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SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

abc7news.com

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Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#121

Post by awithrow »

ryandamm wrote: post #64
acheron wrote: post #39

> Anchor was established in San Francisco in 1896 and was the country's first craft brewery. So what definitions are being used here to claim this? Yuengling is quite a bit older, for example.

Yeah the article is a little muddled; it’s better to understand Anchor as the oldest existing brewery that makes what we think of as craft beer. When it started there were many small, local brewers making a variety of beers. Prohibition and changing tastes killed off most of the breweries — it helped to be above a certain size so you could profitable brew, say, malted syrups during prohibition. Those that remained af…

Yuengling's flaghsip is an Amber Lager, not a light lager in the same vein as bud/miller/coors. Also, they didn't introduce their amber until the 80s. Prior to that their main beer was their porter.

I don't think there is a coherent definition of craft breweries that includes Anchor but not Yuengling

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#122

Post by awithrow »

acheron wrote: post #39

> Anchor was established in San Francisco in 1896 and was the country's first craft brewery. So what definitions are being used here to claim this? Yuengling is quite a bit older, for example.

Its just plain incorrect. As you note, Yuengling is older (1829) and is considered a craft brewery by the Brewers Association. Given that this is just a local news website, I just assume they're not exactly doing a ton of work verifying the press release

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#123

Post by cpursley »

codyb wrote: post #114
softwaredoug wrote: post #107

The pandemic has triggered / accelarated a lot of trends One trend I wonder about is cutting back on drinking. From a health perspective, I see more and more health officials loudly saying no healthy amount of alcohol[1]. It's simply poison. Not that I'm aggressively for any kind of prohibition, and don't very rarely drink, but I wonder if we'll see increased awareness and more people just deciding not to drink as mu…

I've certainly been moving back towards lighter beers... those IPAs are too strong. You think 5% to 6% isn't a big deal cause it seems so small, but it's a 20% increase in alcohol content. 5% - 7% is a 40% increase! If you're drinking pints, it's like adding half a shot to every beer you drink. It adds up quick.

Yeah, same here. I really only drink beer in the summer. Enjoy a good IPA but alcohol level is too high as well as calories.

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#124

Post by asielen »

softwaredoug wrote: post #107

The pandemic has triggered / accelarated a lot of trends One trend I wonder about is cutting back on drinking. From a health perspective, I see more and more health officials loudly saying no healthy amount of alcohol[1]. It's simply poison. Not that I'm aggressively for any kind of prohibition, and don't very rarely drink, but I wonder if we'll see increased awareness and more people just deciding not to drink as mu…

Anecdotally in SF it seems like the only places that haven't been shutting down are bars. I lost many of my favorite restaurants and coffee shops, basically all the bars except one is still open.

But almost no one orders Anchor.

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#126

Post by floren »

mattmaroon wrote: post #118
acheron wrote: post #39

> Anchor was established in San Francisco in 1896 and was the country's first craft brewery. So what definitions are being used here to claim this? Yuengling is quite a bit older, for example.

Yuengling is not considered craft beer by a lot of people because it’s made mainly from adjuncts, in their case corn. It’s only recent that the Brewer’s Association changed the definition to include them, but most people in the industry disagree with it. Yuengling is just a cheaply made lager that’s really no better than Budweiser. But, that term doesn’t have an official definition so they still can claim the title.

> Yuengling is just a cheaply made lager that’s really no better than Budweiser.

Now, maybe in terms of production methods, but I've consumed plenty of Bud and absolutely gallons of Yuengling, and Yuengling stands apart. It's not fancy, but it's good.

College parties in Rochester would usually include Labatt, Molson, Yuengling, and Genesee. Only the Yuengling was worthy as a drinking beer; Labatt and Molson were just for shotgunning & pong, and Genesee was for joking about what it did to your bowels.

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#127

Post by AnotherGoodName »

tristor wrote: post #111
dbcooper wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an excellent beer of its type, and IMO of any beer type. It may be subtle, but not everything has to be an big hoppy IPA, or a sweet NEIPA etc. Do you also think that Pilsner Urquell, Jever, or Budvar are mediocre?

Anchor hasn't made actual steam beer in a very long time. Their brewing operation is effectively similar to most other mid-sized batch lagers, with modifications to bring it in line with their historic flavor profile. Historic steam beers were considered, even at the time, to be low-quality, and the method of making steam beer is primarily a way to make large quantities of beer at a low cost. Modern brewing is much m…

They really did use steam beer process fwiw. Big stainless steel swimming pools in open air and unrefrigerated. It wasn't completely outdoors but that's a fair change to the process. I think it's reasonable to consider this as steam beer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Brewing_Company#/media/...

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#128

Post by whartung »

I'm not a beer guy, but as I understand it many craft beers are actually made through contract brewers. That suggests that beer can be, well, "reduced" to a recipe that can be replicated. I've heard that Samuel Adams uses contract breweries, and, in fact, a fellow who used to work with us had his own private label that he went and got a bunch of cases brewed, made up a label, found a bottler, and sold locally.

Now, I know water quality is an important factor, but even then I've heard of pizza restaurants that have analyzed New York water (apparently an important aspect of New York Pizza) to the point of having it replicated (adding back proper mineral amounts, etc.).

So, I don't know how much of Anchor Steam is purely based on location.

If, however, it can be "just a recipe" suggests that it can be returned at any time if the corporate parent deigns it worthy to bring it back.

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#129

Post by floren »

sithadmin wrote: post #42
sparrish wrote: post #34

Honest question: how did this SF brewing company survive prohibition? If it really is 127 years old, it must have existed during prohibition. How was it not shut down then? I'm curious.

A lot of American brewers survived by switching to non-alcoholic beverages or selling the raw ingredients for home brewing and winemaking operations under the guise of 'baking ingredients' or the like. Some sold practically non-alcoholic 'near beer'/kvass-type malt drinks, but it wasn't especially popular.

The grape growers dehydrated grape juice and sold it in bricks as "instant juice", with instructions: "After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn into wine."

https://grapecollective.com/articles/prohibitions-grape-bric...

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#130

Post by VohuMana »

softwaredoug wrote: post #107

The pandemic has triggered / accelarated a lot of trends One trend I wonder about is cutting back on drinking. From a health perspective, I see more and more health officials loudly saying no healthy amount of alcohol[1]. It's simply poison. Not that I'm aggressively for any kind of prohibition, and don't very rarely drink, but I wonder if we'll see increased awareness and more people just deciding not to drink as mu…

I could definitely see this, I also wonder if this is why many breweries are scrambling to make non-alcoholic beers. The non-alcoholic beers have become so good IMO, I usually find myself reaching for one of those on a hot day rather than the real deal.
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