Anchor closing?!

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matt_m said:
Mine on the right, theirs on the left. Pretty damn close except mine is probably a little undercarbonated so I cranked it up a couple PSI. I have 5 bottles left, need to have my wife help me do a triangle test.
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Did you follow their recipe pretty closely (i.e. the BYO link shared earlier)? I found theirs to be far sweeter than mine, and / or fruitier. I will of course compare recipes again.
 
3 Dawg Night said:
Sad to see Anchor close. I'll have to brew a clone/tribute soon.

I wonder if the BJCP will change "California Common" to "Steam Beer" now that Anchor (the trademark holder) is no more. I'm not a lawyer, though, so I don't know how all that works.
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The trademark becomes abandoned 3 years after the trademark holder deliberately stops using it. After that, the owner has no legal claim to its use. The TM goes into the public domain unless someone else registers it with the USPTO.

Let's check back here in July 2027 for an Anchor Steam brew-a-thon. :D
 
MaxStout said:
The trademark becomes abandoned 3 years after the trademark holder deliberately stops using it. After that, the owner has no legal claim to its use. The TM goes into the public domain unless someone else registers it with the USPTO.

Let's check back here in July 2027 for an Anchor Steam brew-a-thon. :D
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But, since Sapporo owns it and isn't going out of business, would the three years still apply?
 
MaxStout said:
The trademark becomes abandoned 3 years after the trademark holder deliberately stops using it. After that, the owner has no legal claim to its use. The TM goes into the public domain unless someone else registers it with the USPTO.
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They don't have to keep making the beer to keep using the trademark though. They could sell nostalgia merch for instance.
3 Dawg Night said:
But, since Sapporo owns it and isn't going out of business, would the three years still apply?
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Yes. You have to actively use the specific trademark.
 
3 Dawg Night said:
But, since Sapporo owns it and isn't going out of business, would the three years still apply?
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The 3 year limit on the TM starts to run down when the owner stops using it. It doesn't matter whether the owner (Sapporo in this case) is still in business. Trademark protection only applies as long as the owner keeps using the TM. When they intentionally stop using it, that clock starts running, and the owner loses the TM after 3 years.
 
shoengine said:
Darn, that blows. Fortunately I got a chance to go there a couple years back on the way to a wedding. It was busy as hell. Wonder what it takes to be profitable these days?
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Probably helps not to be in San Fran or probably CA in general. Wish they considered relocating and/or downsizing. Kind of feel that there was some mismanagement involved.
 
Clint Yeastwood said:
My only Anchor experience was with Anchor Steam beer. Didn't seem much different from Budmilcoors. Maybe they're closing because there are so many good competitors now.
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Back in the day when there was only Budmil (Coors not sold in east US) and related lagers Anchor Steam was the only alternative except Sierra Nevada. None of the IPAs existed yet.
Anchor Porter was pretty good.
 
Must have been 1973 or 74 in high school when I first found Anchor Steam in the East SF Bay Area. It was like an epiphany, American beer with flavor. We served it at our wedding in 1981. Lots of memories around that beer. Sierra Nevada kind of took over Anchor’s place in my refrigerator somewhere along the line; and then other micro breweries.

Nostalgically sad to hear the news, but honestly, I don’t think I’ve bought Anchor more than a few times in the last decade. I am surprised any manufacturing company can survive in San Francisco. It’s kind of like California on steroids but I guess we’re not supposed to talk politics. I think I’ll go to the store and look for a six pack for old time sake.
 
Wildmild said:
Back in the day when there was only Budmil (Coors not sold in east US) and related lagers Anchor Steam was the only alternative except Sierra Nevada. None of the IPAs existed yet.
Anchor Porter was pretty good.
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I never really liked Anchor Steam. I thought it overrated. That being said... I would agree wholeheartedly with the above quote if Anchor Steam was replaced with Anchor Liberty Ale.
Cheers.
 
Welp have the Anchor Steam recipe waiting for an open keg and brewed the California lager, using wlp810, yesterday. The California lager is going to actually cold condition in the keg for a month or so with gelatin after fermentation. Basically it's going to sit in the keg until morning of the FSU/LSU kickoff then time to tap! Going to brew the Libery ale after getting through the slew of the upcoming Oktoberfest brews and may try my hand at their Porter recipe around Christmas. Never brewed a Porter before so thinking that might be a good excuse to bust out the wlp051 and give it a go :)
 
Pretty interesting reporting on the situation here, from the business perspective and with employee observations.
https://vinepair.com/articles/sapporo-usa-anchor-brewing-liquidation-analysisTo me it reads exactly like so many other acquisitions by large corporations. Instead of leveraging Sapporo's marketing and distribution power while leaving the brewery to make Anchor beer, they seem to have tried to change everything about the brewery. Maybe they might have got away with that in the past when the craft beer market was expanding and everything worked, but today it's contracting and even the best-run and innovative companies are beginning to struggle:
https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/sig...pting-leading-breweries-to-reconsider-successLike so many other homebrewers, Anchor Steam was a big deal for me 30-40 years ago, and I brewed various clones of it many times over the years. It held up well for decades. But eventually it fell off a little in quality and failed to stand out against all the great craft beers flooding the shelves and restaurants. At some point years ago I realized it was disappointing me every time I drank one.
 
Great article on Sierra and the others. Breweries in the growth cycle were able to ride the wave. Cores are fine, core portfolios just don’t work now. SN paid attention to the market shifts. The others were not as attentive to change. Anchor never really changed at all. I still remember the collab Fritz did with Koch at Sam Adams. They came in a case of different 750ml corked bottles. The Anchor one was fantastic. All the others were Fantastic beers!! Now the shelves are flooded with tons of IPA, most are out of date. People then buy and the beers are not good. I’m amazed at how poor so many of these beers are made. I’m always asking myself, “what are they thinking?” I think that is what happened riding that huge wave. They weren’t thinking, they were riding.
 
