America's First Craft Brewery - Anchor Brewing Company - Closing

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Anchor Brewing Company announced Wednesday it is ceasing operations and liquidating its San Francisco-based business: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12291735/Americas-craft-brewery-shuts-127-years.html

The writing is on the wall: if you don't make an IPA, you won't make it in the craft beer industry.

This follows close on the heels of one of my favorite local breweries closing - Spencer Brewery - The only Trappist brewery in the U.S. is closing (and IPAs are to blame).

I wish I liked IPAs. I really do. Because they are everywhere and I would be in beer heaven right now. But I don't like IPA at all.

Edited July 13, 2023 by bresna

[Teasing the Korean]

I bet the guys who opened it 127 years ago looked exactly like the guys who run craft breweries today.

[Rabshakeh]

2 hours ago, bresna said:

Anchor Brewing Company announced Wednesday it is ceasing operations and liquidating its San Francisco-based business: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12291735/Americas-craft-brewery-shuts-127-years.html

The writing is on the wall: if you don't make an IPA, you won't make it in the craft beer industry.

This follows close on the heels of one of my favorite local breweries closing - Spencer Brewery - The only Trappist brewery in the U.S. is closing (and IPAs are to blame).

I wish I liked IPAs. I really do. Because they are everywhere and I would be in beer heaven right now. But I don't like IPA at all.

Very strong anti-IPA bias over in Rabshakeh corner too. They've effectively crowded out bitter and lager in large parts of the London pub scene (although this trend seems to be reversing now). Cheaper to make and easier to market.

I liked the Anchor brewery. Nice crisp taste and one of the few US beers that I used to chose if given the choice, so it will be missed.  But I had found that it had declined in the last ten years or so. I am not sure whether that was due to an attempt to chase the IPA market or some recipe change after a buy out or something. Hopefully I'll be corrected if I am wrong.

59 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I bet the guys who opened it 127 years ago looked exactly like the guys who run craft breweries today.

Ha!

[JSngry]

burp

[Niko]

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

Very strong anti-IPA bias over in Rabshakeh corner too. They've effectively crowded out bitter and lager in large parts of the London pub scene (although this trend seems to be reversing now). Cheaper to make and easier to market.

i think this trend is reversing, more and more people are kind of through with IPAs... I still like them but also find myself more interested in Belgian style beers these days... 

[Dub Modal]

Sad. They had a great product. But that doesn’t matter in the beer industry. Nasty business run by what is essentially a cartel. 

[mjazzg]

Porter's where it's at for me. Has been for a while

I agree that the IPA fashion has seen off too many other good beer types, including the original India Pale Ales.

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by mjazzg

[Dub Modal]

IPAs don’t dominate every local market but they are prevalent. 

[mjazzg]

Peak IPA a year or so ago in one of my locals that rightly prides itself on its selection, all eight or so pumps were IPA or a variant. Made me crave a good old fashioned pint of bitter

[Ken Dryden]

From the article I read about Anchor Brewing, several factors were involved in their closing:

The union achieved a rather large pay increase a few years ago.

Changes to their established packaging were not well received.

The Japanese firm that acquired them a few years ago didn't seem to know what they were doing.

It's always sad when an established firm around for over a century closes because of the incompetence of the current management.

It is much like having a favorite local restaurant. When the owners decide to sell and retire, the new owners promptly raise prices and change the menu drastically, then wonder where all the long time customers are.

[BFrank]

9 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

From the article I read about Anchor Brewing, several factors were involved in their closing:

The union achieved a rather large pay increase a few years ago.

Changes to their established packaging were not well received.

The Japanese firm that acquired them a few years ago didn't seem to know what they were doing.

It's always sad when an established firm around for over a century closes because of the incompetence of the current management.

It is much like having a favorite local restaurant. When the owners decide to sell and retire, the new owners promptly raise prices and change the menu drastically, then wonder where all the long time customers are.

