The story of California lager begins in Truckee in 1875, with a railroad.

At the time, true lagers were nonexistent on the West Coast, since lagering requires cold temperatures, which in turn required the use of ice — which wasn’t widely available enough at the time. (The absence of ice led to the creation of Anchor’s signature steam beer.)

When a railroad was being built, one of the camps was stationed at the mouth of the Truckee River, where it meets the Little Truckee River. There was a pond, which turned out to be quite useful for harvesting ice. All of sudden, all the elements of brewery that could produce a real lager were evident to the founders of Boca Brewery: year-round ice, cold temperatures, fresh spring water, cold temperatures and most of all, a railroad to the Bay Area.

Boca Brewery (pictured above) released the first true California-made lager in time for the centennial celebration in 1876. They sold it for about 10 cents a glass and quickly, other breweries took note.

“This tiny little upstart brewery led to a lager beer revolution,” says Anchor Brewing historian Dave Burkhart. Soon, lagering sprung up in San Francisco and San Jose breweries.

“It created a battle between steam and lager beers because not all breweries had the wherewithal to make lager,” says Burkhart.

Boca burned down in a fire in the 1890s, but its impact was made.

***

This week, Anchor Brewing is revisiting the Boca legacy, with the release of their California lager, as part of the kickoff to Beer Week 2012 and the brewery’s own new Zymaster Series.

The lager is not based on any recipes from Boca — those are gone with the fire — but rather, it’s Anchor’s interpretation.

“We started to think ‘What would that first lager beer have been like?’ We started to investigate,” says brewmaster Mark Carpenter.

“The barley would be grown in California. The weather is a little different, but it should have that same sort of feel. Then what kind of hops? We decided they would’ve used Cluster hops, the oldest hops in America.”

Carpenter continues: “We think it would’ve been around 5 percent alcohol by volume because that was lager beer’s traditional ale strength, and we think it would’ve been much more bitter than any modern lager.”

And so, following a few months of planning and a few more of lagering, Anchor’s California lager officially arrives this weekend. It will be available on draft only, in select Bay Area bars (see list below) for a limited time.

“The wonderful thing about history,” muses Burkhart, “is building upon it.”

***

Bars that will feature Anchor’s California Lager

San Francisco:

Absinthe

Alembic

California Academy of Sciences

Comstock Saloon

Elixir

Jack’s Cannery Bar

Jasper’s

Mad Dog in the Fog

Maven

Pi Bar

Public House

Shotwell’s

Toronado

Tupelo

Wayfare Tavern

Zeitgeist

East Bay:

Free House (Berkeley)

Handles Gastropub (Pleasanton)

The Hop Yard (Pleasanton)

The Hop Yard (San Ramon)

Lake Merritt Hotel (Oakland)

Norm’s Bar & Grill (Danville)

Pete’s Brass Rail (Danville)

Tap 25 (Livermore)