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Beginning
in 1906, a series of tragedies hit Anchor hard. Co-owner
Ernst Baruth died suddenly in February. Two months later, the
devastating fire that followed San Francisco's great earthquake
completely consumed the Anchor Brewery, still on Pacific
between Larkin and Hyde. In January 1907, as the process of
rebuilding the Brewery at a new location (18th and Hampshire)
neared completion, its thirty-seven-year-old owner, Otto Schinkel,
Jr., boarded a streetcar near his Bryant Street home. As the
car lurched forward, Schinkel was thrown to the street, run
over, and killed.
Fortunately for Anchor Steam Beer lovers then and now,
German brewers Joseph Kraus and August Meyer, along with liquor
store owner Henry Tietjen, were able to keep Anchor going,
until Prohibition shut them down in 1920.
Will Rogers
quipped, "Prohibition is better than no liquor at all."
But a great Anchor bootlegging story—indeed any
Anchor bootlegging story—has yet to bubble to the
historical surface. Some San Francisco breweries survived
Prohibition by making malt extracts and tonics, or by bottling
nonalcoholic beverages. Unfortunately, there is no record
of Joseph Kraus or his Anchor Brewery doing anything—legal
or illegal—during Prohibition, other than waiting with
the rest of San Francisco for the return of Anchor Steam.
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