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SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

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

#261
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 beca…

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

#262

Earlier 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…

> Too bad, considering they're a local beer with a lot of history and had a successful unionization effort. 127 year old company, unionizes in 2019, shuts down in 2023, I wouldn't really call that successful.

Unions in the US are on the ropes. Union membership is down, and companies have loads of resources and help to stymie unionization efforts. Frankly, unionizing at all is a successful unionization effort at the moment, since it shows other people it can be done. Can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

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

#263

Earlier 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.

It should be. See my other comment.

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

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love porters but they're getting hard to find. Every supermarket is wall-to-wall IPAs. I assume they know what sells, so apparently that's what the market wants right now. You can't make a living brewing porters. I would be a lot more disappointed with this turn of events if I had access to their porter. But the ubiquitous steam beer was never one of my favorites.

Totally agree. The craft beer industry needs to stop with all this IPA nonsense. It’s absurd how hard it is to find anything but yet another weird IPA. If the craft beer industry is shrinking, this is one large component. Stop with the nonstop IPA’s. There is way more beers than just IPA’s.

Not sure why you were downvoted. What you say is true!

I’m a bit biased, but I’d like to see a few more Porters and Stouts.

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

#265
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…

That's how they lost me for sure. I can go to a local bar or microbrewery and see a huge beer on tap selection, but they're all bitter artsy stuff. It's nothing like 20 years ago when there was actually a pretty broad range of flavors on the menu. Reminds me of the old Ford quote "you can have any color you like as long as it's black".

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

#266

I 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…

Mike's Hard Lemonade fills basically the same ecological niche that cider does in the UK, and does it really well because American-style lemonade is great.

Canned cocktails are generally pretty bad, and hard seltzers are fine but does anyone really enjoy the flavor? I feel like they're just a convenient low-calorie way to get drunk.

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

#267
post #30

Earlier 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.

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

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. The craft beer industry needs to stop with all this IPA nonsense. It’s absurd how hard it is to find anything but yet another weird IPA. If the craft beer industry is shrinking, this is one large component. Stop with the nonstop IPA’s. There is way more beers than just IPA’s.

Not sure why you were downvoted. What you say is true! I’m a bit biased, but I’d like to see a few more Porters and Stouts.

Stouts are so good but even in a store with a large beer selection they are hard to find.

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

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I really despise this about the American beer industry. Your typical tap list these days is 8 IPAs, 1-2 dIPAs, 4 sours, something that contains coffee, some other weird shit (cucumber göse e.g.), and like one normal everyday lager or pilsener that isn't making some sort of personality statement and pairs well with food. Worse, this appears to be catching on among trendier bars in Europe, even in places like Munich an…

We need more Porters and Stouts! You’re lucky if you can even order a can of Guinness most places.
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