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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

#291

Post by bartread »

jamiek88 wrote: post #240
giantg2 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a point to the marketing and shifting norms... I would call a 4-5% beer normal, not low, ABV.

5% used to be considered high or an ‘export’ lager when I was a lad. We called Stella Artois at a massive 5.2% “wife beater”. Typical session lagers like Heineken were around 3.5%.

Yeah, I'd call normal anywhere between 3.5 - 5%, with session beers being anything A lot of these are just too much, and too weird (as I and many others have commented), for day to day drinking. Nowadays I mostly drink session beers because I normally have to worry about driving, getting up early, or functioning in some at least semi-useful way later in the day.

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

#292

Post by paulmd »

bartread wrote: post #90
krustyburger wrote: post #21

It’s important to note that Anchor as a division is being shut down as a cost-saving measure by its owner Sapporo, a transnational, publicly-traded corporation. Sapporo says they have tried to find a buyer for Anchor, but to no avail. Meanwhile Sapporo recently purchased Stone Brewing in San Diego and are beginning Sapporo production there while still making Stone beers. If Sapporo hadn’t also bought Stone, presumabl…

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…

> [1] Pure speculation: I don't remember ever trying any of Stone's beers so have no comment to make on their quality or otherwise.

Most of the Stone beers I've tried have ranged between "meh" and "pour out the can". Buenaveza (salt and lime cerveza) is the only one I've really enjoyed from them, and I've given them a number of tries. Buenaveza is a perfectly fine lawnmowing beer or party beer though and I do get it occasionally, but there's also several other cervezas here that are super good and super cheap too (Cerveza Delray is great).

They seem reasonably popular so it's entirely possible it's just me, I'm a picky drinker and I know what I like and don't like. But that said, it doesn't seem like "brewed by stone" is some massive mark of quality for sapporo, at least to me. Maybe they're good relative to the alternatives who could produce beer at macro scale.

(is there a term for the Goose Island-style operations that are owned by macrobrews and produce relatively large quantities? Some of those operations really straddle the line between macro and micro.)

Anyway though, there are definitely companies where I agree with the head brewer's taste and ones where I don't.

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

#293

Post by kelnos »

jccalhoun wrote: post #71
rco8786 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question. Why is this important to note?

I don't live anywhere near this place so I may be wrong but because the article makes it sound like some small company is closing when in reality is it a division of a company that is closing. So to me it doesn't matter any more than when Coke stopped making Tab.

It matters because Anchor has been an iconic independent brand for over 125 years, and was only more recently bought by a giant multinational brand. I'm not surprised a local news outlet mainly identifies Anchor by their longevity and nostalgia value, and doesn't put much emphasis on the (IMO sad) fact that they haven't been independent since 2010.

I personally didn't care for the limited beer choices they made available to bars, but some of the things available in their tap room in SF were really good. It's a shame to see them go, though I think more in the "sign of the times" way than the idea that I'll actually miss their beer.

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

#294

Post by bartread »

efsavage wrote: post #258
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…

My beer journey started in the 90s and Anchor had good distribution when such things were difficult for smaller brands, but even back then it was always the last beer in the cooler at a party. I'm surprised they lasted this long.

> the last beer in the cooler at a party.

I'm a bit surprised by this. I think a lot of my disappointment with Anchor stems from the fact that people raved about, and feted them, whereas to me they were always at about the level of a fairly mediocre British ale (sorry). But then, on the other hand, if what you're used to is Bud, Coors, etc.[0], then they're absolutely going to be a breath of fresh air, so it sort of blows me away to hear that it was so unpopular at parties.

I guess it all depends on point of view and I absolutely don't want to come off as gatekeepy about what good beer is because, as I said in my original comment, the last 20 years US brewers have really pulled it out of the bag with a ton of absolutely great beers that can stand amongst the best. I forget exactly when but I guess I had Anchor Steam Beer for the first time somewhere between 2005 and 2009, just as the craft beer movement was starting to build up steam.

Back in 2005 a friend and I took a roadtrip partway across the US, including a stop at Salt Lake City. Irony of ironies, that's where we had the best beers on the trip, in a "private members club" (literally just a bar). I particularly enjoyed a local brew called "Polygamy Porter" - a really lovely beer, and better than anything I've had by Anchor in the years since. No idea if it's still in production, although I hope so.

