A historic, ground-breaking California brewery is ending its national distribution — and killing everyone’s favorite holiday brew.
San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Company, which has roots in the California Gold Rush era, will no longer produce its portfolio of beers for sale outside of the state. Spirits reporter Dave Infante first broke the news on June 9 via Twitter.
In an interview with SFGATE, Anchor Brewing spokesperson Sam Singer explained that the company is focusing on the California market because it accounts for 70% of its sales. Still, Singer said it was a difficult decision based on challenging economic realities the company has faced for years.
“The inflationary impact of product costs in San Francisco is one factor,” Singer said. “Couple that with a highly competitive craft beer market and a historically costly steam brewing technique. [They’ve] probably been mulling over this decision for a year. It’s not something they take lightly.”
Another big change: Anchor Brewing will no longer make its iconic holiday beer, Christmas Ale. The spice-laden winter warmer has been a brewing tradition since 1975 and something that Northern California beer lovers look forward to every November. Singer said costly brewing and packaging requirements led to the change. It’s also a time-intensive brewing process, he said.
A sixpack of Anchor Steam’s Christmas Ale.
Courtesy of Anchor Steam“One, you have to brew it way ahead of time. They’d be brewing it right now,” he said. “It also has a different [hand-drawn] label than the other beers. It’s unlikely that it will come back.”
As Singer explained, the hand-drawn label always featured a different tree. Each year, the beer had a different combination of spices, too: Last year’s bottling was described as having “notes of orange, honeysuckle, toasted malts and eucalyptus.” InsideHook writer Bonnie Stiernberg described the 2021 version as “a little like drinking a Christmas tree — in the best possible way.”
The brewery will be pouring a small amount of Christmas Ale at the Anchor Public Taps tasting room on De Haro Street in San Francisco.
Anchor, founded in 1896, was saved from bankruptcy in 1965 by longtime owner Fritz Maytag, and sold to Sapporo in 2017, Singer said.