Beer: Anchor Steam

Borrowed from Beer Chronicles

I'm from California, which as far as I'm concerned is the land of great beer. I'm excited about moving to the midwest, but I when I visited Chicago a couple of months ago and received raised eyebrows when I asked for their best local beer I was shocked. Wasn't Chicago a beer city? Didn't the midwest like beer? Apparently everyone and their uncle doesn't brew their own beer in the rest of the nation. I'm sure I'll end up eating crow for writing this, seeing as though I thought Goose Island's Honker's Ale was awesome, but I want to drink as many delicious California beers as possible before my move.

Anyways, I tried Pizza Rock in Sacramento for the first time tonight. And rather than wait for their $1 Miller Lights at the top of the hour I went for an Anchor Steam. I can't believe it's taken me so long to try this well known beer. One of my cousins mentioned that he was surprised when he saw this San Francisco native on a trip to Texas and I figured I had to try it just incase it wouldn't be widely available in the midwest.

The verdict:
Very good! I'm not a beer expert (although I'm posing as one on the internet), but I really liked it. It was very flavorful, but not as bitter as an IPA. I love IPAs, but they can be a bit much for accompanying a meal and this went down so smooth and clean. My first pizza was a little fruiter, and I don't know if I would've chosen Anchor Steam to accompany it again, but the second pizza was much richer and was awesome with the beer. I should probably learn at some point how to describe beer, but it's a red amber (which I guess makes it's copper). Anchor Steam is a "California Common" meaning that it's a lager using a warm fermentation process, a nod back to the time when ice or cool water wasn't available for making beer in California. I'd definitely drink it again :)