Anchor closing?!

[balrog]

I had read they were not making the Xmas ale any more, and also that they were stopping distribution nationwide, but this seems to say "closing", like, for good.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/anchor-steam-18192913.php

 

[dmtaylor]

Whoa. This is the craft beer I grew up on. This is a brewery that defines a beer style and a yeast (Steam or "California Common").

Anchor will be sorely missed by millions.

 

[DoctorDuvel]

Damn. Some of the saddest news you'll hear in the beer world.

 

[madscientist451]

Big city location, big city cost structure, not enough cash flow to keep the beer flowing.
Tastes and preferences change. Yeah, they tried to jump on the hard seltzer bandwagon, but a little too late.
The "craft" segment of the US beer market has been about the same for almost a decade, but during that time many new producers have appeared and old producers, like Sierra Nevada, opened up new breweries. Something has to give, and IMO we're going to see other producers with high costs go away or be absorbed by larger companies.

 

[tracer bullet]

Not to make light of the subject but maybe they could be persuaded to release their exact recipes for us.

 

[GoodTruble]

Not to make light of the subject but maybe they could be persuaded to release their exact recipes for us.

I wonder if Sapporo will sell the recipes to another brewery. Steam and Christmas Ale could still make money for somebody.

 

[mac_1103]

paywall

 

[uweschmitt]

paywall

try this: https://archive.md/SLPQM

 

[balrog]

paywall

CNTRL-A, CNTRL-C while on paywalled page, open Word or Libre-whatever, CNTRL-V
Works often, except when they do not fill whole page before throwing up the "login or sign up" overlay.

 

[MaxStout]

View attachment 824494


I wonder if Sapporo will sell the recipes to another brewery. Steam and Christmas Ale could still make money for somebody.

Maybe someone could buy the recipes, trademarks, etc. That brand recognition is solid. Brew in a location with lower overhead.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Wonder if this is in any way related to the cultural problems that are killing other San Francisco businesses.

 

[mac_1103]

According to the article, they've been losing money since before Sapporo bought them and revenue is down by two thirds since 2016. I don't think Sapporo is run by a bunch of morons. If the problem was just San Francisco they would move it instead of killing it.

 

[lumpher]

That sucks. I have some fond memories of Anchor Steam and Fisherman's Wharf. Sad to see them go, but losing millions a year due to decreasing demand and increasing costs, well... What can be said other than sad to see them go?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

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.

 

[jdauria]

My first reaction was shock and dismay, then I remembered Anchor stopped national distribution for California only last month, so was never going to see Anchor Steam here in Mass again anyway. But it's still sad that the OG of craft beer is going to be no more. Will just have to brew my Anchor Steam clone from now on.

 

[balrog]

my Anchor Steam clone from now on.

Share, for posterity/remembrance?

 

[D.B.Moody]

According to the article, they've been losing money since before Sapporo bought them and revenue is down by two thirds since 2016. I don't think Sapporo is run by a bunch of morons.

But they did buy it.

 

[mac_1103]

But they did buy it.

touché

 

[rtstrider]

Hopefully this won't affect the availability of the steam beer yeast from vendors

 

[SanPancho]

Anchor will be sorely missed by millions.

No, not in any way shape or form. Nobody around here drinks it except for old farts, die-hard "i was born in the City" locals and tourists. kind of weird, its truly the oldest "local" beer, but if you went to well-regarded bay ara beer bar you would never see it there. its mostly big chain restaurants, ball parks, and airport.

the xmas ale is also losing its appeal, seeing those cases still sitting in the store around january more and more each year.

in principle the closure of a micro is sad, but personally i hate cali "lager" yeast so my empathy is solely for the employees. i simply wont buy their stuff as it all tastes the same to me. except the porter, but that's pretty rare to see on shelves. even when they got bought out before sapporo and tried to be hip trendy micro they had very limited success. i think the premise of building a brewery around a somewhat specific and love-it-or-leave-it yeast isnt really feasible anymore. (maybe in europe)

anyways, thats my rant. sad for employees, for local beer drinkers? probably not something we'll remember in a month.

 

[matt_m]

Share, for posterity/remembrance?

I just brewed a batch recently and have a pack of the real thing in my fridge to do a comparison I haven't done yet. I used the recipe from the book, which needs a sad update.

 

[beren]

Yeah always sad to see old things go, deserved, or not.

 

[hout17]

I've never had or experienced anything from this brewery but it's sad. RIP

 

[beren]

I just brewed a batch recently and have a pack of the real thing in my fridge to do a comparison I haven't done yet. I used the recipe from the book, which needs a sad update.

Whew knew it was going to be an obituary?

 

[kevin58]

Well, there goes my scheduled Anchor Steam clone video with side by side comparison at the end. Guess I'll change that to an Anchor Steam tribute.

 

[jdauria]

Share, for posterity/remembrance?

Have brewed several versions over the years, but this recipe from Mean Brews scored the highest for me in comps. Mean Brews Cal Common
Recipe is towards end of the video. If you use Brewfather you can search for MeanBrews California Common in the Library. This other recipe from the AHA is one I have used before too and was pretty close to the real thing. Anchor Steam Clone

 

[rtstrider]

Have a steam beer clone sitting in the fermenter now and had planned on brewing a California Lager clone this weekend. Welp might as well add a Liberty Ale clone to the list after the slew of Oktoberfest brews Not a huge Anchor fan by all means but being 3k miles away from the brewery means our options were extremely limited at best.

