Anchor Brewing Shutting Down

[dookeyXXX]

Gigin alone at the bottom of the hill
Our protagonist named Bill
Sets his sights on an Anchor Steam pint
All he needs is thirteen quarters
Congregated in his hat...

I can say with 93% certainty that I have had a few pints of Anchor Steam at BOTH…

[MarsB]

I've always felt Bill had a very discerning palate for panhandler.

[JimmyCarter]

High school me had never heard of Anchor and had no idea what that line was saying

[sb]

Nothing lasts for evah.

Local paper mill shut down after a bad fire, they had been in continuous operation since 1869 and had never laid any of their work force off in all that time.

[riser4]

BTW, I think there's a niche market for craft bong water.

Well all I know is that my wife and I were at a show in one of Burlington's few clubs and she handed me a can with a weird look on her face. "Try this." That never means anything good from her. So I try it, because I'm not all that bright, and by gosh, I swear someone actually did go and put stale bong water in a can. Because that's EXACTLY what it tasted like. I kid you not. I couldn't see the label so I can't warn anyone as to what to avoid. It was 2018 or 2019 so hopefully they're defunct by now. If I ever have fuck you money I'm going to commission a run of beer and label the cans Stale Bongwater, for real.

[BmillsSkier]

Yeah, but was it as bad as a Bartles & Jaymes?

[mcski]

Yeah, but was it as bad as a Bartles & Jaymes?

That’s what a Harvard MBA will get ya

https://youtu.be/hYdWHK6AA6E

[mud]

I was more of a Zima fan. Put some vodka in there for the full teenager bad choice experience.

[irul&ublo]

That’s what a Harvard MBA will get ya

https://youtu.be/hYdWHK6AA6E

Gallo made a ton of money off that swill

[riser4]

Yeah, but was it as bad as a Bartles & Jaymes?

Oof. So the short answer is no. But that's only because I didn't get past one sip of the bongwater. Unfortunately I was foolish enough as a teenager to have an occasion to drink enough of the wine coolers to get puking drunk with subsequent hangover. I still have bad memories of that flavor 38ish years later.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Man, I'd try like hell to catch Gina Gallo's eye whenever I saw her at the Dry Creek store but I was a mere pig-hunting peasant.

[BmillsSkier]

Gallo made a ton of money off that swill

Oh I'm sure.

It also slots in nicely with the jug wine.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Oh I'm sure.

It also slots in nicely with the jug wine.

shit got the job done. god bless them.

[dunfree]

Oh I'm sure.

It also slots in nicely with the jug wine.

take jug wine, dilute it with water, add soda syrup, sell it for 5x the price


was that the original premixed thing?

[irul&ublo]

Buddy of mine I tended bar with in SLO, back in the day, got hired as a sales rep for Gallo. They sent him to Hawaii to run Bartels & James. Ended up there for about 5 years.

[irul&ublo]

take jug wine, dilute it with water, add soda syrup, sell it for 5x the price


was that the original premixed thing?

No. The alcohol in B&J, as in most coolers, is fermented grain, basically beer. Cheaper than grapes and tax advantages over distilled alcohol.

[dookeyXXX]

Starting to feel Iike we may have to start a Bartles & Jaymes appreciation thread….

[Buzzworthy]

Starting to feel Iike we may have to start a Bartles & Jaymes appreciation thread….

“And thank you for your support.”

[BmillsSkier]

Starting to feel Iike we may have to start a Bartles & Jaymes appreciation thread….

Nah this one’s fine. Just like when a brand does another fills its void, so too will Bartles and Jaymes fill the void Anchor left in this thread.

[dookeyXXX]

Decent article written by an old colleague of mine:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/ar...y-18194861.php

I am trying to dig up another SF Chronicle piece they did a few years back that was like a family tree history of Anchor Steam showing the various incarnations, labels, and beer styles the had over the years…

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Decent article written by an old colleague of mine:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/ar...y-18194861.php

I am trying to dig up another SF Chronicle piece they did a few years back that was like a family tree history of Anchor Steam showing the various incarnations, labels, and beer styles the had over the years…

I've been a big fan of Pete for years. Dude is a bay area treasure.

[Doremite]

Came across this at a local store this evening. Made me think of this thread (of course).

[dookeyXXX]

I've been a big fan of Pete for years. Dude is a bay area treasure.

He went to my alma mater, Cal Poly SLO, but was a few years behind me.
We met when we were both budding journalists and used to sit together on occasion at film screenings. I actually got him to rethink his review of The Devil’s Rejects after we saw the film together and discussed it the next day.
I am always amazed (and stoked) that he has kept up the newspaper gig for so long.

[evdog]

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…

Yeah we used to see Racer 5 and Bear everywhere here too. A lot of supermarkets and liquor stores have cut back craft beer selection significantly. Stone used to do distribution in SD for a ton of independent craft brewers which made it a lot easier for them to get into stores. They stopped doing that a while back, and with more craft breweries selling out supermarkets stock mostly macro owned brands like Kona, Elysian, Goose Island, Golden Rd, etc with just a few independents like Modern Times. Selection is definitely down which sucks especially considering most brewers focus so much on IPA now. Hard to find much else besides that, pale ale and maybe a lager. Basically just a few basic styles rather than the huge variety we used to see.

This peaked when Ballast Point sold for literally a billion freaking dollars

I thought that was insane too. But what didn't make the news so much was the owners hung onto Cutwater which was Ballast Point's spirits brand, and they later sold it to Inbev for $4B - in case $1B for the brewing business wasn't enough. Shows how much bigger the market is for canned cocktails than beer.

[dookeyXXX]

So, this isn’t the exact article I was looking for, but here’s a historical timeline of Anchor Brewing for all you history nerds:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects...wing-timeline/