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Steve, Mark and Herlinda
Our former co-host Mark Carpenter is back with us for a visit today on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon and Herlinda Heras. His last visit was this episode in July of 2021.
Mark Carpenter is back for a visit. For a long time he was the co-host of this show. He was the brew master at Anchor until he retired. Mark has news about the present status of Anchor Brewing. Sapporo decided to close it but an investor has bought the company and is slowly working on restoring the location and the company. Here is an article from AP news about that.
The new owner, Hamdi Ulukaya, has plans to revitalize Anchor Brewing, which everyone agrees is good news. He is the very successful founder of Chobani Yogurt so he is certainly ready and qualified for the job.
Mark says he is taking his time about it and has a good approach similar to that of Fritz Maytag, the previous owner who also bought Anchor and revitalized it in the early 1970s when Mark Carpenter started there. Both Fritz Maytag and Hamdi Ulukaya are openly enthusiastic about the meaning and importance of a business like Anchor as a valuable cultural asset.
A Brief History of Anchor Brewing
Mark briefly tells the story of how he found Anchor. He had been working for the telephone company. He took a tour of Anchor and liked the place enough to ask for a job. It was a small place and had three employees. Mark considers himself lucky to have been hired and to have found Fritz to be such an enlightened owner who gave Mark a book about brewing and sent him to take brewing courses in Michigan.
Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.
Mark has brought a bottle of Truman Royal Ale for Herlinda as a birthday present. It was brewed in England in 1982 to celebrate the birth of Prince William. Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale was the first modern IPA brewed in the United States. They didn’t call it IPA, but it had all of the characteristics. Herlinda’s video interview with Mark Carpenter, Tony Magee and Don Barkley is also still on display at the Museum of Sonoma County.
It’s Herlinda’s birthday! Happy Birthday Herlinda!