The microbrewery industry, as we know it in this country, began in July 1965, when Fritz Maytag purchased an interest in the Anchor Steam Brewery (est. 1896) of San Francisco, California. Maytag’s rescue of the company and its turnaround into a thriving firm were to prove an inspiration to an entire generation of followers. In January 1983 the United States could boast of just fifty-one companies operating only eighty breweries that provided fewer than twenty-five nationally distributed brands. Not before or since has the United States had fewer commercial breweries in operation. Just thirty years later there were more than twelve hundred breweries, producing some five thousand different beers. There are more different styles of beer made in the United States than in any other country in the world, and it all happened over a remarkably short period of time.
