ChapTer one

The pioneers19651984

1965: 1 microbrewery

182 national and regional breweries1

1984: 18 microbreweries

76 noncraft national and regional breweries

in The Beginning There was friTz MayTag. and for More Than a deCade, he stood alone. He was the pioneer. others followedin the West, there was Jack McAuliffe, Jane Zimmerman, and suzy denison of new Albion Brew-

ing Company, the first home-built microbrewery; Ken Grossman and paul

Camusi of sierra nevada Brewing Co.; randolph Ware and david Hum-

mer of the Boulder Beer Company; the Cartwright Brewing Company;

Bert Grant of Yakima Brewing and Malting Co.; and the independent Ale

Brewery (redhook) in seattle, Washington. in the east, there was Matthew

reich of the old new York Brewing Co., the pioneer of contract brew-

ing, and Bill newman of Wm. s. newman Brewing Co. But fritz Maytag

started it all.

According to the oxford english Dictionary a pioneer is one of a body of foot-soldiers who march with or in advance of an army or regiment, having

spades, pickaxes, etc. to dig trenches, repair roads, and perform other labours

in clearing and preparing the way for the main body.

i am quite sure that fritz Maytag and the others did not think of them-

selves as preparing the way for the main body, but thats what they did in the

1960s and 1970s. they built the foundation for the craft brewing movement,

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Copyrighted Steve Hindy, 2014

6 The CrafT Beer revoluTion

which, as i write, includes more than 2,700 breweries and accounts for a rich

6.5 percent of the Us beer market by volume and more than 10 percent by

dollar.2 they laid down the enduring principles of smallness, independence,

and all malt beers (as opposed to the rice and corn additives favored by the

national brewers). they figured out how they had to price their beer to make

their companies viable. Maytag was generous with his time, advice, and even

ingredients when others came to visit his brewery in san francisco.

Almost all of us in the movement think of ourselves as pioneers in our

home markets. And we were. the breweries that opened subsequently played

important roles in building a market for craft beer in America. All of us knew

what it was like to confront a barroom full of Bud/Miller/Coors drinkers who

turned up their noses at our dark and flavorful beers, our hoppy beers, our

strong beers.

But it must have been even more difficult in 1965 when Maytag bought

the failing Anchor Brewing Company in san francisco. At the time micro-

brewed beers, or craft beers, did not exist. there were no domestic beers

competing with the foreign imports. the import segment itself was growing

in the United states, but that was because sophisticated drinkers already rec-

ognized it as better beer. fritz Maytag and his cohorts had to make it all up,

the same way the early settlers did when they pushed their wagons across the

Allegheny Mountains.

first off, i have a confession to make. in my early days in the craft brew-

ing industry, i did not understand the adoration afforded fritz Maytag. i

guess it was a class thing. After all, he was the grandson of frederick louis

Maytag, founder of the Maytag Washing Machine Company, the gold stan-

dard of washing machines in the United states, known everywhere for its tV

ads with a dozing Maytag repairman who had nothing to do because Maytag

washing machines were so darn sturdy and reliable. fritzs father, frederick

louis Maytag ii, developed Maytag Blue Cheese, an American original based

on the french roquefort style.

fritz louis Maytag iii was educated at deerfield Academy in Massachu-

setts and then got a degree in American literature from stanford. He dressed

in tweedy jackets and button-down shirts. He wore wire-rimmed glasses and

spoke with a mellifluous baritone that commanded attention. And he was a

Maytag.

i remember saying to my colleagues, i dont see what the fuss about fritz

Maytag is. He is an heir to the Maytag Washing Machine Company. He is

playing with different sheet music than the rest of us.

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The pioneers 7

How wrong i was. i apologize, fritz. those of us in the main body,

as ill call the band of brewers that followed the pioneers, are so fortunate to

have had Maytag out in front. over the years he gave spellbinding speeches at

Craft Brewers Conferences. He elevated our passion for brewing. He quoted

euripides and Aeschylus speaking of the honor of being a brewer. He chided

the contract brewers for being fake brewers because they contracted with

other breweries to produce their beer, but he applauded them for educating

the public about good beer. When we bitched about beer distributors, he

reminded us that the three-tier legal systemwhich in many states prevents

brewers from owning distributors and retail outletsprotects the indepen-

dence of distributors and impedes big brewers ability to create monopolies,

allowing independent brewers to cut into the market.

Years later i got to know Maytag better when we both served on the

board of the BAA. fritz was a treasure for the craft brewing movement. And

he arguably was the forerunner not just for microbrewing, but the entire diY

movement that includes cheese making, winemaking, and distilling.

But back to the story.

in the early 1960s Maytag spent some time in Japan after he graduated

from college, but he soon moved to san francisco, the ultraliberal city that was

the epicenter of the hippie movement. Haight-Ashbury was ground zero for the

tune in, turn on, drop out culture of the lsd advocate dr. timothy leary. i

didnt know Maytag at that time, but i doubt lsd drew him to san francisco.

He did have a full beard, but he declined to talk to me about the 60s.

Maytag, seventy-four, shared his story with fifty-seven-year-old Gross-

man, cofounder of sierra nevada, at the 2011 Craft Brewers Conference in

san francisco. Grossman was a student of Maytags early work, but the two

deserve equal credit for founding the craft brewing industry. the interview

provides important insights into the early brewing experience of both men.

i actually got into brewing before i got into the wine world, just barely

but a little before, Maytag said, sitting in a comfortable easy chair before

the audience of small brewers. i used to hang out at an old place in san

francisco called the old spaghetti factorythose who knew it remember it

well. it was a charming place. And it was the equivalent of my local, as they

would say in england. i would go there in the evening for a few beers before

bed, meet with friends most every night. And one day the owner, fred Kuh,

asked me if i had ever been to the Anchor brewery and said they were clos-

ing down that next weekend, and he thought i should go see it before it was

closed because it was the kind of thing i would like.

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