Posted on 07/27/2023 4:31:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It’s been less than a week since San Francisco’s legendary Anchor Brewing Company announced plans to shut down its operations after an impressive 127 years in business. While some fans reacted by heading to stores to clear shelves of the brewery’s products while they still could, others put their heads down to figure out if there may be a way to save the business.
The list of would-be beer saviors includes San Francisco resident and serial investor Mike Walsh, who tells the San Francisco Chronicle he “definitely” has “enough interest and access to capital to put a competitive offer in” to buy Anchor. Walsh, according to his LinkedIn has previously invested in a number of companies, some of which you may have heard of before — Uber, for example. Walsh has also put up a website called Raising the Anchor where anyone interested in helping him purchase the company can get in touch.
Walsh isn’t the only local or national entity with an interest in saving Anchor Brewing. One San Francisco resident told the Chronicle he’d like to get a group of “20 or so people like myself — people in their 30s that have something of a nest egg” to try to save the business and turn it into a reality TV show. Rhode Island-based Narragansett Beer also launched a Change.org petition to try to save the business; in an interview with Forbes, the brewery’s president Mark Hellendrung says gathering signatures may not be enough to save the business but that he’d be interested in buying it with “a group of people who are as passionate about Anchor as I am.”
Never drank it. Any good?
Above average.
Used to get Anchor at the Oasis in Menlo Park, a few feet over the line from Palo Alto. Best burgers within walking distance of the campus. Sadly, it’s closed.
I liked the Steam. The Porter tasted like molasses.
Fingers crossed! I love Anchor. It was the very first craft brew I tasted in the summer of ‘73 when I got to SF. In the early 70s, it didn’t have wide distribution in bottles, but was on tap in a lot of SF bars.
Back in the day before a million micro brews, it was a one eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.
Very good. Expensive. I drank it when I could afford a special treat, back in the’80s.
“Any good?” Most excellent. It’s like Blue Moon beer and better. Sadly, SF lost a few historic bars when Newsom unreasonably closed bars and left open restaurants in March of 2020.
Valid.
Chatted with a Total Wine manager about Anchor. He said the Japanese bought it a year ago. It’s been tanking ever since. Apparently good stuff. The Christmas ale is da bomb, so I was told.
I used to like Anchor Steam, back in the day, before the whole San Fran Crisco Gay Area went to hell in a handbasket.
I don’t know much about the brewing business, but I’ll venture a guess as to Step 1 of financial recovery: MOVE AWAY FROM SAN FRANCISCO.
Anchor is pretty good. But frankly there are a lot of good craft beers now. I prefer to patronize local breweries.
“ Never drank it. Any good?”
Yes. Very good.
I haven’t drunk alcohol in 20 years and hearing Anchor is shutting down makes me want to go out and buy some while I can.
I’m not a beer aficionado but I tried a lager (I think) from them and it was very good. It would be a shame for a company that has been in business so long and makes good products to cease.
Who holds the recipe and processing details?
I like it. Its also a native (not Indian) American beer style.
The Christmas ale is good. Its a spruce beer at its heart, but each year they would tweak the recipe a little bit.
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