FBD: On This Date

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On this Day in 1975, Anchor Brewing of San Francisco bottled its first production run of Liberty Ale. From the brewery rescued by Fritz Maytag comes this hoppy ale which was championed around the country by Bob Brewer.

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Drawing inspiration from a stronger ale he had during his travels in West Yorkshire, Maytag returned to the U.S. and concocted Anchor’s newest beer: Liberty Ale. It was a beer that featured hops like no American beer had before, and it defied existing labels. Liberty Ale was more effervescent than the pale ales of England, brewed with whole-cone hops, and crafted with only natural ingredients. A couple of years earlier, it was Coors who started experimenting with Cascade hops, a new American hop variety. But whereas Coors used the newfangled American hop in small quantities to impart some slight notes, Anchor went all in on it. Not only did they use it during the boil to make a beer far more bitter than anything most Americans had ever come across, but they used it to dry-hop Liberty Ale and deliver an aroma U.S.-based nostrils had never experienced. For the first time, that citrusy, floral aroma that drives hopheads crazy flowed from draft lines.

It was the first American IPA (or the first American Pale Ale, as category lines are often quite blurry). Since Anchor Liberty Ale didn’t exist when the terms “American Pale Ale” and “IPA” were used prevalently in the States, it was simply called their “special ale.” Michael Jackson, the famed beer writer, called Anchor Liberty Ale the first modern American ale, and its introduction set in motion the craft beer tidal wave that would slowly build over the next few decades.

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