anchor steam tour

Anchor Steam

A true San Francisco icon, Steam Beer® is America’s original craft beer, named for the 19th century practice of fermenting beer outdoors due to the lack of refrigeration. As legend has it, the chilly San Francisco night air naturally cooled the fermenting beer, creating the visual of steam rising from the brewery rooftop. CRISPNESS OF A LAGER. COMPLEXITY OF AN ALE.

Bright Amber
Balanced Hops
Rich & Refreshing

A perfectly balanced, American original delivering the crispness of a lager with the complexity of an ale.

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Visit us for one last Anchor.

Anchor Public Taps is open for business through July 31st.

Monday: 4pm-9pm Tuesday: closed Wednesday to Saturday: 12-10pm Sunday: 11am-8pm

At this time, we are only able to fulfill online beer orders in the San Francisco area.

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$15 Anchor Brewery Tours

Throughout Anchor Steam Week, save $10 on admission to Anchor’s historic brewery tour .

For just $15 per person, enjoy a 90-minute brewery tour at their Potrero Hill facility. Your experience will wrap up in their taproom where you will have the opportunity to sample 12 Anchor brews on draught during a generous open tasting session .

Anchor Steam Week: $15 Brewery Tours August 11-18, 2019 Anchor Brewing Company, 1705 Mariposa St., SF $15 $25 – $10 off during Anchor Steam Week – use code STEAMWEEK2019 at checkout Typical tour times Fri-Sun – Noon, 2pm and 4pm Mon-Thu – 2pm and 4pm View available tours

Anchor Steam Week 2019 Events Full List of Events | August 11-18 Anchor Steam Week is a celebration of San Francisco’s most historic beer: Anchor Steam. This is the beer that ignited the craft beer movement. Enjoy special promotions and events during Anchor Steam Week in San Francisco. August 11-18: Celebrate Anchor Steam Week at Public Taps Location: Anchor Public Taps & Anchor Brewing Company To celebrate Anchor Steam Week, honoring the heritage and legacy of Anchor Steam Beer, Anchor Public Taps will offer $3 pints all week . Get a taste of true San Francisco history with $15 tours (a $25 value) of the historic brewery. Simply book ahead and use the code STEAMWEEK2019 at checkout. August 13: Trivia Tuesday – Beer Geek Edition Location: Anchor Public Taps Timeframe: 6:30-8:30pm Round up the beer geeks in your life and head to Anchor Public Taps for a special edition of their weekly Trivia Tuesday. Anchor brewers will be leading beer trivia rounds covering everything from brewing processes, craft beer history, beer styles, and more. Trivia is free to play and great prizes are on deck for the winners. Enjoy 19 Anchor beers on tap, including classic brews and limited releases. Culinary pop-up Frank Grizzly’s will be on-site with delicious Mexi-Cali offerings. August 15: Anchor Brewing x Frank Grizzly’s Guided Tasting Location: Anchor Public Taps Timeframe: 7pm Cost: $30 Join pilot brewery Dane Volek and the Frank Grizzly’s team for a seriously tasty guided beer and food pairing. The Mexi-Cali culinary pop-up will create an array of small bites to pair with a variety of Anchor brews. August 16: Anchor Brewing & BeMusical Present Galaxy of Funk Location: Anchor Brewing Company Timeframe: 7-10pm Cost: $39 Celebrate the release of Brewers’ Pale Ale Galaxy Hop Blend with an exclusive concert in the halls of Anchor’s historic brewery. Enjoy live music, cheers Anchor brews, and learn about Anchor’s history as they set out on a journey to the depths of funk. August 16: Family Dog Rescue Adoption Happy Hour Location: Anchor Public Taps Timeframe: 5-8pm Come meet the awesome team from Family Dog Rescue and meet the sweet pups looking for their forever homes. Pints for humans are $3 . August 18: Anchor Steam Week Wrap Party with Bandwagon Location: Anchor Public Taps Timeframe: 12-5pm Cost: Free Celebrate with Anchor Brewing one more time as they bid adieu to Anchor Steam Week Bandwagon presents three local bands

