SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

Post by eweise » Wed, Jul 12, 2023, 6:02 PM UTC

dreamcompiler wrote: post #137

rco8786 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question. Why is this important to note?

For me it's the end of an era. I started drinking Anchor in the 1980s on frequent trips to Silicon Valley. This was long before microbreweries existed or were even legal in most places, with two exceptions that I'm aware of: Anchor in San Francisco and Shiner in Texas. One's choices of beer in the US included the ones made by the giant breweries and ... almost nothing else except Anchor and Shiner, which were both mu…

Post by bamfly » Wed, Jul 12, 2023, 6:05 PM UTC

dbcooper wrote: post #101

tristor wrote: post #94

This 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'…

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?

Post by munificent » Wed, Jul 12, 2023, 6:06 PM UTC

necubi wrote: post #214

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…

The trend isn't away from drinking, it's away from beer. Seltzers and other malt-based drinks have had huge growth in the past few years, mostly at the expense of beer sales, and liquor sales are up as well. Slate's been doing a great series over the past week about these trends if you're interested: https://slate.com/tag/beer-package .

Post by renewiltord » Wed, Jul 12, 2023, 6:10 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #225

necubi wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trend isn't away from drinking, it's away from beer. Seltzers and other malt-based drinks have had huge growth in the past few years, mostly at the expense of beer sales, and liquor sales are up as well. Slate's been doing a great series over the past week about these trends if you're interested: https://slate.com/tag/beer-package .

I wonder how much of this is the beer industry eating its own seedcorn by focusing more and more on super bitter IPAs that beer snobs love at the expense of more middle of the road palatable beers. The long term consequence of that plus beer snobbery looking down on light beers is that younger drinkers with sweeter palates just don't drink beer at all because the beer that is socially acceptable is too bitter for the…

Post by ibejoeb » Wed, Jul 12, 2023, 6:14 PM UTC

ecocentrik wrote: post #191

bartread wrote: post #90

Earlier 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…

This news has nothing to do with lack of innovation. The entire beer market is currently contracting. Also, not everything needs to innovate. Every field needs a canon of notable creations that have stood the test of centuries or millennia and beer brewing is no exception.