[0] Of all the mass produced beers in the US I do have quite a big soft spot for Blue Moon, to the point that if a bar offers it, because it's relatively uncommon in the UK, I'll often order it in preference to craftier offerings, particularly if those craftier offerings are mostly IPAs or APAs.

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

#295

Post by kelnos »

______ wrote: post #210
xkgwkdmgjtx wrote: post #143

I hesitate to post this hearsay accusation, but it hasn't been mentioned in this thread and it might be important to discuss. I talked to Anchor employees after the news about stopping the Christmas Ale and stopping sales outside of California. They told me the writing was on the wall that Anchor would be closed down and sold for scraps. They were adamant that the root issue here is Sapporo mismanagement, not anythin…

I met a former Anchor brewer who left and moved to at a brewery in Flagstaff AZ two years ago, they seemed pretty unhappy back at Anchor.

I don't mean to invalidate or deny this person's experience, but I think it's unavoidable that any business will have at least a few employees who aren't happy working there, for whatever reason. It doesn't have to mean working conditions are bad or that there's something wrong with the company, and it doesn't have to mean the employee is bad at their job or has unrealistic expectations; sometimes it's just not a good fit.

On the other hand, employees having the opinion that their parent company is mismanaging the business (while still sticking with them) is a little bit more compelling to me as being potentially true.

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

#296

Post by bartread »

kelnos wrote: post #289
kulshan wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a craft beer bar, in general folks want live fresh beer...I pour 1 stout for every 50 Ipas I pour. We have the option but folks love their pale ales and ipas. Anchor would just go bad on our rotation...a freshly brewed pilsner, i'll sell a bunch. A blaise steam beer that isn't "fresh" isn't winning any body over. That said I'm a big fan of anchor porter, the general public is not.

I do wonder how much of this phenomenon is just self-reinforcing. Sell a large variety of IPAs, and only a small number of other choices, and sure, people will tend to gravitate toward IPAs. Add on top of that heavy marketing of IPAs over other options, and people will gravitate toward them.

I think this is a lot of it: people order IPA because they think they know what it is and because they're everywhere. It's the John Smith's of the 2010s/20s.

I went through a phase of drinking a lot of different IPAs, and it was fun, but now I'm looking at other options. The IPA thing has just been overdone and there are only so many iterations of weird IPA formulae that I can deal with.

I will still drink IPA if that's the only ale/craft beer on offer in the bar... and that really goes back to your point about self-reinforcement.

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

#297

Post by kelnos »

hyperbovine wrote: post #234
munificent wrote: post #225

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…

Heh, I wish there were four sours at most bars; that's what I usually find most interesting and tasty (I also enjoy porters/stouts, but rarely see much of those these days). Most bars I see don't even have sours, and if they do, it's usually only one or two, at most.

I was never the biggest beer drinker, but the lack of choice (and flood of crappy IPAs over the past couple decades) has only pushed me farther toward cocktails and wine.

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

#298

Post by kulshan »

kelnos wrote: post #289
kulshan wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a craft beer bar, in general folks want live fresh beer...I pour 1 stout for every 50 Ipas I pour. We have the option but folks love their pale ales and ipas. Anchor would just go bad on our rotation...a freshly brewed pilsner, i'll sell a bunch. A blaise steam beer that isn't "fresh" isn't winning any body over. That said I'm a big fan of anchor porter, the general public is not.

I do wonder how much of this phenomenon is just self-reinforcing. Sell a large variety of IPAs, and only a small number of other choices, and sure, people will tend to gravitate toward IPAs. Add on top of that heavy marketing of IPAs over other options, and people will gravitate toward them.

Well we have 10 taps...representing nearly 10 styles...I'll tell ya I change pale and Ipa every shift. The others, once a week.

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

#299

Post by azinman2 »

WatchDog wrote: post #179
sfpotter wrote: post #117

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.

But who says that’s related?

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

#300

Post by Der_Einzige »

balderdash wrote: post #277
sfpotter wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s on the ropes in corporate America - but not in the public sector.

Labor movements don't like public sector unions. When unions are talked about, it's almost entirely assuming private sector unions.
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