Anchor Distilling Company is the spirits division of Anchor Brewers & Distillers, based in San Francisco, California. The company’s roots reach back to 1965, when Fritz Maytag purchased the faltering Anchor Brewery and turned it into a craft-beer vanguard. In 1993, Maytag established the Anchor Distilling Company, based in part on his long interest in rye whisky and early American spirits. Following a series of experiments with pot-distilling whisky, the distillery began production of a 100 percent malted rye whisky in 1994; determined to follow Colonial-era practice, Anchor bottled the whisky after only one year of aging, and in subsequent years two additional expressions were added, all sold under the Old Potrero label; this, the first modern microdistilled whisky to reach market, was an early—perhaps too early—shot across the bows of the American whisky industry, signaling the coming of a new generation of small-scale, creative whisky makers.
In 1996, Anchor released Junípero, one of the first craft-distilled gins in the United States, followed shortly by Genevieve, a genever-style spirit based on unaged whisky. In 2010, Maytag retired and sold Anchor Distilling to the Griffin Group, headed by Keith Greggor and Tony Foglio. The new owners entered a co-distribution arrangement with London merchants Berry Bros. & Rudd, expanding global distribution of Anchor’s spirits while also adding a range of more than four hundred other spirits to Anchor Distilling’s portfolio, including whiskies from Scotland, Japan, and Taiwan, along with a number of absinthes, liqueurs, rums, and other spirits. See Berry Bros. & Rudd. Under head distiller Bruce Joseph (first hired by Anchor in 1980), the company also expanded its own range of products, adding Hophead Vodka (a hopped vodka produced in collaboration with Anchor Brewing) in 2012, and Anchor Old Tom Gin in 2014.
Abate, Tom. “Anchor Brewing Co. Sold to Greggor, Foglio.” San Francisco Chronicle, April 27, 2010. http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Anchor-Brewing-Co-sold-to-Greggor-Foglio-3266099.php (accessed January 28, 2021).
Anchor Brewers and Distillers website. http://www.anchorbrewersanddistillers.com/ (accessed April 14, 2021).
Ross, Andrew S. “Anchor Brewing Acquisition Is Official.” San Francisco Chronicle, August 11, 2010. http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/Anchor-Brewing-acquisition-is-official-3178996.php (accessed January 28, 2021).
By: Paul Clarke