Dog House Brew said:
Purchased in 17 and Union formed in 19. Worker dissatisfaction usually comes with a buyout. Didn’t Sapporo recently purchase Stone? Stone also was running in the red. Will that be the next closure? So many options on the shelf now. Still another sad story. I’ll keep supporting the independent labels when I buy.
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Next closure, Bells?

Another take on the Anchor story: How Sapporo USA Sank Anchor Brewing Co.
 
I wonder how much of this is due to the horrible economy. Workers can write their own tickets these days, but how many people are willing to keep buying good beer as the price shoots up? Also, how much of it is due to consumers learning to recognize bad beer in fancy bottles? I think weeding out is inevitable.
 
It's good beer. What happened was exactly what they said it was: inflation, competition, high operating cost. What that means is, not selling enough beer. Making good beer is the easy part (we homebrewers do it). Marketing, distributing, packaging, etc, all at a reasonble cost to the buyer is the challenge. These days, it seems a brewey can thrive for a few years on an exciting new introduction, which is often a strong IPA of some sort, which may even be featured in taps in bars and restaurants. It's been that way for decades. Anchor Steam seemed to refuse to bend to the explosion of IPAs and NEIPAs. Nor did they want to make an 7-8% standout modern beer. Also, they didn't fit in with the light beer crowd who drinks buds and coors.
 
BrewerofBeers said:
It's good beer. What happened was exactly what they said it was: inflation, competition, high operating cost. What that means is, not selling enough beer. Making good beer is the easy part (we homebrewers do it). Marketing, distributing, packaging, etc, all at a reasonble cost to the buyer is the challenge. These days, it seems a brewey can thrive for a few years on an exciting new introduction, which is often a strong IPA of some sort, which may even be featured in taps in bars and restaurants. It's been that way for decades. Anchor Steam seemed to refuse to bend to the explosion of IPAs and NEIPAs. Nor did they want to make an 7-8% standout modern beer. Also, they didn't fit in with the light beer crowd who drinks buds and coors.
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And that is exactly why we liked Anchor Steam. They brewed the beer we like. Not chasing the flavor of the day.
 
I was always a bigger fan of the porter, although their steam beer was also something unique. And Liberty ale once upon a time was the hoppiest thing we'd seen.

Anchor shut down before, before Fritz Maytag bought it and turned it around. Anything's possible, but we're in a period of consolidation for sure, so if we see it again, it's likely to be some contract brewery buying rights to brand and recipes.

Honestly, I haven't bought any of their beer in years at this point, but it makes me sad.
 
I'm glad I had the opportunity to purchase a 6 at total wine last winter. Sad that I won't get a chance again. It was good beer and given the state of the future its reassuring that we have access to clone recipes of favorite beers
 
Plenty o' factors in this (and the larger issue of breweries shutting down, in general). Some that come to mind right away:
1. A Darwinian thinning of the herd going on. Unsustainable, what with 9700 U.S. breweries, per @day_trippr's data.
2. Fickle tastes among beer drinkers.
3. Competition from other beverages, and a trend among some people to eschew alcohol altogether.
4. Inflation, meaning less disposable income for buying craft beer.
5. Supply chain issues and post-Covid price-gouging turning away some consumers who refuse to pay $12-$15/4-pack, or $8 a pint in a taproom.
6. Quality problems in some packaged beer--e.g., short shelf life of certain varieties.
7. Poor management.
8. Acquisition of craft breweries by large corporate entities, then the inevitable cuts when one doesn't live up to revenue projections.
 
One of the things that got me into brewing was $20-$35 for a *growler* fill of craft beer. Even Blue Moon was $15 at a bar that did growlers.
 
Regardless of location this is a trend. "Old school" craft breweries that were in the first/earlier waves that didn't keep up with or set new trends are falling by the wayside all over the country. When was the last time you bought an Anchor Steam, or a Fat Tire, for that matter?
 
pdxal said:
Regardless of location this is a trend. "Old school" craft breweries that were in the first/earlier waves that didn't keep up with or set new trends are falling by the wayside all over the country. When was the last time you bought an Anchor Steam, or a Fat Tire, for that matter?
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Anchor Steam a few times a year, in 6-pack form, for me. Got harder to find when they started canning, I didn't know what to actually look for.

Never fat tire, I didn't actually ever like it. Just not my style.
 
MaxStout said:
Plenty o' factors in this (and the larger issue of breweries shutting down, in general). Some that come to mind right away:

3. Competition from other beverages, and a trend among some people to eschew alcohol altogether.
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Was at the beer store the other day (we still have the "beer distributor" model here) and I noticed most of the customers when I was there were picking up Truly, White Claw and Hard lemonade.
 
pdxal said:
Regardless of location this is a trend. "Old school" craft breweries that were in the first/earlier waves that didn't keep up with or set new trends are falling by the wayside all over the country. When was the last time you bought an Anchor Steam, or a Fat Tire, for that matter?
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We have been buying 1/6 bbl of Anchor. It was a staple in my tap rotation.
 
madscientist451 said:
Was at the beer store the other day (we still have the "beer distributor" model here) and I noticed most of the customers when I was there were picking up Truly, White Claw and Hard lemonade.
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I go to a lot of sporting events and by far the most common drink I see men drinking is seltzer. One guy at a hockey game had a stack of three Truly cans on the arm of his seat.
 
pdxal said:
Regardless of location this is a trend. "Old school" craft breweries that were in the first/earlier waves that didn't keep up with or set new trends are falling by the wayside all over the country. When was the last time you bought an Anchor Steam, or a Fat Tire, for that matter?
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Fat Tire? Not long ago
 

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