California’ CRAFT GIN CRUCIBLE

The story of California gin, and craft gin in general, begins with Fritz Maytag installing garage doors in a corner, off a loading dock at San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing, in 1993. Behind those roll-up doors, the ‘water committee’ met. In the historic brewery, which Maytag had bought 30 years prior, they were “testing the water” for distilling and trying to keep the distillery a secret from the general public until the spirits were released. All the employees knew, but the project was concealed from the prying eyes of electricians, pipe fitters and other tradesmen wandering by.

Maytag, heir to the appliance fortune, had every reason to believe people were watching his moves as he tinkered with creating whiskey and gin. Within a few months of ordering malted rye for Old Potrero Rye Whiskey, some of Anchor’s competitors produced rye beers, apparently tipped off by a grain supplier. But it was still with relative surprise when, three years later, Anchor Distilling released