Shit. I love me a Steam, especially on draft.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/busin...s_iluminar_msn
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Shit. I love me a Steam, especially on draft.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/busin...s_iluminar_msn
Nooooooooo. This hurts.
Sapporo bought em, tried to turn them into something they weren't, drove the sales into the ground, and is now cutting bait. Sucks. 150 years, and when craft beer exploded onto the scene we and a bunch of others used them as examples to figure out how to make things work.
They will be missed.
Oh dear. My favorite beer.
Staring at the ocean up on the north coast while drinking Liberty ales were perfect moments in my life.
That's depressing. Steam and Liberty, RIP.
They'd be fine if they just made some shitty overhopped IPA
The real loss is the mags of Christmas beer with the trees in em
The first time I ever drove cross country for some dead shows, we landed in S.F. The absolute first stop was to Anchor's bar/tasting room, which we had been planning the whole trip. We were brewers (in '87), and it was like liquid ambrosia. Huge formative memory, looking out over the bay with a cold pint, and a show that night.
Havent had a steam in 20 yrs and was never a huge fan, but total bs that sooo many Johnny come lately no skill bs hop breweries are still brewing their crap but anchor is gonna be history.
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/...ibextid=Zxz2cZ
That's what happens when you sell out. RIP
Maybe Fritz Maytag still has a big bank account
Elon can save it.
Agree, and both of these are true:Quote:
Originally Posted by mcski
Quote:
Originally Posted by goldenboy
Fuck I hate most craft beer because it is exactly that; over hopped shit swill that’s just easier to hide how shitty/inexperienced the brewers are.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruiser
It takes talent to make something that lasts and is consistently good.
My gripe isn’t so much for Anchor, but more for what they did and so many other like em. Fuck your trendy goats milk sour hop bomb bullshit. Learn how to make a good beer for more than one canning and a snarky label. Then do it as long as the macros and keep it consistent. Betcha can’t.
I probably haven’t had an Anchor in 20 years either.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcski
But when I was in college on the Central Coast (1985-1990) and began appreciating beer, the only “craft” beers—back when that label actually meant something—you could get were Anchor, Red Tail, Red Nectar, Acme, Marin Brewing, Full Sail, and Redhook.
Sadly, I believe that all of them are now defunct and many of them due to having sold out to Big Beer, who invariably changed their proven formulas for making good beer or tried to turn them into something they weren’t. Those that are still around definitely ain’t the same beer they were back in the day
While my tastes have changed drastically since my college days, Anchor will always have a place in my heart in terms of shaping my beer appreciation.
The brewery tour was the bomb, too. Such a classic building with a great view of the once great City.
Red Nectar was some good shit.
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by I Skied Bandini Mountain
Indeed.
I remember they were way ahead of the current CBD/hemp craze with a hemp beer that was dank before anybody used that term to describe beer!
And Red Tail Ale, we used to buy that from the local high-end wine shop as they only sold it in corked magnums!
(Pro tip: eating Hot Tamale candies while drinking Red Tail Ale was the bees knees!).
You're painting with a broad brush there bud. And macros pretty much suck.Quote:
Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
Of course I am. But these days the micros that can do consistency like macros can (my point) is less than most.Quote:
Originally Posted by yeahman
I’m comfortable in my assertion that there’s more or at least as much shitty micros out there as macros (notwithstanding the good ones of each), and Anchor was a gleaming exception.
Skipped school to drink stolen parents beer and smoke weed at a friend's house in 10th grade and Anchor steam was on the menu. It was exotic as hell when we were used to Beer beer or Heidelberg circa 1982.
I'm actually surprised they lasted this long in such a crowded market. Way too much competition in the craft market with a brewery on every corner.
I can't think of a macro I actually enjoy drinking.Quote:
Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
As far as micros go, I guess I limit myself to pale ales and session IPAs so I can't give an opinion on all the weird concotions they come up with. But a good American craft pale ale just can't be topped in my book. I can think of ten awesome pales brewed in Montana.
For the record I never liked Anchor Steam much, or most other micro 1.0 beers. I drank them because they still beat macros any day.
But hey, to each his own.
It’s easy to be a macro hater.
It’s easier to be a defender of shifty micros that can’t make good beer by pointing at macros.
Neither of those are pointed at you. It’s a statement on how much bad beer gets a pass/hate.
There’s enough good micros out there, like Anchor, that stand as some sort of barometer for the rest. When one dies like this it makes all the other shitty ones more acceptable by its vacancy.
Bummer. Another example that private equity ruins everything. Sapporo bought Stone Brewing last year as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by EWG
Red Hook was the big boy in Seattle in the time I was there (90-92) and you're right, all of them are gone or changed for the worse, because they sold out.Quote:
Originally Posted by dookeyXXX
My favorite beer of the time was Pike Place Pale Ale from a small brewery downtown. A few years later in Durango, I saw "Pike Pale Ale" with basically the same label in the liquor store. I was so fucking pumped that they had started distributing to that extent, and at first thought nothing of the slight name change. But it wasn't the same beer. And shortly thereafter it disappeared from the shelves.