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Anchor Steam Brewery Tour - Anchor Brewing Company

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California (CA)
San Francisco
San Francisco - Things to Do
Anchor Brewing Company

Do not miss this tour of the historic Anchor Brewery. Anchor Steam beer is as quintessentially San... read more

Who likes Anchor Beer??? It's a great history lesson told by a young, charismatic dude who is... read more

Anchor Steam Brewery Tour

Been thinking to do this one for a few decades & we found ourselves in SF on a rainy day.... so why not? There are tours at 2p and 4p- the guide will tell you the only limit on how much great beer you could sample is TIME. There were about 8 or 9 beers to sample including two of the Christmas Ales. This is really Ground Zero for the Craft Beer movement. Everything they’ve used for brewing here since their 1969 rebirth is the finest German equipment. An admirable business & an example of passion at work in business too. The end of shift drink for employees kind of sums it up! I enjoyed sampling a few of the (other) A-B brews is missed!

Really enjoyed learning the history. Winsor is fabulous. The tasting is amazing. Great experience. Make reservation in advance to ensure a slot.

Knowledgeable friendly tour guide. Smallish brewery still using manual controls. Great after tour tastings of legacy and special small batch brews

Great place to come with family and/or friends to get away. Variety of drink options, a couple of food options, and games!

Here lies the birthplace of Craft Beer..... before it was cool. Come for beer , learn some interesting history. Definitely stay for the beer, you will not be disappointed. We enjoyed several types of rare and unique brews.

Excellant time. Highly recommend. Big fan of the beers since the 80s. Learned alot and enjoyed the tasting

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Anchor Steam Brewery

Type: Attractions , Breweries and Distilleries , City , Tours and Excursions

Last updated on November 30, 2021

10Best Says

1705 Mariposa Street San Francisco, CA 94107

415-863-8350

EXPERT TIPS BY: Tom Molanphy San Francisco Local Expert

Things to Do in December , Attractions near The Cow Palace : "The tour of Anchor Steam is very popular - be sure to make reservations several months in advance."
Best for Things to Do in December Because: If you can schedule this tour around the holidays, you might get a taste of their infamous Holiday Ale, which is different every year.
Best for Attractions near The Cow Palace Because: The Anchor Steam tour offers not only an interesting history of beer but a fascinating history of San Francisco.

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The changing brews of Anchor

Anchor's first beer, its signature beer, and the best example of steam beer in the world. When Fritz Maytag bought the struggling brewery in 1965, Anchor was the last remaining producer of steam beer locally. The low-tech steam beer style, which didn’t require temperature control, had originated during the Gold Rush. Current brewmaster Scott Ungermann believes that Anchor Steam can be made only in Potrero Hill, where temperatures are never too hot or too cold.

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Anchor Steam Brewery

By Karen

Updated January 23, 2024.

The Anchor Steam Brewery

San Francisco's Gold Rush Beer

Sad development! Anchor Steam Brewery has closed after 127 years in operation, as of July 2023. The brewery tours are not running at the moment.

The first of the craft beer companies in the U.S. is going out of business due to financial problems. Anchor Steam Beer will be sorely missed (but is it really the end?)!

See SFgate.com article for more information.

The buildings were put on the market for sale in October 2023.

But there are still some hopeful signs ; some locals are bidding on it, with the idea of continuing the old traditions. The sale is to be announced later in January, 2024. See SF Chronicle article.

Fingers crossed!

There is still a beer community of microbreweries in San Francisco.

You can explore them on a couple of popular tours.

Explore More San Francisco Microbreweries

(Note: I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through the links below, at no extra cost to you. This helps me provide all the free information I post on this website. Thank you for your support!)

