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Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

sfgate.com

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Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#71

Post by Dalewyn »

ecshafer wrote: post #50
subpixel wrote: post #40

I live in New England. There isn’t a single brewery in any New England state that would cause an uproar if it ceased to sell beer tomorrow. Sure I have some preferred beers but they are all interchangeable in the big picture. Such is progress - there is no more regional taste, only trend. Even the bottle conditioned beer you stand in line for on vacation - a bottle of Duvel will be reliably better and probably cheape…

Sam Adams and and Trillium would both probably cause a bigger uproar than this Anchor Brewing company, which honestly I have never heard of not being in California.

I always chuckle at the idea of calling Sam Adams "craft" beer, but I guess they do check all the boxes for it.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#72

Post by reducesuffering »

totallychinese wrote: post #52
reducesuffering wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, one local example relevant to TFA and that I know of is the Bay Area. Anchor, Drake's, 21st Ammendment, Lagunitas, Das Brew, Altamont, and Fieldwork all make better tasting beer than Heineken.

Just about every major metro in the US likely has a brewery making better tasting beer than Heineken. That’s not what Heineken is going for.

Which is why I was refuting OP's statement:

> How many locally-produced lagers actually taste better than Heineken?

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#73

Post by iJohnDoe »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #65

>sold to Sapporo in 2017 Ah, I was wondering where the pressure was coming from. The idea that this 150 year old brewery is closing down a truly cornerstone beer in craft beer history because the label art is expensive - despite weathering untold recessions and tough periods - strains credulity

My key takeaway as well. The moment I read that line I knew it was just corporate budgeting. EBIDA strikes again.

They purchased the company because they were successful and will then proceed to kill the company by doing the exact opposite things that made them successful.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#74

Post by jmspring »

version_five wrote: post #4

I remember getting Anchor Steam in California nearly 20 years ago, having been told about it by a relative as something to try. And having been happy to try a different tasting beer. The other California one I liked was Sierra Nevada pale ale. I feel like that was a much more innocent time. Now no matter where you are, there's a pile of competing craft beers, trying to out do one another across different dimensions (…

Anchor Steam was my goto beer for a long time. I really miss Anchor Porter - I found a 6-pack of it back in 2003 while living in Helsinki (I was missing home/California). I ponied up the 18 euros (then) for the 6 pack and drank it like it was a rare gift - it was the last one they had.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#75

Post by malablaster »

ecshafer wrote: post #50
subpixel wrote: post #40

I live in New England. There isn’t a single brewery in any New England state that would cause an uproar if it ceased to sell beer tomorrow. Sure I have some preferred beers but they are all interchangeable in the big picture. Such is progress - there is no more regional taste, only trend. Even the bottle conditioned beer you stand in line for on vacation - a bottle of Duvel will be reliably better and probably cheape…

Sam Adams and and Trillium would both probably cause a bigger uproar than this Anchor Brewing company, which honestly I have never heard of not being in California.

Some of the younger readers might not realize that Anchor was at the forefront of the American craft brewing renaissance. Back then Canadians would laugh at USA beer as all tasting like water. Only Europe had craft brew. Fast forward to now and the market is saturated. There are more craft breweries per capita in the USA than in Germany. We’re beyond peak craft brew.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#76

Post by olivermarks »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #30
TylerE wrote: post #25

The article buried the lede. "Anchor, founded in 1896, was saved from bankruptcy in 1965 by longtime owner Fritz Maytag, and _sold to Sapporo in 2017_, Singer said." It ceased to be an independent local brewer almost a decade ago. The corporate overlords are doing what corporate overlords always do.

> The corporate overlords are doing what corporate overlords always do. Killing what doesn't make money? If this was profitable what exactly are the 'corporate overlords' achieving here?

I know quite a bit about Anchor, who used to be an SF institution. After the new Giants baseball park was built in 2000 Anchor as an independent local company were going to build an additional brewery there in 2013. https://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/Anchor-Br...

Sadly this never came to fruition due to the big beer bust a few years later. Lagunitas sold out to Heineken, Anchor to Sapporo etc - there was a big drop off in sales due to all the endless 6 month lifespan craft IPAs that split the market (many of these went bust too).

Lagunitas and Anchor are now a shadow of their former selves after cost cutting etc. Keith Greggor's innovations when he was running Anchor are now a distant memory. The recent mediocre rebranding of Anchor is an indicator of how out of touch Sapporo are with the market.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#77

Post by s1mon »

x3n0ph3n3 wrote: post #26

Back in college, my friends and I got a pony keg of the Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ale -- probably our biggest beer mistake. We had to force ourselves to finish it and punished each other with beer pong just to empty the damn thing. I don't think I could ever touch that beer again.

Their Christmas ale is different every year. I coincidentally just went on the tour of the Anchor Brewery last weekend. They already had a preview of what this year's Christmas ale will be, but they only sample it there.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#78

Post by ryandamm »

Dalewyn wrote: post #71
ecshafer wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sam Adams and and Trillium would both probably cause a bigger uproar than this Anchor Brewing company, which honestly I have never heard of not being in California.

I always chuckle at the idea of calling Sam Adams "craft" beer, but I guess they do check all the boxes for it.

I read an article in a craft brewing mag (might’ve been “Celebrator” circa 2003) that pointed out how the craft brewers association kept revising upward the number of barrels/year production that still qualified as “craft” so that it continued to accommodate Sam Adams.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#79

Post by bamfly »

Dalewyn wrote: post #71
ecshafer wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sam Adams and and Trillium would both probably cause a bigger uproar than this Anchor Brewing company, which honestly I have never heard of not being in California.

I always chuckle at the idea of calling Sam Adams "craft" beer, but I guess they do check all the boxes for it.

All their beers taste like one beer with some kind of flavor packets added to them to get the different varieties. I don't know if that's what they do—surely it's not?—but damn is it ever what it tastes like. I've never encountered another brewery that gives me that vibe.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#80

Post by jt2190 »

subpixel wrote: post #40

I live in New England. There isn’t a single brewery in any New England state that would cause an uproar if it ceased to sell beer tomorrow. Sure I have some preferred beers but they are all interchangeable in the big picture. Such is progress - there is no more regional taste, only trend. Even the bottle conditioned beer you stand in line for on vacation - a bottle of Duvel will be reliably better and probably cheape…

The founder of Boston Beer Company (brewers of Sam Adams) has talked about how beer drinkers now want to try one of everything and are endlessly moving from label to label, whereas in the past drinkers would settle on one brand and stick with it for years. This hurts the “small” (versus “micro”) brewers like Anchor because they’re viewed as “too corporate”.
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