> wrote in message
oups.com...

> Are there any other small beers so
> around the USA? I would like to purchase some so I could have a better
> idea. I do not live in San Francisco, and Anchor has a limited
> distribution of this beer.

There aren't any others that I'm aware of. One thing to keep in mind is it's
not a style; it's a technique. And it is a somewhat archaic one at that.

Anchor brews their Small by taking a second running from the mash for their
Old Foghorn barleywine. Without getting too much into brewing techniques,
modern brewing techniques usually consist of draining the liquid from the
mash (the soaking of the malt) while simultaneously adding additional liquid
to etract more converted sugars from the mash. With that process, the grain
is spent at the end.

Historically, it was more common to simply drain the liquid from the initial
mash, make a beer from that, add more liquid and drain again, make a
different beer from that, etc. It's one of the origins of the naming
convention still seen in some Belgian beers of double, triple, etc.

That's what Anchor's doing with their Small: the first mash goes to Old
Foghorn, and then they do a second running from the grain for the small.

Even the Belgians don't really follow this technique anymore, with some
occasional exceptions. As modern brewing science evolved, it was discovered
that it was more efficient (and therefore economical) to add a little extra
liquid to exttract maximum sugars from the mash rather than doing separate
runnings.

Anchor started doing so as a "what if," and it remains a specialty beer for
them. And to this point, I'm not aware of any other American brewers who are
doing that as well.

-Steve