drill, so we offered to take the pedal into the brewery and try and fix it.

As we made our way through the Tasting Room, we found our brother-in-law, Gerry.  He’s a musician, and he’s also the family Rocket Mechanic – his day job is building things that fly into space.  So we asked him to join us in the back.  After looking over the pedal and the strap, Gerry said, “What we need is a piece of leather.”

The Brewmaster Sacrifices His Lederhosen

Earlier in the day, we were discussing the proper way to wear lederhosen, and decided that the suspender straps on Greg’s were a little bit too long.  So Barbara took out a pair of serious scissors, and cut a few inches of the leather suspender strap.  It was a perfect match for the drum pedal strap, with a little decorative stitching thrown in.  A few minutes of drilling holes and bolting it into place, and we had a working bass drum pedal to present to the drummer!

 

What will it be in 2013?

The German American Brass band of Southern California did a wunderbar job, and has already agreed to play at our 2013 Oktoberfest.  Mark your calendar for the second Saturday in October!

Oktoberfest: the Festival, the Beer, and the Party

The Festival

Greg & Barbara, Oktoberfest 1993

Undoubtedly the most famous beer festival in the world, Oktoberfest is a sixteen-day event held each year in Munich, Germany, running from late September to early October.   The tradition began with a Royal Wedding in the early 1800s.  Crown Prince Ludwig (of Bavaria), later King Ludwig I, married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen (that’s north of Bavaria) on October 12, 1810.  The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city.  The fields were renamed Theresienwiese (“Theresa’s Fields”) to honor the Crown Princess, although the locals have since abbreviated the name to “Wies’n”.  Horse races were held as part of the festivities, and the decision to repeat the horse races in subsequent years gave rise to the tradition of Oktoberfest.  By In 1896 the beer stands were replaced by large beer tents and halls set up by Munich’s breweries.  The Munich Oktoberfest celebrated its 200th Anniversary in 2010; only wars and a cholera epidemic have interrupted the yearly beer celebration.

The Beer

In the 1800’s, before the invention of refrigeration, it was impossible to brew beer in the summer due to the hot weather.  Brewing in Munich ended in spring, and began again in the fall.  The last brews of the year were brewed in March (Märzen, in German).  These beers were brewed stronger, so they would store better, and were kept in ice-packed caves and cellars over the spring and summer months.  In the fall, it was traditional to drink up all of the last year’s strong beer in order to make room for the new beer about to be brewed.  That’s why most of the beer at fall festivals (like Oktoberfest) are “Märzen” beers.  Märzenbier is full-bodied, rich, toasty, typically dark copper in color with a medium to high alcohol content.  Over the years, the common Munich Oktoberfest beer served at the Wies’n has gotten a bit lighter in color, but it still contains roughly 5.0-6.0% alcohol by volume.

Anaheim Oktoberfest Lager is brewed according to a 100 year old recipe in a traditional Bavarian style, copper-colored and strong (around 6.5% alcohol by volume).  It has a rich, caramel maltiness balanced with a touch of German Hersbruecker hops, and a smooth, slightly toasty finish.

We learned our Oktoberfest recipe from Greg’s first boss, Chris, who trained at the Paulaner Brewery, in Munich.  As an apprentice, Chris had to keep a journal and write an entry every work day.  One day, Chris was exploring the tunnels and basements of the Hacker brewery, which Paulaner owned.  He came across a room full of very old wooden beer barrels.  On top of one barrel was a dusty leather notebook full of hand-written recipes.  Chris took the book to the brewery historian, who pronounced the notebook “about 100 years old.”  Chris copied out the recipe for Oktoberfest Märzen from the leather notebook as his journal entry.

The story of Chris and the leather notebook became Greg’s first journal entry, when he was Chris’ apprentice in 2001.  That year, Chris assigned Greg the task of converting the 100 year old recipe to use at the 50-barrel brewery where they worked.  Chris did the conversion as well.  The next morning they compared recipes and although they were different, Chris told Greg they would essentially make the same beer.

Over the years, we’ve won several awards using the 100 year old recipe, including First Place at Capitol City Brewing Company’s 2002 Oktoberfest in Washington, D.C., Second Place at Capitol City Brewing Company’s 2005 Oktoberfest, and a Gold Medal at the 2007 San Diego County Fair.  When it came time to brew Anaheim Oktoberfest, we knew we had a winner.

The 2012 Anaheim Brewery Oktoberfest

The first steins of beer at last year’s Anaheim Oktoberfest.

This year, we’re hosting our own Oktoberfest, right in the Beer Garden.  Get ready to do the Chicken Dance to music by the German-American Brass Band of Southern California.  We’ll have authentic German-style pretzels, plenty of bratwurst and sauerkraut, and of course Anaheim Oktoberfest Lager!  So join us on Saturday, October 13^th, between 3 and 10 pm.  Ein Prosit!

Why a “Growler?”

Our Growler

Just occasionally, a guest asks us why the big brown refillable jug is called a “growler.”  While we’ve heard a few theories, the most credible comes from the supplier who imports our growler from Germany.

In the early 1900’s, before Prohibition, most beer was served on draft, at saloons.  If workmen wanted a beer to go with their lunch, or if a family wanted beer for dinner, they had to get it from the local saloon.  Usually this meant sending a young boy to the saloon to fetch the beer.  The most common container for the beer was a plain, galvanized steel pail, with a tight-fitting lid.  Some accounts say the pail was rubbed with lard, to prevent the beer from foaming (and resulting in a better “fill”).  As the boys would run back to the work site or home for dinner, as the case may be, some carbonation would escape from the pail, causing it to rumble, or “growl.”  The container earned the name “growler,” and the person carrying it was said to be “rushing the growler.”

Young Boy “Rushing the Growler”

Other stories say that it was the constant conflict between the saloon keeper, selling a less-than-full pail of beer, and the customer, looking for a full pail,  which caused the “growling”.

Either way, before Prohibition, the growler trade was an important part of any saloon’s business, and saloon keepers usually sold beer out of the back door, which they dubbed “the family entrance.”  This kept the young boys from having to walk through the saloon, and perhaps see something they shouldn’t!

Growlers were even a part of our own Anaheim history.  Consider this excerpt from Mildred Yorba MacArthur’s book (with the somewhat wordy title “Anaheim The Mother Colony, Compiled and Written in Honor of the Original Colonists”):

“Fritz Ruhmann is always spoken of with great respect.  His emporium was on North Los Angeles Street.  Children who were sent for a bucket of beer for a family meal always went to the rear door.  While they waited they were rewarded by a look at the festivities within and were given a bit of free lunch, and sometimes a glass of pink lemonade.”

You may recognize Fritz Ruhmann as the original “Five Cent Fritz” whose face is on our taster flight tokens.

Of course, here at Anaheim Brewery, we don’t fill metal pails with beer,  we use a top-quality German glass container.  We dispense the beer from our unique, Russian-made filling machine, “Boris,” which flushes any air out of the bottle, replaces it with carbon dioxide, and fills the bottle under pressure.

Stop by and pick up your very own “growler,” or come back and get your growler expertly refilled by our Tasting Room Staff!

Daddy Wants a Beer

Get him a glass of the newly-tapped Oatmeal Stout.