 

[Dog House Brew]

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.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

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.

 

[madscientist451]

I forgot Anchor was bought out by Sapporo a few years back, and by a liquor (holding) company even before that. I'm thinking they must have had a plan to turn the brand around?
In honor of Anchor's demise, my next brew will be Anchor porter. This recipe looks OK:
http://chris.norrick.com/norrickenbier/20a.htmlHere's an interesting article from 2019 when the workers were complaining about wages, organizing a union and the brewery was only running at 60% capacity:
https://missionlocal.org/2019/02/sa...but-will-the-workers-get-a-union-and-a-raise/Note that in 2013, after being purchased by the investment fund The Griffin Group, the company greatly expanded production capacity from 180,000 to 680,000 bbls. While this expansion and the "no end in sight" explosion of the craft beer market in those days helped land the Griffin Group with a healthy $85 million payday in 2017, the added debt likely doomed the company. I'm thinking Sapporo delayed the shut down for years, waiting for a buyer and trying different things, but without solid growth it just wasn't going to work out.
So who's next? Lagunitas? Stone? Goose Island and the other brands acquired by InBev?
I keep thinking competition in the marketplace will bring prices down a little, but it just never seems to happen.

 

[DonT]

Very sad to see it close... Anchor Steam was one of my first craft beers back in the day. When my brother and I started brewing in the early '80s, we toured the brewery. As we were walking through the hop storage area, our tour guide had to take care of something and left us standing there alone. Well... with piles of hops staring us in the face, we proceeded to stuff our pockets. When we finished the tour and went into the tasting room our guide offed us a bag full of hops when he learned we home brewed. At that point we showed him our pockets... we all got a good laugh. Memories....

 

[Mr. Vern]

RIP to an iconic brewery that lasted over a century! Revival led by Fritz Maytag in the 80's before selling to the investment group. Fritz sounds like a smart business man, earning himself 12 James Beard awards (one lifetime achievement award and a host of beer/wine/spirits professional awards).

The explosion of breweries and local options provides us with more options than you can shake a paddle at. I still feel sorry for the employees and I will miss their Christmas Ale although Michigan did not get any in 2022.

 

[Witherby]

Not to make light of the subject but maybe they could be persuaded to release their exact recipes for us.

The December 2014 issue of Brew Your Own magazine had a cover feature on Anchor with recipes for Anchor Steam, California Lager, Liberty Ale, Anchor Porter, Old Foghorn, and Anchor Small Beer and very detailed descriptions of their brewing process.

 

[rtstrider]

The December 2014 issue of Brew Your Own magazine had a cover feature on Anchor with recipes for Anchor Steam, California Lager, Liberty Ale, Anchor Porter, Old Foghorn, and Anchor Small Beer and very detailed descriptions of their brewing process.

May just have to subscribe to BYO for the Anchor Liberty Clone recipe From my understanding it's a 2 row/Cascade SMASH. May just use the New Albion Ale recipe from the BYO clone book, add dry hops, and sub in Omega West Coast 2 for the yeast. Figure that'd probably be in the ballpark

 

[hout17]

May just have to subscribe to BYO for the Anchor Liberty Clone recipe From my understanding it's a 2 row/Cascade SMASH

I believe you may be able to go on and just purchase a print copy of that particular issue as well.

Edit: Link to Issue at BYO

 

[jimdkc]

The book "The Anchor Brewing Story" (available on Amazon, hardcover or Kindle) has homebrew recipes for Anchor Steam, Anchor California Lager, Anchor Porter, and Anchor Liberty Ale.

 

[Yesfan]

RIP to an iconic brewery that lasted over a century! Revival led by Fritz Maytag in the 80's before selling to the investment group. Fritz sounds like a smart business man, earning himself 12 James Beard awards (one lifetime achievement award and a host of beer/wine/spirits professional awards).

The explosion of breweries and local options provides us with more options than you can shake a paddle at. I still feel sorry for the employees and I will miss their Christmas Ale although Michigan did not get any in 2022.

First thing I thought of when I started reading this thread was Fritz bringing the company back from the dead. If anyone hasn't seen the old Beer Hunter episode talking about Anchor, I highly recommend the below video from The Beer Hunter series. It was a cool show hosted by Michael Jackson (no, not that Michael Jackson) back in the 80s. Im pretty sure all the episodes are on YouTube to binge watch (which I did a couple of years ago).

 

[DoctorDuvel]

i hate cali "lager" yeast so my empathy is solely for the employees. i simply wont buy their stuff as it all tastes the same to me. except the porter, but that's pretty rare to see on shelves. even when they got bought out before sapporo and tried to be hip trendy micro they had very limited success. i think the premise of building a brewery around a somewhat specific and love-it-or-leave-it yeast isnt really feasible anymore

As far as i know, cali lager was mainly only used in the Steam beer. Unless you're talking about their ale yeast which was used in most of their other beers, which is pretty distinct, and i could see some people not liking it.

 

[matt_m]

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.

 

[SanPancho]

As far as i know, cali lager was mainly only used in the Steam beer. Unless you're talking about their ale yeast which was used in most of their other beers, which is pretty distinct, and i could see some people not liking it.

the original stuff.