Beer Birthday: Joe Tucker

March 13, 2026 By Jay Brooks 2 Comments

rate-beer
Today is the 58th birthday of Joe Tucker, the Executive Director at Rate Beer. He used to run the website from his Vineyard bunker in Sonoma, California, although a couple of years ago he relocated to the Rose city of Portland. Because I’m in the Bay Area, I used to run into Joe from time to time, and usually at the annual hop picking day at Moonlight Brewing, though we flew to San Diego together a few Decembers ago to visit Stone Brewing, too. More recently, he asked me to be the Emcee for the Rate Beer Best awards held in late January in Santa Rosa, which was great fun. Unfortunately, ABI, who bought the platform a few years ago, recently announced they were shutting it down. Join me in wishing Joe a very happy birthday.

Vinnie Cilurzo, me and Joe at the Pliny the Elder release several years ago at Russian River Brewing.

Rate Beer's Hop Press staff — Joe with some of the Hop Press staff — Ken, Ashley, Mario and Mark — at Triple Rock’s Sour Fest 2010.

P1010448 — At Fred Abercrombie’s Craft Beerd’s book launch party at Taps. Left to right; Fred Abercrombie, Ken Weaver, Anneliese Schmidt, Joe and Ron Lindenbusch, from Lagunitas.

P1000220 — The day after we tried all of Stone’s Vertical Epic’s in San Diego; with Steve Wagner, me, Joe, Jason and Todd Alstrom and Greg Koch.

joe-and-me-2017 — Joe and me at the RateBeer Best festival in Santa Rosa a few years ago.

Historic Beer Birthday: Frederick “Fritz” Brekle

March 5, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Frederick “Fritz” Brekle [sometimes spelled “Breckle”] (March 5, 1849-July 30, 1897). I can find almost nothing about Brekle, apart from he was born in Wurttemberg, Germany, and he opened the Frederick Brekle Brewery in 1896, but it closed shortly thereafter, when he became ill, and he died the next year, in 1897. It was located at Point Lobos Road and Boice (or Boyce) Street.

After his father Carl Gottlieb “George” died in 1888 he took over operations of his Golden City Brewery in San Francisco. He ran that brewery for only about nine years, at which point he he died in 1897 at age 49 years. The brewery then became know as the Anchor Brewing Co. starting in 1896.

Dave Burkhart, in his book, “The Anchor Story,” has some more information on Fritz:

San-Francisco-1897 — San Francisco in 1897.

Anchor at one point made a beer in Brekle’s honor.

Historic Beer Birthday: Anthony Durkin

March 1, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

san-francisco
Today is not necessarily the birthday of Anthony Durkin (March 1831-January 15, 1868), but all I could find is that he was born in March of 1868. Before the mid-1800s, record-keeping was spotty at best and only the well-heeled and royal consistently kept birth records. Durkin was born in Swinford, Ireland, in County Mayo. He was the oldest of five siblings. He married Margaret Elizabeth Moroney in early 1855 while still in Ireland and their first daughter was born late the the next year in San Francisco, so he made his way to San Francisco, California as a young man, sometime between January of 1855 and December 1856.

There’s not too much I could find about him, apart from this overview, from Brewery Gems.

In 1860, he established A. Durkin & Company, at 608-610 Mission St., for the purposes of brewing ale and porter. His two partners in the company were Charles M. Armstrong, a 35 year old Irish immigrant, and a German immigrant, Louis Luhden. In naming the brewery Anthony simply referenced its location, thus the Mission Street Brewery.

In their history of the Hibernia Brewery, there’s also this:

The first serious incident occurred on June 16th, 1861. The following account was reported by the Daily Alta California:
"A beautiful child, aged seven years, daughter of George Coffee, Boiler Inspector, fell into a vat of boiling beer in the Mission Street Brewery, last evening. A young man named Thomas Kennedy attempted to rescue the child and he also fell in. John McCabe, the cooper of the establishment, was severely scalded in his efforts to get them out. The child died almost immediately. Kennedy was taken to St. Mary's Hospital. He will probably die."
In spite of this tragic accident the business experienced steady growth and in 1863, in addition to its ale and porter, the brewery began producing lager beer. This wasn't lager in the traditional sense, but a lager peculiar to the San Francisco area called steam beer. It was made without refrigeration but with a bottom fermenting yeast. Another steam beer producer, and major competitor, was a company that also took their name from their location, the Broadway Brewery.
In 1864, Anthony severely injured his left arm, leaving him partially disabled, but he didn't quit brewing. Then in July of 1865, all that changed. The following is a newspaper account from the July 4th edition of the Daily Alta California:
"Anthony Durkin, the brewer who was disabled about a year since, by falling under a street car which fractured his left arm so that it was found necessary to perform the operation of excision of the elbow joint, met with another unfortunate accident while running to the fire with Engine Company No. 2, on Sunday morning. He tripped and fell while holding by the rope, and his arm, which had become in a measure useful again, went under the wheel of the engine, which crushed it into a shapeless mass, making what is termed by surgeons a 'compound comminuted fracture' of the worse description. Dr. Murphy, who is attending upon Mr. Durkin, has little hope of being able to avoid a full amputation this time."
As a consequence of the accident, Anthony sold his interest in the brewery to his partner, the month after the incident.

Historic Beer Birthday: Gottlieb Brekle

February 23, 2026 By Jay Brooks

anchor-retro
Today is the birthday of Gottlieb Brekle [or sometimes spelled ‘Breckle’] (February 23, 1821-January 25, 1888). He was born somewhere in Germany, most likely Württemberg, though possibly Ludwigsburg or Hamburg, arriving in America on July 31, 1852, along with his wife Marie and young son Frederick. In 1871, according to Anchor, “Brekle bought an old beer-and-billiards saloon on Pacific Street near Russian Hill for $3,500, transforming it into the American brewery that, twenty-five years later, would be renamed Anchor” when it it was bought by “German brewer Ernst F. Baruth and his son-in-law, Otto Schinkel, Jr.” Given how long ago Brekle was born, not to mention all of the records lost due to the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, little is known about Brekle’s life, and I don’t know of any pictures of him. Even the spelling of his name seems uncertain, with records existing where it’s spelled Breckle, Breckel, and Breckels, too, making trying to find information a lot harder.

After Gottlieb, or George, as he took calling himself later, died, his son Frederick took over the business. Since we know the brewery was sold in 1896, we can be pretty sure Gottlieb died before then, but it could have been in 1888, or some other year, nobody seems sure. Anchor wrote on their blog, in a piece entitled Under the Crown: A Brewery is Born, which I assume was written by Anchor’s historian Dave Burkhart (who I consider a friend) that Gottlieb Brekle’s naturalization papers indicate he became a citizen in 1854, and they display a small image of those papers.

But as much as it pains me, I’m not sure that’s right. Look at the paper blown up a bit, so it’s a little easier to read.

1854-Brekle-Naturalization-Papers-zoom

From what I can make out, he was a subject of the King of Württemberg on September 21, 1861, but became a U.S. citizen August 5, 1854, which I don’t quite understand, but then some of language is hard to read. But the name on that document appears to be “Carl Gottlieb Breckles,” so I’m wondering if it may be a different person?

cal-register-1880-1

I found this document on Ancestory.com, which is a voter “Register 7th Precinct, 4th Ward, San Francisco County, 1880.” Line 34, the third from the bottom, lists a Gottlieb Brekle, age 59 (which would make his birth year 1821 if he was 59 in 1880). It also lists his occupation as “Brewer” and his address as “1431 Pacific,” in San Francisco. But more telling is that last column, which lists the date he was naturalized. And for Gottlieb, what’s listed is August 4, 1879. And more confirmation is in the line below, where it lists a Frederick Brekle, also listed as a “Brewer” and living at the same address. Since we know that was his son’s name, it seems pretty clear that this document is referring to our Gottlieb Brekle.

anchor-brewery-early-1900s-lg
The Anchor Brewery in the early 1900s.

Sadly, there isn’t much more known, though Anchor also has some more information they found in researching newspapers at the time.

