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Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

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

#111

Post by stephencanon »

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…

Any of Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, or Lawsons would be an uproar, and they’re all within like 60 miles of each other. Across New England there are many.

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

#112

Post by mumblemumble »

htag wrote: post #85
malablaster wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> We’re beyond peak craft brew. Peak craft beer implies that the trend is now on a downward trajectory. I don't know if that is the case, craft beer feels really ingrained in the culture at this point. 1. Is there a decrease in craft breweries being started, or total gallons of craft beer being produced? 2. Is there a decrease in beer brewing hobby supplies?

To #1, at least according to the Brewers Association figures (https://www.brewersassociation.org/statistics-and-data/natio...), craft beer sales have been fairly stagnant since about 2015. That has been kind of a problem for an industry that was seeing investment at a rate that would seem to presume that this rocketshp was headed to the moon. And, maybe most pertinent to the situation for Anchor, regional and microbrewery beer sales have been in decline. The only segment of the craft beer industry that's growing is taprooms.

To #2, yes, at least in my area there are about half as many homebrew supply shops as there were ten years ago.

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

#115

Post by cherry_tree »

tptacek wrote: post #99
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

I'm not sure why that's hard to believe. For most of those 150 years, Anchor had a sector of the market to itself. But there are 9,552 craft breweries in the US today, and several hundred of them are quite excellent.

There are fewer brewers in the USA today than in 2017.

Beer market in the USA is larger today than in 2017.

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

#116

Post by bsder »

Qworg wrote: post #103
bsder wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you can get Yuengling in Texas, last I checked.

Yuengling is made in Pittsburgh and Tampa.

Pottsville, which is over by Philadelphia, not Pittsburgh.

And is also now brewed in Fort Worth: https://fortworthbusiness.com/restaurants/fort-worth-brewed-...

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

#117

Post by smashed »

bsder wrote: post #83
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

What is happening in the craft beer market? Ballast Point had a similar trajectory. They got bought for a gigabuck and now are just gone . Why the hell would you buy a company and then screw it up ? In the case of Ballast Point, all Constellation Brands had to do was leave the bought company alone . And, no, I don't believe that the issue is because you can buy great beers in every market. Hogwash. Maybe I can buy IP…

You are a few years behind the merger and acquisition market conditions.

The ballast point buy out by constellation brands was probably very much the peak of the craze around craft breweries.

Ballast point was very savy in increasing their unit sales numbers. That 12$ a 6 pack in the California market was unheard of at the time and made sales projections go off the charts.

Of course it was bullshit and unsustainable but their investors took it line and sinker..

The sheer amount of competition with thousands of breweries all over, to me means its a good local business (lifestyle in hn lingo), and a very tough regional business it you want to grow.

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

#118

Post by genocidicbunny »

xarope wrote: post #109
girvo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s also nice and strong - 9% iirc As all good stouts should be, in my humble opinion! My all time favourite beer is the BrewDog, Nogne and Mikkeller collaboration stout: the Black Tokyo Horizon. It's 17.2%!

17.2%?!? That led me down the rabbit hole to find out beers with very high alcohol content. Apparently Brewmeister Snake Venom, at ABV 67.5%, is the highest.

67.5% just sounds..bad. I'd be hard pressed to find a liquor that's easily drinkable at that ABV.

Something like Utopias by Sam Adams is 28%, and even at that point, you drink it more like a liquor than a beer.

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

#119

Post by pugworthy »

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

What makes you say it's closing down? The title contradicts that statement you make.

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

#120

Post by eyelidlessness »

pfranz wrote: post #107
eyelidlessness wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The skunky odor/flavor comes from light exposure to hops and it’s easily prevented with dark bottles or cans. Other herbs work well as preservatives and don’t get skunky at all. Beer can be shelf stable basically indefinitely if well kept, and often ages very well.

If it's easy to prevent, why is it so much more of a problem than for wine? Budweiser had a “born on date” and later switched it to a "freshest before" date. Other breweries insist on cold shipping--that's quite expensive.

It’s not really much of a problem. Beers that go skunky are typically sold in green or clear bottles. It really is the exposure of hops to light that causes it (and I have confirmed it with homebrew batches where some bottles skunked up rapidly while others lasted multiple years with no such effects, and even aged quite well).

For beers like Bud that are mostly sold in cans, and/or Bud Light often sold in brown bottles, the date labels are generally a marketing gimmick to distinguish from other brands without getting into these kinds of specifics (they come off beer-nerdy and that’s off putting to a lot of their target market).

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