Well folks, its a sad day in the beer world, because Anchor Brewing will soon cease to exist after 127 years of making beer.
The craft brewery was the oldest of its kind (with Yuengling being the oldest brewing company, period) in America, which makes the news all the more sad. For reference, the United States has only been around for 247 years, so Anchor Brewing had been around for over half of our country’s history.
The brewery called San Francisco home, and sadly announced today to many fans of the establishment that they would soon cease operations and liquidate the business entirely.
A press release that was sent out by the brewery cited poor economic conditions and declining sales dating back to 2016 as contributing factors to their untimely and unfortunate decision to close up shop.
Anchor Brewing spokesperson Sam Singer said in a statement regarding the closure:
“This was an extremely difficult decision that Anchor reached only after many months of careful evaluation.
The impacts of the pandemic, inflation, especially in San Francisco, and a highly competitive market left the company with no option but to make this sad decision to cease operations.”
Craft breweries have reportedly been struggling for quite some time, though no one ever guessed that the long running Anchor Brewing company would be so harshly affected. Consumer habits have reportedly changed in the last decade, and paired with rising production costs and supply-chain issues, this might be the first of many craft breweries to fall to the wayside.
Many fans of the country’s oldest craft brewery are choosing to call out the Japanese beer company Sapporo that bought Anchor Brewing brand back in 2017. A contingent of beer fans trace back the company’s struggles, like mismanagement and misguided direction, to when the foreign business stepped in.
The writing was on the wall with this closure, as Anchor Brewing cut off national distribution just last month and limited sales to California.
Clearly trying to cut costs and failing, the decision was then ultimately made to shut down entirely.
Pour one out for Anchor Brewing, a sad day to be a beer indeed…
