San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Co. is shutting down

Rumors have been swirling through the beer community for weeks that Sapporo, the Japanese conglomerate that bought San Francisco’s venerable Anchor Brewing Co. in 2017, was looking for a buyer. The company had not been doing well. It was especially hard hit by the pandemic, and sales were continuing to fall.

But the news this morning was even grimmer. Anchor Brewing announced early Wednesday that the brewery is ceasing operations and will liquidate its assets through a process known as an assignment for the benefit of creditors that avoids bankruptcy.

Employees were given 60 days notice today, and brewing has already halted, but Anchor’s Potrero Hill taproom, Public Taps, will remain open at least until Aug. 1 to sell off remaining inventory.

Anchor had recently announced it was pulling back distribution to only California, and the company  would no longer brew its popular holiday seasonal, Our Special Ale. In 2021, it revamped its logo, labels and packaging, a rebranding for which it faced heavy criticism.

Anchor’s Bay Area roots run deep. Founded in 1896 in San Francisco, the brewery was sold to Fritz Maytag in 1965. At the time, it was one of hundreds of similar regional breweries struggling to compete against the big national brands. Maytag spent the next several years learning everything he could about brewing. He visited breweries in England, studied old texts and investigated steam beer, one of America’s few unique beer styles. In the process, Maytag launched a craft beer revolution.

Anchor began bottling its version of pre-Prohibition steam beer in 1971. The brewery bottled its first Porter in 1974 and released Liberty Ale in 1975, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride. It was also one of the first beers to use Cascade hops, today the most popular hop variety used by craft brewers. By 1980, anyone interested in opening a microbrewery visited Anchor Brewery first. Maytag and his brewery inspired an entire generation of craft brewers.

The closure was not an easy decision, a brewery spokesman said Wednesday, “We recognize the importance and historic significance of Anchor to San Francisco and to the craft brewing industry, but 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.”