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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

#301

Post by kelnos »

edmundsauto wrote: post #157
sfpotter wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't the pandemic accelerate drinking, if anything?

I think it did both - seems like a barbell distribution. Medium drinkers became heavy drinkers, others drank less - but there was a change in the distribution. Lots more non-alcoholic options popped up as well, both for purchase at home but also a lot more restaurants list NA options for fancy drinks while out to eat.

> a lot more restaurants list NA options for fancy drinks while out to eat.

I've noticed this as well, as a few of my friends don't drink, or drink very little. Even just ~5 years ago, I think it was pretty rare to see a dedicated non-alcoholic section on a cocktail menu, with several interesting, flavorful options. But now it's... well, not quite standard, but pretty common, at least where I live.

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

#302

Post by xp84 »

ibejoeb wrote: post #229
ecocentrik wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd like to see what '23 the numbers look like before declaring it a contracting market. Sales by volume for the entire category are indeed down, but somewhere between 2-3%, and that is still likely attributable to the crash starting in 2020, when it was actually illegal to serve or even order beer in many places. (To this day, there are still aggressive measures taken against breweries, brewpubs, and taprooms, like…

Oh my gosh. Section 1 of that about tours. What a ridiculous ordinance. I assume all this is in there to protect some other class of business that lobbied for it, right? Like bars trying to prevent breweries from competing?

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

#303

Post by jerhewet »

ChainOfFools wrote: post #167
last_responder wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Stone is now off the buy list.

Thankfully San Diego and the whole region south of camp pendleton has about a hundred other excellent craft brews to choose from, including the beer that inspired Stone and out-stoned Stone even after Stone tried to copy it, Green Flash. Sadly it's nearly impossible to find these days, largely thanks to Stone.

Green Flash used to be amazing. Not any more.

https://www.brewbound.com/news/tilray-acquired-green-flash-a...

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

#304

Post by paulmd »

kulshan wrote: post #271
spookthesunset wrote: post #206

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.

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.

pale ales are frankly a lot more palatable than IPAs imo. When I looked back at the IPAs I liked, I realized most of them weren't actually IPAs, they were just pale.

but yeah I'm tired of being assblasted by overhopped west-coast IPAs. The ones I've liked, it turns out to be east coast. Even then, I'm tired of being hit over the head with hazy, juicy, mosaic, fruity, citra, etc. Very very rarely do I see these hops used effectively - Oddside Citra Pale Ale is an example of an exception.

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

#305

Post by xp84 »

jms703 wrote: post #200
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…

Why does a beer have to innovate?

It doesn’t have to necessarily, however, it does have to in inverse proportion to how much their product appeals to the market presently. If your popularity and sales, for instance, take a 50% hit, you’d better introduce some new product lines. That doesn’t have to mean abandoning your original recipe product.

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

#306

Post by jerhewet »

last_responder wrote: post #95
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…

Well Stone is now off the buy list.

They shouldn't be. Yes, they aren't as "amazing" as they used to be, but their staple IPA's are just as good as they've always been. I'm drinking one of their Delicious IPA's right now, and I'm enjoying it just as much as I did when they first released it. The new citrus variation on Delicious is one of my favorites.

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

#307

Post by paulmd »

kelnos wrote: post #290
spookthesunset wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

At least you can usually find Guinness. Obviously not the best stout in the world, but at least it's consistent and you know what you're gonna get.

Everyone rants about how great guinness is, but the draught cans taste incredibly watered-down to me for some reason. Extra Stout and Foreign Stout are fine and I have to imagine that's what guiness tastes like for EU customers.

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

#308

Post by paulmd »

photonerd wrote: post #176
splonk wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The local reports were that Anchor had been slowly losing money for years before the Sapporo acquisition. Supposedly Sapporo was intending to use the Anchor facility to brew Sapporo locally and then eventually found out that the site wasn't really suitable or would require too much renovation. Whether this led directly to the Stone deal, I don't know (I doubt it, given relative sizes, but it may have been a contribut…

Oddly I only have ever seen Anchor in bottles in the Bay, but it was (and is) still really popular as a beer of choice locally. I’m guessing it’s not the local market that’s the issue

Aldi carries them, I'd always seen them but assumed it was an Aldi knockoff brand lol.

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

#309

Post by kelnos »

deadballcretin wrote: post #190

Simply 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.

I think it's sad that such an iconic brand is shutting down, but Anchor's "weird" actually made their beer a fairly boring product. There are much more interesting options all over the place, though, like everywhere else in the US, there are still too many IPAs, to my endless disappointment.

Meanwhile, I have two great small breweries within an easy walking distance of my home in the Dogpatch (not far from where Anchor is/was): Harmonic Brewing and Olfactory Brewing (the latter of which just opened a few months ago).

It's always a shame when an iconic, century-old brand disappears, but it's not like Anchor's beer was all that unique or interesting.

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

#310

Post by kelnos »

deadballcretin wrote: post #239
jeffbee wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that in the absence of Anchor we will be at a loss for "soul" breweries is somewhat hilarious. Over my 40+ years of life the number of breweries in America has exploded 100-fold. In San Francisco and the immediate area craft breweries are almost a menace. There must be 5000 of them in California. If you insist that your beer be sourced from your immediate political jurisdiction, you could get beer from Fort…

I'm talking about the city, not the brewing scene. The brewery is a staple of the city and it is a shame to see it shutter in such a fashion. Looking at the rest of the scene and not what the brewery represents is intentionally missing the point of what I was trying to say. The city is being dismantled, bit by bit, being replaced with facsimiles of what people think San Francisco is supposed to be instead of letting…

You're using the brewing scene as a proxy for the city, so it's completely fair to dispute your claim about the brewing scene, and extrapolate that to the rest of the city.

SF has been having problems -- big problems -- sure, but there's still a lot of good here.

I'm bummed Anchor is disappearing, but not because I particularly liked their beer. Maybe iconic brands shouldn't stick around if they don't really bring all that much interesting to the table anymore.

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