Fritz Maytag buys Anchor Brewing

What was going on around it

An event on its own is a date. These are the periods it belongs to, where the argument about what changed is actually made.

• Consolidation and revival

  Choice narrowed almost everywhere for thirty years, and then was rebuilt from below — by a consumer campaign in Britain and by homebrewers in the United States, for quite different reasons.

Why it matters

Generally taken as the starting point of American craft brewing, and the survival of the California Common style.

How well this is established

Styles this shaped

• California Common4.5–5.5% ABV

  Lager yeast fermented warm in the Californian manner, producing a clean amber beer with woody, minty hop character.

Traditions

• American craft brewing — The post-1980 American movement built on intense hop character, reinterpretation of European styles, and rapid categorical change.