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Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

sfgate.com

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Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#221

Post by rtpg »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #30
TylerE wrote: post #25

The article buried the lede. "Anchor, founded in 1896, was saved from bankruptcy in 1965 by longtime owner Fritz Maytag, and _sold to Sapporo in 2017_, Singer said." It ceased to be an independent local brewer almost a decade ago. The corporate overlords are doing what corporate overlords always do.

> The corporate overlords are doing what corporate overlords always do. Killing what doesn't make money? If this was profitable what exactly are the 'corporate overlords' achieving here?

Conspiracy stuff: just removing competitors outright and taking advantage of inroads to sell what they really want to sell (their own brands).

A similar thing I saw: Asahi was in charge of Budweiser distribution in Japan. Absolutely miserable sales (not that I like Budweiser, or would drink it by choice), almost no presence. AB got the rights back to sell it, and now Budweiser is a reliable presence in many places and I see it out there in ways I never did.

My head canon is that Asahi got the distribution rights purely to slow roll it and make it so that AB would have no reason to build up a local presence. That way Asahi protects its local brands and simply needs to send some executive once a year to be like "hey I dunno nobody seems interested in this drink"

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#222

Post by thom »

This pops up from time to time in the UK and I was always quite fond of it after a trip to San Francisco over a decade ago. Sounds like UK and US craft beer culture have suffered similar fates of exploding numbers of IPAs, very few of which seem to justify their existence. I live in Sheffield which has a very strong craft ale culture but one thing I like about the US is you get more interesting lagers and steam beers, whereas fizzy beers are mostly sneered at by aficionados here. But sometimes, for example the current heatwave in the UK (which I’m sure Americans would laugh at), nothing beats that Ice Cold in Alex moment.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#223

Post by monodeldiablo »

pdntspa wrote: post #197
brewdad wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I can choose not to give my money to someone who will use it to fund politicians who want to actively harm members of my family. Ain’t capitalism grand?

As someone targetted by the GOP's bullshit, I still don't care. Half-assed personal boycotts don't present the kind of numbers needed to effect change. Trump and his cohorts getting their asses locked up does. Burning everything to the ground that belongs to neonazis does. The BLM protests did far more damage and effected far more change than the combined power of everyone who boycotts Chik-Fil-A, Hobby Lobby, or Yue…

They're not mutually exclusive. I can boycott products made by sociopaths and vote/protest/run for local office.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#224

Post by debaserab2 »

pdntspa wrote: post #197
brewdad wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I can choose not to give my money to someone who will use it to fund politicians who want to actively harm members of my family. Ain’t capitalism grand?

As someone targetted by the GOP's bullshit, I still don't care. Half-assed personal boycotts don't present the kind of numbers needed to effect change. Trump and his cohorts getting their asses locked up does. Burning everything to the ground that belongs to neonazis does. The BLM protests did far more damage and effected far more change than the combined power of everyone who boycotts Chik-Fil-A, Hobby Lobby, or Yue…

Personal boycotts don't have to have a large impact or meaning outside of however you feel about them. They're just for you: you can decide to allow your principles affect your economic activity or you can default into the powerless assumption that it's not worth the effort.

I think it's a worthwhile exercise to ask yourself before you make a purchase somewhere that you feel OK with the ethical implications of your purchase - and I say this as someone who does compromise on my ethical positions constantly for convenience. It still matters.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#225

Post by trevyn »

brogrammernot wrote: post #183
jonathankoren wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IPAs really suck. There’s a plethora of beer types, and we get hoppy trash forced on us. Craft breweries love the IPA for three reasons. First, they’re one of the easiest beers to make. Second, they stay the most stable on the shelf/truck. Third, toxic style trend. But mostly, it’s the first two reasons.

Sorry, but this is misinformed. They are not one of the easiest beers to make, but in fact one of the hardest. They’re very susceptible to oxygen ingress and the high hopping rates can cause diacetyl production + hop creep which can ruin the beer. They’re also one of the most expensive beers to make based on the cost of hops and the typical amount of hops used per barrel produced. They do not stay the most stable on…

>There’s a reason why no one ships IPAs overseas... They don’t travel well.