So who here that is lamenting their demise has bought a 6 pack or even a draft of Anchor Steam in the last 6 months?
Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums
Anchor Christmas beer FTW.
Steam was OK but not a favorite. I remember my dad occasionally buying a bottle in the 80s because he had some memory of them from way before that. Maybe Steam doesn't compare with the current trends (maybe it tastes a little like Sam Adams?) but compared to what you could find in a bottle in 1985...
Old fog horn
Something we agree on.Quote:
Originally Posted by BmillsSkier
Anchor steam, bass pale, Sierra Nevada pale, Samuel Adams Boston lager, Newcastle brown, Sam smith, deschutes pale, fat tire amber, flavor profiles that defined categories of styles of beer.
Btw, what do you think of Sweetwater being back in Atlanta? I’ve known one of the owners for 20+ years. Was always impressed with how they made it work.
Guilty as charged.Quote:
Originally Posted by neufox47
That admission aside, I haven’t seen any Anchor Steam product in any of the markets or liquor stores up here since before Covid…
Same thing happened to Ballast Point and Saint Archer and Stone: you could find all of those in pretty much every store around Tahoe before they got bought out.
Similar thing just happened with Bear Republic, who sold to Drake’s. Prior to that sale Racer 5 was one of the most ubiquitous beers up here in terms of being served at restaurants and being found at liquor stores. Now it’s like a dodo…
I realize that availability has to do with distributors, but it is interesting how often popular micro beers just seem to disappear after they get snatched up by Big Beer…
I'm not really going to miss Anchor Steam but I will definitely miss Anchor Porter. I tend to buy at least 1 6er a month and have for years. Gotta go find some today to stash away.
It was a regional beer for occasional beer drinkers with non trendy branding and tastes changed and the market is grossly oversupplied with nerd beer, thanks for that captain obvious. Besides they started fucking up long before 6 months ago. That rebrand?Quote:
Originally Posted by neufox47
anyways, gonna miss an anchor steam+ Dungeness + sourdough
Completely agree on that list of beers, each one was category-defining.Quote:
Originally Posted by lowsparkco
I too am impressed with Sweetwater and how they’ve been able to be as consistent as they are for as long as they’ve been around. I remember the days when 420 was like Fat Tire - people from outside the distribution footprint would grab cases to bring back north/west.
When they started becoming available pretty much nationwide I thought that would be the end, but it wasn’t. I think the difference with Sweetwater when they sold and similarly situated micros when they sold is who they sold to and how the founders stayed on afterwards. They got bought by a Canadian cannabis company, not InBev, and the company still kind of operates as a lifestyle brand with all they do at the brewery, with riverkeepers and their festival.
I’m still a fan.
Adapt or die is the way of the beer world these days. You can no longer hang your hat on quality and historical reputation. You have to innovate, whether in product or marketing. I liked Anchor beer but the only time I drank them was when I visited my FIL who kept them in the fridge. Sucks, but you are going to see a lot more heritage brands go away. Get used to it. Enjoy them while they are still around.
There is no fucking innovation in beer. It’s the same as it’s been for centuries, nothing about heritage you are going to see lots lots more brands disappear because it’s fucking beer, you get scale or you die. Aside from attachment to people or place it’s almost all interchangeable pisswater, grass clippings, or whatever hipster dogshit beerdouches think is innovative flavor of the day.
I'm lamenting Anchor's loss as well, as I mentioned int he early post. But I gotta say that there's a real lack of understanding of the brewery business shown in a lot of these posts.
Bunch of stuff:
Just because you like or don't like something does not mean it's a good or badly brewed beer. Beer is different than wine. Wine is supposed to be different every year, vintages, grapes, climate, and is celebrated for that. Beer is supposed to always be the same, and that's really hard. From a technical standpoint, quality microbrewers have always appreciated the skill of the macros. A Bud always tastes like a Bud. Same with Coors, Miller, etc. That requires a ton of equipment and a high level of skill. When micros exploded onto the scene we used the macros to teach us how to do this stuff.
The regional beers are a great example of that lesson being put into practice. Anchor, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Great Lakes - they all made better, more complicated beer than the macros, with higher quality more difficult, more expensive ingredients, and did it consistently, often with terrible equipment. Huge amounts of skill involved there.
That all said, craft beer exploded because there was finally enough consumer money coming in to allow highly skilled craftspeople to explore what the beverage could be beyond basic corn based, inoffensive lager. And when consumers started to taste the new stuff they wanted more. Since the entire market was in it's infancy, the consumer tastes evolved super quickly, and craft brewers either evolved with that or died.
Pale ales then lagers then ESBs (RIP Avery Redpoint) then porters then IPAs then bigger IPAs then barrel aged then sours then farmhouse and Belgian then unfiltered beers then hazy IPAs. All this was driven by experimentation, mostly by larger craft brewers like Avery and Sierra using a small pilot system and selling the experiments in their tap rooms and seeing what stuck.