Here are several 5-star rated, guided, beer-tasting tours to check out:

Beer tasting tour in North Beach & Fisherman's Wharf. Guided walking tour of both neighborhoods with tasting at three craft beer spots. Good reviews. $109.

See North Beach & Fisherman's Wharf beer tour for info and booking.

SOMA beer tasting tour. Explore the South of Market neighborhood and do beer tasting at three micro breweries or craft beer spots with a guide. Small group, snacks included. Highly rated. $109.

See SOMA beer tour for info and booking.

Sonoma County Beer & Wine tour. Make a day of it and go farther afield to explore the wine and beer of Sonoma County. Do wine and beer tasting at some famous venues with a small group. Full day tour, group rates. Hotel pickup.

See Sonoma beer & wine tour for info and booking.

Private group San Francisco Brewery tour. Half-day tour for a small group (up to 4). Visit 3 or 4 breweries and sample their brews. Hotel pick-up included.

See Private SF Breweries tour for info and booking.

History of Anchor Brewing downturn...

In August, 2017, Anchor Steam was purchased by the Japanese beer company, Sapporo . There were no plans to move the brewery from its current location, or change its traditional brewing process, as long as it can keep up with the demand (according to the new owners). But who knows what the future holds for Anchor Steam? Now is a good time to visit!
The plan for the big expansion of the brewery at Pier 48 seems to have disappeared following the sale.
Anchor Steam also had a distillery (not purchased by Sapporo) which became Hotaling & Co in 2018. They chose that name because of the whiskey storehouse that survived the 1906 earthquake made famous by the rhyme, "If, as they say, God spanked the town for being over frisky, why did He burn His churches down and spare Hotaling's whiskey?" Now located at Pier 50. They will continue operation and have allied with the Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits company to expand their distribution network as of January, 2023.
Anchor Steam opened a pub next door, Anchor Public Taps , serving many of their beers on tap, plus some new ones brewed on the premises. It has also closed as of July 2023. 495 De Haro Street.
Anchor Steam filed for bankruptcy in July 2023. There was a last ditch effort by some employees to purchase it, but it doesn't look like it was successful.
The Anchor Steam Brewing building was put up for sale in October 2023.

Down memory lane: what the brewery and tour were like.

Treat yourself to a tour and tasting at San Francisco's oldest traditional brewery.

This is a really fun San Francisco thing to do. The charming Anchor Steam Brewery hosts tours twice a day and escorts you through the three floors of their operation, finishing off with an opportunity to taste about 7 of their beer varieties.

Filling Beer Cans, Anchor Steam Brewery assembly line

The Anchor Steam Brewery goes all the way back to the Gold Rush era, when founder Gottlieb Brekle arrived in San Francisco.

Founded by German immigrants in 1896, this brewery still makes its beer in essentially the same way as it was done in the old country a hundred years ago.

Anchor Steam Brewery Building, Potrero Hill, SF

The tour guide fills you in on the turbulent history of Anchor Steam in San Francisco, while taking you through all the stages of the beer-making process.

This is one of the original "artisanal" breweries, existing long before microbreweries became trendy. It had such a rocky history, it's almost a miracle it's still here: owners run over by street cars, building destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, shut down for 13 years during Prohibition, etc.!

It almost went under again when American tastes shifted to cans of Budweiser and Pabst Blue Ribbon, but it came back big time in the 1970's, when a demand for flavor and variety reappeared.

Their brewing process is very natural one. Only four ingredients go into their beers; malted barley, hops, water and yeast (with some malted wheat added to their wheat beers). The cooling of the boiling malt and hops mixture is done by the cool, San Francisco air (hence "steam beer", as the steam rises from the cooling tanks).

Copper Kettles, Anchor Steam Brewery, San Francisco

The brewery is small and has a friendly, family feel to it. You tag along behind the guide, up and down stairs, peering at vats of soupy malt, sacks of feathery hops and beautiful copper kettles boiling the mixture.

