If their flagship had actually been a steam beer, I'd be sad, but as it was just a decent lager there are a billion replacements.
SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
181–190 of 358 posts
Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
#182Earlier 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…
> high temperature lagers and steam beers don't taste as good as typical low temperature lagers
Given I like Anchor & think almost all other lagers are absolutely vile piss water, I most strongly dispute this statement
Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought anchor steam is pretty good. What beer do you like?
I guess Sierra Nevada was a big influence early on, and since then I’ve come to appreciate a large variety, from more hoppy offerings from the likes of Russian River, Lagunitas, Stone and recently Almanac, to lagers from Pacifico and Dos Equis, several prominent Belgian brands, and some local sours. I enjoy a wide variety, but always thought of Anchor Steam as bland, malty, and mediocre, on the same low level as Fat…
>the mediocre beer I’ll begrudgingly drink
>I guess Sierra Nevada
Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
#184This doesn't surprise me. As somebody who got deep into craft beer, I have always thought of Anchor Steam as being relatively mediocre. They were likely a breath of fresh air well until the 1980s, but my the early 1990s there was a burgeoning US craft brewing revival that had a solid brewery (and in most cases better than Anchor) in every US state. They also aren't the only old craft brewery in the US, generally. It'…
How many readily available American Porters are better or even comparable to the Anchor Porter? I can only think of 1 (Sierra Nevada) off the top of my head. It's a sad that you can't just sell a Porter anymore. Have to throw banana and peanut butter in it or make it 15% alcohol to get accepted by the 'craft beer' aficionados.
If it’s not pretty much puréed & juiced hops or a fruit infused saison it seems the “craft” community hates it.
The craft beer community mostly seems to hate beer that is actually beer.
Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
> According to a press release, the brewery has been facing challenging economic factors and declining sales since 2016. Well before this "doom loop" shit was coined. Seems like a very long, slow loop if that's the case. Also, it seems like you created your account to talk about the doom loop on this thread. Edit: no, correction, your account is older but this is the only comment?
The doom loop started when SF became so expensive, it started to price out all the people and culture that made it unique and interesting. That certainly did start decades ago.
I feel you are moving the goal posts. The "doom loop" narrative only emerged in the last few months.
Lots of problems existed for a long time. Affordability is one. Smash and grab at tourist spots is another. Homelessness. Drugs in the tenderloin. All old problems. Then there are the pandemic problems, and relatedly, lack of demand for office and retail.
But there are a bunch of false narratives that SF suddenly became mad max in the last 3 years. That what the people who bring "doom loop" into literally every SF discussion seem to be on about. I suspect the person I replied to is thinking of this.
Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
#186I loved this beer when I was in my twenties. My college-age daughter and her friends, however, don't even drink beer. They drink this fruit-flavored hard seltzers.
Really surprising to me how long it took for the seltzers and cocktail in a can stuff to take off. Especially among college age people my informal survey has around 70% of people preferring their flavor yet until like 5 years ago the only fruity beverage widely available was mikes hard lemonade. And not only do most young people prefer the taste, seltzers are much cheaper to make than beer and require much less exper…
Maybe this has to do with bars wanting to sell cocktails to these consumers and they thought popularizing seltzers would lose them money? I'm not in the industry so I'm not sure how close of ties the Bar Industry has with Alcohol Companies but I'm sure there is a lot of lobbying back and forth.
Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a little surprised Anchor didn't do better. I personally got worn out by all the craziness and experimentation in the craft brewing scene. Really unique IPAs or sour beers were fun for a while, but after a while, I realized I just wanted something reasonably good and predictably normal, i.e. a Normal Good Beer. It seemed like Anchor was delivering on this, but maybe there were enough other options that they just…
> had a successful unionization effort Just forming a union should not be a measure of success. If it ultimately led to shutdown of the division because it was unprofitable, I would argue it was a pretty unsuccessful effort.
I haven’t seen anyone suggest unionization has had anything to do with it, in fact I’m going to groundlessly state that it probably is the only reason they lasted this long.
Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
#188This doesn't surprise me. As somebody who got deep into craft beer, I have always thought of Anchor Steam as being relatively mediocre. They were likely a breath of fresh air well until the 1980s, but my the early 1990s there was a burgeoning US craft brewing revival that had a solid brewery (and in most cases better than Anchor) in every US state. They also aren't the only old craft brewery in the US, generally. It'…
How many readily available American Porters are better or even comparable to the Anchor Porter? I can only think of 1 (Sierra Nevada) off the top of my head. It's a sad that you can't just sell a Porter anymore. Have to throw banana and peanut butter in it or make it 15% alcohol to get accepted by the 'craft beer' aficionados.
How about Deschutes’ Black Butte Porter [1]? It started regional but has been expanding distribution in recent years [2].
[1]: https://www.deschutesbrewery.com/news-media/2021-02-08/how-i...
[2]: https://www.deschutesbrewery.com/news-media/2021-03-22/more-...
Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that is an important point but, with that said, I'd suggest that perhaps the reason Anchor were struggling is they didn't really innovate. Rather they rested on the laurels of that 127 year heritage. Certainly a very personal opinion but the first time I tried Anchor beers sometime in the noughties I was underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong: they're certainly better than Bud, Coors, etc., but as a Brit coming fro…
I'm a little surprised Anchor didn't do better. I personally got worn out by all the craziness and experimentation in the craft brewing scene. Really unique IPAs or sour beers were fun for a while, but after a while, I realized I just wanted something reasonably good and predictably normal, i.e. a Normal Good Beer. It seemed like Anchor was delivering on this, but maybe there were enough other options that they just…
This seems to be a conclusion in the beverage world as well, the craft beer wave has broken and people are just trying to drink something that tastes like what it says on the label.
I home brew beer and the instinct is to make something crazy, but I get sick of my own experiments and double sick of paying 18$ for a 4 pack of someone else’s experiments. I could never stand being told that hop burn was a sign of craft beer, it’s a sign of a shit process and you should never have those flavors in your beer.
I’ve actually been shocked to discover hard kombucha with some fruit juice is great. I still drink my beer, but this stuff is light, refreshing, and it’s 7% so it gets the job done.
Anchor’s taste changed to me sometime after the acquisition, I liked it in years past and there was something off to me now.
Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years
#190Simply put, par for the course when it comes to what little of San Francisco's soul is actually left. Slowly dismantling the weird to make way for the boring.
Saporro has mismanaged this from the very start, they had no plan when they bought the company and will almost certainly turn to victim blaming and crying foul amidst their successful unionization effort in 2019.