Anchor Steam Brewery sold

[Drunk Monk]

S.F.’s Anchor Brewing slashes national distribution, cancels cult-favorite beer
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Caleb Pershan
June 10, 2023Updated: June 10, 2023 9:24 p.m.
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Brewer Eric Svendberg operates brewing equipment at Anchor Brewing Co. in San Francisco. The brewery will cease national distribution, with the beer remaining available only in California.
Yalonda M. James/The Chronicle[img=0x0]https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/33/20/61/23923782/3/1200x0.jpg[/img]

Anchor Brewing Co. is significantly scaling back its distribution — and canceling Christmas this year.
The San Francisco brewer will halt national distribution of all of its beers, including its signature Anchor Steam Beer. Currently, the beer is available in all 50 states. Going forward, Anchor beers will be available only within California, which represents 70% of its sales, according to a company representative.
Then, this coming holiday season, Anchor won’t be releasing one of its signature offerings: Anchor Christmas Ale, a dark winter warmer made annually since 1975. A small amount, however, will be for sale solely at Anchor Public Taps for visitors to the tasting room. 
An Anchor representative cited “time-intensive and costly brewing and packaging requirements” as the reason for the change. Christmas Ale is unlikely to return next year, the representative said.
Anchor, founded in 1896 and rescued from bankruptcy in 1965 by longtime owner Fritz Maytag, was acquired by Japanese beer giant Sapporo in 2017. Fearing changes, workers of the brewery successfully formed a union in 2019. A representative for Anchor said it has just reached a tentative second contract with that union.
Garrett Kelly, a former brewer at Anchor, said the recent news confirmed concerns he and others voiced after the sale to Sapporo. “The loss of a beer as iconic as the Anchor Christmas Ale, the first American holiday beer post prohibition, is a loss for not only beer nerds like me, but anyone with an interest in preserving culture against the grinding pressure of corporate Darwinism,” Kelly wrote to The Chronicle.
Anchor typically begins brewing Christmas Ale in June at its Potrero Hill production facility, where it has operated since 1979. The beer arrives on shelves nationally each November. Christmas Ale is known for its annually changing combination of spices — last year’s version was advertised as offering “notes of orange, honeysuckle, toasted malts and eucalyptus” — and a changing, hand-drawn label of a tree to match. That was designed by artist Jim Stitt for decades until his retirement in 2019. Anchor redesigned all of its labels in 2021.
After a period of strong growth, the craft beer business has recently faced stagnation and consolidation. Locally, Drake’s Brewing Co. of San Leandro acquired Bear Republic of Cloverdale, and San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales & Lagers was acquired by Fresno’s Full Circle Brewing. Beer sales were down about 3% by volume last year, according to the National Brewers Association, with craft beer sales about even. Because  it’s not independently owned, Anchor doesn’t meet the association’s definition of a craft brewery.