Made me chuckle, thanks!

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#226

Post by smcl »

lamp_book wrote: post #171
pjm331 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raging Bitch is made by Flying Dog brewery whose art is done by Ralph Steadman - well known for his collaborations with Hunter S Thompson. I started drinking it because of that fact after reading Fear and Loathing for the first time in college. It’s also nice and strong - 9% iirc

I love Steadman’s art but refuse to buy Flying Dog beer since their owner is a giant asswipe (don’t remember the details just something to do with mistreating employees). Steadman also did the art for Anthony Bourdain’s cookbook - highly recommend that though. edit: HST’s story on the Kentucky Derby features Steadman prominently and it’s my favorite of his after/along with Fear and Loathing and Hell’s Angels. It’s pr…

Here's the HST piece in question - "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" - http://brianb.freeshell.org/a/kddd.pdf

I agree with the parent, it's a great piece and iirc it's where Thompson and Steadman first met up. If you're looking for something interesting to read during lunch today, this is for you.

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#227

Post by smcl »

_puk wrote: post #203
lamp_book wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh whoops I meant Flying Dog.

I think you can quite correctly substitute Flying Dog for Brew Dog in the "owner is an asswipe and I won't buy anything from him" stakes: 'BrewDog, the fast-expanding craft beer firm, has apologised to former employees who accused the company and its co-founder James Watt of fostering a “culture of fear” in which workers were bullied and “treated like objects”.' [0] 0: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/10…

BrewDog is a sad one for me. It was nice to see a brewery in the region I'm from (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) becoming a worldwide success. But their "punk" aesthetic is a bit cringe for a big corporate company, and the owner turning out to be a dick is a real turn-off and the beer isn't good enough for me to overlook it. There's another brewery in the area that I've been meaning to try out (likely impossible to find in Czech Republic), they've leaned into their Aberdeen identity pretty hard which is cool but idk what their beer is like https://www.fiercebeer.com

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#228

Post by ubercore »

girvo wrote: post #36
pjm331 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raging Bitch is made by Flying Dog brewery whose art is done by Ralph Steadman - well known for his collaborations with Hunter S Thompson. I started drinking it because of that fact after reading Fear and Loathing for the first time in college. It’s also nice and strong - 9% iirc

> It’s also nice and strong - 9% iirc As all good stouts should be, in my humble opinion! My all time favourite beer is the BrewDog, Nogne and Mikkeller collaboration stout: the Black Tokyo Horizon. It's 17.2%!

Those are some heavy hitters, would love to try that collab if I ever find it!

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#229

Post by smcl »

lmm wrote: post #186
girvo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s also nice and strong - 9% iirc As all good stouts should be, in my humble opinion! My all time favourite beer is the BrewDog, Nogne and Mikkeller collaboration stout: the Black Tokyo Horizon. It's 17.2%!

Just a waste IMO. Yes, sometimes I want a strong beer, but sometimes I want to spend an afternoon drinking and chatting with a friend. But I still want something that tastes good in that case!

Yeah the super-strong ones are fun to try every now and then, but having >2x the alcohol of a normal beer is not something to be taken lightly. I've found myself favouring lower ABV recently - I like drinking beer but I don't really like being drunk and at my age I do not handle hangovers well, (currently fighting through one)

Re: Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

#230

Post by dagw »

ecshafer wrote: post #50
subpixel wrote: post #40

I live in New England. There isn’t a single brewery in any New England state that would cause an uproar if it ceased to sell beer tomorrow. Sure I have some preferred beers but they are all interchangeable in the big picture. Such is progress - there is no more regional taste, only trend. Even the bottle conditioned beer you stand in line for on vacation - a bottle of Duvel will be reliably better and probably cheape…

Sam Adams and and Trillium would both probably cause a bigger uproar than this Anchor Brewing company, which honestly I have never heard of not being in California.

Anchor Brewing was among the first good American craft beer I could consistently find in pubs and bars across Europe. It was also the beer that really made me aware that there was more to American beer than Coors and Bud light.
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