Yeah - those are the primary reasons. I was concerned when they sold out to Sapporo about 6 years ago. And then really surprised when they changed the label design - that was part of the charm. 

[Dub Modal]

I didn’t realize they had been acquired by Sapporo. At that point they’re just a part of a portfolio. 

[Stompin at the Savoy]

Wasn't Sapporo the beer company that briefly had the English slogan: "Have a Sapporo Beer!  You'll never want another beer!"

[BFrank]

There's now talk that the current employees are searching for a way to buy the brewery and run it as an employee-owned cooperative

[Brad]

7 hours ago, BFrank said:

There's now talk that the current employees are searching for a way to buy the brewery and run it as an employee-owned cooperative

That would mean taking on a lot of debt. The likelihood of financial success is not high. Sapporo is already entertaining offers for sale of the assets so the employees are going to need come up with financing relatively quickly. 

[danasgoodstuff]

If it becomes an employee owned co-op that would be great, or at least it could be.  and I would do my best to support them as much as I reasonably could.  but it's hard to know how viable it might be - they would probably end up with a serious debt load, competition is fierce, and any down time just gives them a bigger hill to climb.

[GA Russell]

I haven't thought of Fritz Maytag in a long time.

I didn't know that he sold the company in 2010.

 

[Big Beat Steve]

Not being a beer drinker at all, I had to look up what IPA exactly is.

I understand the problem, though of course taste-wise I do not have an opinion.

But ... no more airplay for this one, then?

 

 

[adh1907]

What a shame. Still remember first draft Anchor at Vesuvio’s SF in the 80s after visiting City Lights. Was a good flavourful beer then, when there weren’t many around. Sam Adams or Rolling Rock were the only other ones I recall worth drinking at that time.

[danasgoodstuff]

Found a 6 pack today, wasn't cheap but I bought it anyway.

[Dmitry]

First I hear of this company, but I'm no beer aficionado. IPAs are like bitter medicine. I can't imagine some really liking the taste. I'll never knowingly drink one. An average IPA drinker to me looks like this - groomed shovel beard, cowboy shirt, jeans, festive socks, thick-rimmed glasses, college-educated white guy, into prog rock or similar, thinks he's macho.

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by Dmitry

[clifford_thornton]

Haha, well, you got me on festive socks and thick glasses, but the rest of it doesn't track.

Anchor Steam is good. It's been decades since I've had it, though -- the proliferation of microbrews and faux microbrews kind of pushed it out of rotation and their distribution took a hit in the last 15 years as well. You'd think Sapporo would've fixed that but they didn't.

Also, I have read that the employees put in a competitive bid to buy it out from Sapporo but I'm not sure if that will work out. Hopefully.

[JSngry]

Did somebody mention Rolling Rock? The best lawn mowing beer ever! 

[Dan Gould]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Did somebody mention Rolling Rock? The best lawn mowing beer ever! 

So, this is beer best consumed on the back (or front) porch, the smell of freshly mown grass in the air, but not especially good with Chinese, Mexican, a cheeseburger or BBQ or any other food that is enhanced by a decent Pilsner beer?

 

 

 

[JSngry]

Pretty much, yeah. 

And also served ice cold when dren drenched in an honest 90+-degree afternoon sweat. 

I used to do our own yardwork, and I used to play around with a lot of different kinds of "fancy" beers. But nothing - nothing - worked better after a good hot sweaty lawn mow than Rolling Rock. 

And when it was really hot, like 95+, two would go down just as easily as one. More than that, hey, that's just drinking beer to be drinking beer. Not exactly a pursuit that requires a discriminative taste... 

I found it a bit light to stand up to heftier "American" meals, and in colder weather, there's really no point. But if I was to ever resume doing yardwork, I would not do it until I had a 12-pack of Rolling Rock stashed away in the far back of the icebox, where the cold lives to serve humanity at no extra charge.