Fucking bullshit is right!

'Fucking bullhit': A shocked San Francisco reacts to the end of Anchor Brewing

Employees, bartenders and craft brewing legends all had emotional reactions to the news that Anchor Brewing would cease operations and liquidate the business

Jessica Yadegaran, Nico Madrigal-Yankowski, Ariana Bindman, Gabe Lehman

The sun may have been shining on Potrero Hill Wednesday, but it was a dark day for San Francisco beer lovers — one that will not soon be forgotten. The city awoke early in the morning to the shocking news that Anchor Brewing Company, the country’s first craft brewery, would be ceasing operations and liquidating the business. At its Mariposa Street headquarters, an employee had turned the company’s flag upside down, a sign of its demise.

From disgruntled Anchor employees to the city’s bartenders, who couldn’t remember a time they didn’t pull the Anchor handle at their bars, everyone seemed to have an emotional reaction to the news that owner Sapporo Breweries Ltd. would be killing this 127-year-old San Francisco institution, citing “the impacts of the pandemic, inflation, especially in San Francisco, and a highly competitive market” as the reason. The news came just one month after Anchor announced it was killing national distribution and the production of its popular Christmas Ale.

At the company’s Mariposa Street headquarters, the doors were supposed to open at noon to welcome the steady flow of summer tourists and locals eager to take a walking tour of the historic brewery, which was founded in 1896 and has roots in the California Gold Rush. But the doors were closed to the public for an emergency meeting between Anchor’s parent company and its employees, who initially learned of the closure from the news release. Employees streamed out, some clutching desk plants, one — who wished to remain anonymous — exited the doors and simply offered: “Bulls—t. F—king bulls—t. That’s my quote.” Drivers rolled down the windows chanting, “Keep brewing, keep brewing!” By 12:30 p.m., the Anchor Brewing flag had been replaced by an American flag, and a flurry of former employees had departed for drinks at Thee Parkside.

Reactions were felt from the highest rungs of America’s craft beer industry.

“Anchor Brewing was a great source of inspiration for me when Fritz Maytag was at the helm in my early days of brewing, and eventually opening Sierra Nevada,” Ken Grossman, founder and chairman of the board for Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., told SFGATE via email. “I have many fond memories of the brewery and have appreciated their contributions to the craft brewing industry. I’m saddened by the news of the closure of such an iconic brewery.” 

They came from closer, too, right inside the brewery’s Anchor Public Taps — which will be open through the end of the month. Kim Truong and her husband, Jorge Islas, have been operating their California-inspired Mexican food pop-up across the street from the brewery, inside Anchor Public Taps, since around the time the tasting room opened in 2017. As the taproom grew, their business, Frank Grizzly’s, grew too. They went from sponsoring Anchor’s Wednesday trivia nights themselves — essentially giving away tacos — to selling out every night. 

“We’re not going to say we didn’t see it coming, but it’s still really sad,” Truong told SFGATE. “We have a wonderful relationship with Anchor. They have always treated us like partners. They are a family. It’s a magical corner. Somehow it’s always 10 degrees sunnier. The regulars are amazing. You get families with newborns and senior citizens who remember when it was 25 cents a beer. It says so much about the community here that we were able to operate our business inside Anchor all this time.”

Bartenders across the Bay Area shared similar sentiments. Amy Ramos, general manager of the Athletic Club Oakland, said Anchor is one of the bar’s top sellers. It has three different Anchor beers on the draft line.

“We probably go through six kegs a week, I’d say,” Ramos said. “We are really really good friends with the distributor from Anchor. He has been very good to us. We’ve had our employee appreciation parties at the brewery and done tours. So we were pretty disappointed to hear the news.”

Kevin DeMattia, owner of Emperor Norton’s BoozeLand in San Francisco, concurred. “Like everyone else, it was in shock followed by sadness, because you associate Anchor beer with San Francisco.” He likened it to the Golden Gate Bridge, describing it as “part of the fabric of San Francisco.”

“It’s like a cultural landmark to the booze community,” he added.

While beer fans felt gut-punched, craft brewers in San Francisco were less surprised to hear that Anchor’s most recent owners had called it quits. Still, Jim Woods, founder of San Francisco’s Woods Beer Company, said the news was a “gut punch.”

“It’s always difficult for companies to carry on without their strong leaders,” Woods said. “It’s changed hands twice, and I know there’s a profit motive to have the brand succeed, but when you don’t have someone behind the brand like Fritz Maytag, the pioneer of craft brewing, it’s a really difficult thing to do.”

Woods, a former president of the board of the California Craft Brewers Association, also cited the increasing challenges of making craft beer, especially in San Francisco. Margins are tightening, distribution is consolidating, and rising cost structures in our home markets are making production in urban centers very difficult, he said. 

“We are in an industry with razor-thin margins. And if you suffer the kind of production decline that Anchor has seen in the past few years, that just wipes out your margins,” Woods said. “It really is devastating because Anchor is probably the most important craft beer. What does it mean for the future of craft beer in San Francisco? Luckily, the DNA of Anchor has spread throughout the brewing industry, including my own company. We are committed to San Francisco, and we love being located here.”