Then littler craft breweries started cropping up, mostly focused on a small window of beer styles. Some had been around for a while and got bigger, like Ommegang, and some were brand new, like Treehouse, and they created followings from people who liked that style of beer. And right then something peculiar happened. In 2 years the number of breweries in the US tripled. The fallout from that? For the first time, micro breweries had to literally compete for shelf space in the liquor stores. And no one knew it at that moment, but that was the exact point that the bubble popped.
It was during this few year period was when the millionaires were made. The smaller regional guys started selling. Golden Road, which had almost no sales, huge debt, but a beautiful unused brewhouse, sold for something like 200 million. Everyone looked around at each other and all these renegade brewers started to realize that they and their families could all retire for generations. Sales came fast and furious as the macros bought - for 2 reasons. The first was that they wanted in on the market. The other was to break the competition (by owning the micros the macros could use their distribution network to squeeze the micro out of shelf space. Which pretty much worked for the larger micros.) This peaked when Ballast Point sold for literally a billion freaking dollars. Which was insane.
But now, with limited shelf space, you had to either be big with a strong following or hyper local to get on shelves, and brands that were in between, like Great Divide or Anchor, got pounded. There was still a place for mid sized beers that were excellently crafted - if they made SKUs that people liked. Which meant chasing the market. At one point Avery was known as being the most advanced barrel age brewer on the planet. They barely barrel age anymore (and of course they sold to a big brewer.)
Beer has now advanced to the point where there is actual competition, which is normal and representative of a mature market. It's hard to break into a regional size these days. You have to be excellent at the craft, excellent at marketing and excellent at business. Which is rare.
Anchor Steam was a throwback beer in an age where most customers had more advanced tastes. It sat in between the corn based big beers like Miller/Bud/Coors and the newer more complicated micros. If you want corn beer you buy the big brands and if you want micro you want something more sophisticated than Steam, so their market dried up.
The biggest mistake they made was not leaning into their base market. Anchor was a blue collar beer for regular people that wanted something interesting but not challenging. Sapporo tried to make them fancy and trendy with their packaging and new non-core beers. It didn't work. But you can still survive with this kind of beer if you do it right.
Two of the breweries that I have the most respect for in the entire country are Matt's and Great Lakes. They brew blue collar, unpretentious beer that, from a craft standpoint, is super high quality. They haven't sold. They have an incredibly deep regional markets and loyalty - and part of that comes from the fact that they have been loyal to their areas. They never tried to go wide - they went deep. They have SKUs that allow people that like almost any kind of beer to find something they like with their label (Matt's through their Saranac brand.) They never sold. They are family owned. They make some great beers. Yeah, they make some basic stuff too, but it's sure not corn based crap. And the niche markets they sort've ignore. Quality, wide appealing beers are what they make, and the super inventive, super expensive brews they leave to others.
Lastly, good beer is good beer, regardless of whether you like it or not. I don't like farmhouse beer that much, but damn Great Divide Colette is a well crafted beer. Some of you may not like hazy IPAs, but Other Half's hazy IPAs are shockingly difficult to brew and so high quality it's mind boggling. There are maybe 20 brewers in the country with the skill and equipment to pull that off.
Yes, since beer has gotten so localized and you can be successful just by selling to your neighborhood there are a lot of bad craft beers out there - especially in difficult styles (hazy IPAs, barrel aging and sours being maybe the most difficult), but there are more higher quality beers out there than ever, and that's good. It's worth mentioning that Hazy IPAs are very unstable on shelves and quite expensive to do right, so it's hard to brew a big, mass distributed one that is high quality - which is why there are very few that are mass produced and are good representations of the style.
Anchor just had a dwindling consumer base that Sapporo stopped reaching. Oops. Pretty large amount of wasted money with that purchase, and SF loses an institution.
The talent in the industry is far, far higher than it has ever been. The next big shift? No one really knows, and I no longer have to predict it professionally, but I'm guessing the seltzers and non-beer alcoholic drinks in a can that are driving people away from beer are going to erode the market for "base" beer. I think, to some extent, that's part of what did Anchor in. Folks like Avery, who have put a ton of stock in Stampede Lager (Univ Colorado tagged easy drinker) could be in trouble unless they pivot. But maybe that hits the corn beers more. Who knows? All I know is that 2005 EWG could never, ever have imagined drinking the stuff we drink now. It's pretty awesome.
^^Thanks for that.
And yeah, let's not underestimate the effect of seltzers, which now seem to occupy half the cooler space that used to go to beer. Gag me.
TL; DRQuote:
Originally Posted by EWG
;)
Yeah, thanks EWG, cool and informative perspective.
Re: seltzers; yeah, its incredible the amount of shelf/cooler space they command these days. I'm not a fan at all as most taste like industrial rubbing alcohol with fake flavoring but hey, there's clearly a massive market for them.
Ya. No. IPA is still bad beer.Quote:
Originally Posted by EWG