So sad to see an institution go. I heard they were canceling their celebration ales due to low sales but this is way worse. Happy I used to work near there on Rhode Island and did the daytime brewery tour, very cool history there and unique San Francisco climate that led to their signature beer.
Anchor was the first “real” beer I ever had when I was a young man. It will always hold a special place in my heart.
There’s a lot of interesting extra context, mostly as hearsay on Reddit SF (if you want to find it) and HN.
Basically it seems like:
- Sapporo closed Anchor as a cost cutting measure, as Anchor has been losing money YoY for a while now (which I believe is known at time of acquisition)
- Sapporo wanted to use Anchor to brew Sapporo in the US, but found out their brewery was too old to brew Sapporo
- Sapporo instead bought Stone Brewing, which now brews Sapporo and Stone
Feels bad, Anchor was definitely one of my go-to basic beer from the grocery. Guess I’m getting more Fort Point now?
I can’t understand how they didn’t know the nature of the facility. You could see what a small a craft shop it was just by going on the tour.
My bad, turns out the breweries being too small was a figment of my imagination. I reread the original Reddit comment, and it only mentioned the facilities were outdated.
It looks like Sapporo was targeting 360,000 barrels by end of 2024, whereas Anchor Brewing’s expansion into Pier 48 would’ve brought the volume to 680,000 barrels. Anchor brewed 135,000 barrels in 2016 and it sadly dropped to only 65,000 barrels in 2023, which meant Anchor would’ve easily accommodated Sapporo’s volume.
I’ll edit the original comment.
Given that I can understand why Sapporo took the risk. They bought Anchor for 2.5 times sales at $85 million, when other breweries like Lagunitas was going for $1B. Sapporo likely thought they could’ve trimmed losses and made the money back in a few years, but sadly COVID happened, and Sapporo themselves are decreasing in value.
That’s too bad. But to be honest their beers just weren’t good enough. Sales come from having a good product and/or big brand recognition, and they had neither going for them. Hope someone can take over and improve their brews, because the history is pretty special.
Are you saying their style of beer or their beer in general? I feel like it definitely is an acquired taste but a California common is their schtick
Just overall I find their beers a bit underwhelming compared to other local breweries. Even forgoing some of the amazing craft breweries around here (Laughing Monk!), I’d typically choose a Trumer over Anchor Steam, or some other local beer.
You might just not like the style. I believe they ferment at a higher temperature which gives it that funkier taste. I had a trumer for the first time on the 4th. Was pretty pretty good
Steam beer is fermented at higher temperatures, and Anchor Steam used open fermentation, which apparently costs more.
But to be honest their beers just weren’t good enough
That’s a bit much, don’t you think? Just because you don’t prefer them, did not mean they “weren’t good enough.” Beer (and drinks/food in general) are highly subjective, there’s no such thing as a definitive “good” beer, and thus their success is really controlled by marketing and business more than anything. That’s why gimmicks constantly come and go (remember kveik yeast?) and brewers race to see how much they can hop their IPAs. Anchor Steam hasn’t had a hold of their business side for a while, even after their acquisition, so they’re closing, there’s nothing more to it.
People put a lot of good work into Anchor, and their offerings were more unique than the dime-a-dozen breweries that are everywhere. Really frustrating to see you come here and not respect other people’s hard work and craft just because it wasn’t to your taste.
Yeah FFS this dude is just putting on the hindsight glasses and talking about his taste in beer like it’s a business reality everyone must adapt to lol
With sales steadily declining since 2016 it’s clearly not just my taste in beer. Maybe they should’ve adapted…
Marketing, competition, alcohol consumption going down per capita… your view that their product just sucks is simplistic, and, given their long life as a brewery, I would say demonstrably wrong. It’s easy to say, the day after they fold, “their beer obviously sucked.” But the question then is how did they remain in business from 1896-2023? Most brewers are far from demonstrating that kind of success.
Yeah, fair enough any business running for over a 100 years has done something right. However, the amount of (craft) beer competition in the last century just wasn’t even close to the level it is today. In 1978 there were only 89 breweries nationwide. There’s more than that in the Bay alone now. Considering how many really great local breweries and beers are now available, yeah I don’t think their products were good enough to stand out. Then again this is a problem a lot of breweries are having, they are not unique. I never said their beer sucked btw.
Craft beer isn’t new though. It’s been booming for decades. We could say that they didn’t ride the IPA wave and maybe that marketing failure was just enough to sink them. Their distribution was also lousy. I never saw their taps out of state. After visiting them, my sense was that they were just a small-minded, small-scale business. And small businesses have a harder time surviving the ups and downs of the marketplace. They made a bad deal with Sapporo. They went under. None of this besmirches their core product, which is a classic and loved by millions.
Craft beer isn’t new, but it has been building up to this point, especially in the last decade. The number of US breweries has quadrupled in this period and the past couple of years I’ve easily had many of the best and most interesting beers I’ve ever had in my life, often from local Bay Area breweries. That’s all very new, and the “classic” couldn’t compete when there’s better, or let’s say at least more interesting choices available. A more likely story for declining sales than “distribution and marketing issues” for a brand which is far more well-known than almost any other SFBA beer with the backing of a global megabrewer.
There’s too many IPAs though on that we can agree.
Well I just saw the other comment with the vinepair article, and while I think competition from the explosion of craft beers is a part of it, the stories of mismanagement hurt to read :(
I’ve tried a great many beers, from most breweries in the Bay Area, and in my opinion, alright, Anchor was one of those dime-a-dozen ones. They followed the trends like everyone else but never made anything stand out beside their California common. Just look at their current uninspiring lineup. I don’t disrespect the people putting in the work to make the beer, but whoever made the decisions in the business failed badly at product development.
NOOOO! God damn it Sapporo, why did you ruin my Anchor Steam Beer with and insipid logo changes and shitty aluminum cans‽
Wow, Sapporo really did fuck up Anchor Brewing! https://vinepair.com/articles/sapporo-usa-anchor-brewing-liquidation-analysis/
Remember this: Anchor survived everything — fires, depressions, recessions, everything — for nearly a century and a half before Sapporo USA came along and drove it into “dire distress” in less than half a dozen years. The company says it did everything it could; workers say it did too much, when it wasn’t doing enough.
Damn shame. With this does it mean the death of a style? Does anyone else do California common with wide distribution? I’ll have to pick up a bunch before it’s gone.
So sad! I toured the place twice and enjoyed their beers in many good times. Their process was truly unique, with yeast strains suited to the cool and foggy climate of SF, and wide, shallow rooftop fermenters. I remember walking through the bottling area and seeing an employee grab one off the line and take it back to the nearby lunch table where he was eating :) The company was clearly not doing well financially and got sold at least once, but I guess they never found the financial backing or distribution they needed to survive :(
Fun fact from the tour: steam is not involved in the making of the beer, nor is it a variety of beer. The term comes from a time when steam engines were still commonly in use on large ships and it just had associations of strength and industry and energy. Steam was a modern and vital technology of that era. Today we might say “quantum beer” in much the same spirit.