Fortunately for researchers of San Francisco history, most of its early newspapers survived. In early 1874, San Francisco’s largest brewery—the Philadelphia Brewery—took out an ad in an SF paper to brag that it had sold more beer than any of SF’s other 33 breweries the previous year. Anchor, then called the Golden City Brewery, ranked 29th out of 34, with sales of just 585 barrels, the equivalent of about 8,000 cases of beer. If that seems like a lot of beer, our brewery’s sales in 1873 were just .33% (not 33%, not 3.3%, but .33% or 33/100 of 1%!) of total sales in barrels by all SF breweries!

In 2011, Anchor Brewing released a beer named after their first brewmaster, Brekle’s Brown.

Brekles-logo

And here’s a short video Anchor released at the time.

Beer Birthday: J.J. Phair

February 23, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of J.J. Phair, co-founder of E.J. Phair Brewing. J.J. started homebrewing in 1990, and ten years later opened his brewery, which is named for his grandfather Ewart John Phair, who was an amateur winemaker and beer lover, as a way to honor E.J. The brewery’s had its ups and downs (though mostly ups), and today their current location is in Alamo. Join me in wishing J.J. a very happy birthday.

P1070555 — J.J. and Craig Cauwels at the E.J. Phair brewery taproom in 2012.

J.J. at the Bay Area Beer Festival in 2006.

Beer Birthday: Sayre Piotrkowski

February 21, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 45th birthday of Sayre Piotrkowski (February 21, 1981- ). Sayre’s from Oakland and has been part of the Bay Area beer scene since at least 2012, and has been an Advanced Cicerone since 2024. He’s been involved in several beer bars and restaurants, and also HenHouse Brewing. He also put on the Freshtival, a beer festival of fresh beer. He also was doing beer consulting on Beer & Soul. More recently, he’s taken over as the Executive Director at the Bay Area Brewers Guild and is putting on this year’s San Francisco Beer Week, which began yesterday. I’ve known Sayre since his days at the Hog’s Apothecary in Oakland, and he’s a great advocate for better beer. I expect him to do great things with the guild and beer week. Join me in wishing Sayre a very happy birthday.

Sayre and me at the Bistro during this year’s Double IPA Festival.

At Drake’s in early January of 2023 for an SF Beer Week collaboration.

Drake’s Brewing To Form West Coast Craft Joint Venture With Figueroa Mountain

February 20, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Drake’s Brewing of San Leandro, California, announced that they are partnering with Central Coast California brewery, Figueroa Mountain Brewing, which is headquartered in Buellton, to form a joint venture called “West Coast Craft” (WCC). Drake’s Brewing CEO John Martin and Figueroa Mountain Brewing CEO Jaime Dietenhofer are referring to the new entity as a strategic partnership and as a new beer and beverage collaboration. The “joint venture is designed to support long-term brand sustainability, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen independent craft beer across the state.” According to the Brewers Association definition and Circana data (which collects data on beer sales), the combined brands will establish WCC as one of the top three independent craft beer producers in California.

I spoke to Drake’s co-owner John Martin last night, and he emphasized this was a way to help both breweries do better in an increasingly challenging and difficult market. The two companies will remain independent but will share resources, brewing facilities, and their expertise and experience. Expect to see more Figueroa Mountain beer in the Bay Area and likewise be able to find more Drake’s and Bear Republic beer in Central and Southern California.

Here’s more from the press release:

“Establishing a strong and compelling brand partnership was important to both Jaime and me, so discerning the right fit to ensure quality, consistency, and the continued focus of serving our longstanding communities was critical in our decision to work together” said John Martin, Co-Owner and CEO of Drake’s Brewing Company. “Combining Drake’s strong distribution partners in Northern California with Figueroa Mountain’s reach in Southern California and the Central Coast made sense, with the added opportunity to grow each other’s brands outside of their original strongholds.”
Jaime Dietenhofer, CEO of Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company, added, “beyond bringing together top-notch California regional brands, we were delighted to find immediate alignment on company culture, dedication to quality, and a shared approach to measured, deliberate brand growth. This partnership positions both companies for long-term success while staying true to what made us successful in the first place.”
Under the WCC partnership, all brands will remain independent when it comes to marketing, branding, and innovation. There is no change in ownership of Drake’s Brewing or Figueroa Mountain Brewing, and all beers will continue to be brewed to the same recipes, quality standards, and specifications consumers expect.
Leveraging efficiency and capacity, production will be shifted between breweries for best fit. Figueroa Mountain’s Buellton facility will handle most core brand production, while Drake’s San Leandro brewery will focus on innovation, including limited releases and alternative beverages, along with NorCal draft production and some contract brewing. All Drake’s & Figueroa Mountain retail locations and community-focused activities will remain unchanged and continue to be owned and managed by their respective breweries.
“Our brewing teams have worked closely together to ensure seamless continuity,” said Roy Kirkorian, Co-Owner of Drake’s Brewing Company. “This is an operational shift, not a brand shift. The beer in your glass remains the beer you love.”

The lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the trend of many people drinking less overall, have pushed a number of craft breweries to close recently. New data recently released indicates that for the second straight year, more breweries closed than opened across the U.S.

It’s great to see breweries getting creative and finding ways to keep making great beer.

About the two companies.

Drake’s Brewing originally was founded as Lind Brewing in 1989 by Roger Lind. He sold the brewery to a local coffee company in 1998 and they changed the name to Drake’s, which had been a name used for many of the beers. In 2008, John Martin and Roy Kirkorian bought the brewery. Martin, along with his brother Reid Martin, also started Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, one of the earliest brewpubs in the country when it opened in 1986. After taking the reins, Martin and Kirkorian opened Drake’s Barrel House in 2011, its brewery tasting room and a few years later, in 2016, opened Drake’s Dealership, a beer garden and restaurant in downtown Oakland at the site of a former Dodge automobile dealership. In 2018, they opened another satellite location in West Sacramento known as The Barn. In 2023, they also acquired Bear Republic Brewing.

Figueroa Mountain Brewing was founded in 2010 by father and son Jim and Jaime Dietenhofer in Buellton, California. Known for its award-winning beers, Figueroa Mountain brews true-to-style ales and lagers, with a portfolio that includes flagship beers Hoppy Poppy IPA, Lizard’s Mouth Imperial IPA, Point Conception IPA, and the Danish Red Lager. The brewery has won 35 GABF medals since they opened and holds the record with 15 consecutive years of winning a GABF medal. Figueroa Mountain currently has four locations, in Buellton, Santa Barbara, Los Olivos, and Westlake Village. Buellton is the home of their main manufacturing. Jim Dietenhofer passed away in 2019, and his son Jaime Dietenhofer continues to run the family-owned company as CEO.

Beer Birthday: Grant Johnston

February 19, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 72nd birthday of Grant Johnston. Grant was the original brewer at Marin Brewing when it opened in 1989, and spent a number of years at Black Diamond Brewing in Concord, California. Grant was very influential in the early days of Bay Area brewing, and he’s an incredibly talented brewer. A few years ago he moved to the midwest, and for a time he could be found working a few days a week at the Argus Brewery in Chicago. But more recently, he’s retired and happily making bread at home. A couple of years back, I was in Belgium at the Cantillon Brewery when in walked Grant, quite by chance, so you never know when you’re going to run into him. Join me in wishing Grant a very happy birthday.

First Beer In FV @ Marin Brewing 3:20:89 — Brendan Moylan and Grant shortly before Marin Brewing opened in 1989.

Wild Rice Ale @ Marin's 25th — Grant and Arne Johnston brewing his Wild Rice Ale for Marin’s 25th Anniversary.

bistro-judge-4 — Grant (on the right) judging the 2006 Double IPA Festival in the cellar of The Bistro, with Tom Dalldorf, Vicky, our hard-working beer steward in the middle, and the Toronado’s Dave Keene in profile on the left.

GABF Judges 1992 — Grant, bottom left, among the GABF judges for the 10th anniversary of the festival in 1992.

Beer Birthday: Brendan Moylan

February 16, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is Brendan Moylan’s 65th birthday. Brendan owns his eponymous Moylan’s Brewing and until very recently, Marin Brewing, which he closed a few years ago. He was a very active part of both the local and beer community, and each year used to put on the Breastfest to benefit breast cancer awareness. Join me in wishing Brendan a very happy birthday.