Anchor California Lager – USA

Anchor Steam’s® roots go back to the Gold Rush, long before icehouses and modern refrigeration made traditional lagers a viable option in California. In 1876, thanks to the belief that anything is possible in the Golden State, a small brewery called Boca created the first real light beer in California. Anchor California Lager® is our recreation of this historic American beer.

Made in San Francisco from double-sliced California barley, Cluster hops (the best hops in nineteenth-century California) and our own lager yeast, this malt brew is aged in our cellars. Its golden color, distinctive aroma, creamy foam, balanced depth of flavor and smooth finish make Anchor California Lager® a delicious celebration of the unique heritage of Californian craft brewing.

The California grizzly bear on our Anchor California Lager® label is from a woodcut by Durbin Van Vleck (1833-1898), courtesy of The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. First published in San Francisco in 1856. It is a superbly executed representation of an original illustration by Charles Christian Nahl (1818–1878), who painted both eastward and westerly versions of this bear. Nearly a century later, the Nahl bear was the inspiration to design a bear on the modern flag of the state of California. Although this bear is heading west, our bear — like the bear in Boca Brewing’s historic beer etiquette — is heading east.