Even their office has old-fashioned wooden desks and bookcases, transporting you back to the 1940's.

Sacks of hops at the Anchor Steam Brewery, SF

Only the dried flowers of the female hops plant are used.

Vat of fermenting malt, Anchor Steam Brewery

And then the grand finale. Back to the cozy taproom to taste about 12 of their varied brews.

Beer Tasting at the Anchor Steam Brewery

They are generous with their tastings. And there is no rushing you out the door. We found it very relaxing and hung out there probably an hour or more after the tour.

Tasting dark beers at the Anchor Steam Brewery

Brewery Tour Hours and Prices

Tours are no longer running.

Anchor Steam Varieties

Anchor Steam has a stable of current beers, some year-round and others produced seasonally and available for just a few months a year. In addition, they produce some interesting, one-time, specialty beers from time to time, like Sumerian Beer (based on a 4000-year-old recipe) and Earthquake Beer, after the 1989 quake.

I tried their Anchor Saison Spring Ale , available in February, March and April each year. It's a Belgian-style ale made with a type of yeast that gives it what they describe as a peppery flavor, plus they add in an interesting mixture of ginger, lemongrass and lemon peel. Has a refreshing bite to it, very nice.

Anchor Steam Location

The Anchor Steam Brewery is located at 1705 Mariposa Street , in the Potrero Hill neighborhood. The entrance is on De Haro Street , at the corner of Mariposa.

415 863-8350.

Use their address, 1705 Mariposa Street, for navigation.

There is no parking lot, but you can park on the street. You may have to walk a block or two, but it's usually pretty easy to find a place nearby.

Even though it's in a totally different part of San Francisco, it's actually pretty easy to get over there from either Fisherman's Wharf or Union Square.

From Fisherman's Wharf: Catch the 19-Polk/Hunter's Point Bus on Bay Street near Polk Street (near Aquatic Park on the Wharf.)

The 19 Bus will take you within one block of the brewery. Get off at Rhode Island Street and Mariposa Street, then walk one block downhill (east) along Mariposa Street to the brewery at the corner of Mariposa and De Haro Streets.

From Union Square , walk down Powell Street to Market Street and take the Muni Streetcar (underground) one stop to Civic Center. Go back up to Market Street and catch the 19-Polk/Hunter's Point Bus at Market and 8th Street (where the Civic Center stop is). Follow directions above.

Here's a link to the Muni 19-Polk map and schedule.

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America’s First Craft Brewery is in San Francisco

On the roof with the fog and steam at Anchor Brewing, San Francisco CA. Photography by @hewittvisuals

If you’re wondering where America’s first craft brewery is, look no further than San Francisco, CA. Not only is Anchor Brewing Co. widely credited with starting the craft beer revolution in the 1960s, they are also the brewers of America’s oldest, indigenous beer style; Steam Beer®.

While there are plenty of other uniquely American styles of beers today, San Francisco’s Steam Beer® is the only one that has been brewed uninterrupted for at least 150 years (except for the Prohibition-related disruption from 1920 to 1933 that shut all breweries down nationwide). Anchor’s roots began during the California Gold Rush, when men in the tens of thousands flocked to the San Francisco Bay to make their fortunes…and they were thirsty.

In honor of San Francisco’s upcoming annual Steam Week August 14-21 , we visited the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco, hung out with the brewers, learned their history, and of course, drank their historic beers!

Book an Anchor Brewery tour & beer flight tasting here

1871: Gottlieb Brekle bought an old beer-and-billiards saloon on Pacific Street near Russian Hill for $3,500, transforming it into the American brewery that, twenty-five years later, would be renamed Anchor.

The History of Steam Beer

During the California Gold Rush German immigrants brought with them the Bavarian tradition of beer making known all over Europe as Lager . This light, cold, fermented beer with bottom-fermenting yeasts was aged in deep, naturally chilly German caves or in cellars full of ice. San Francisco didn’t have icy caves or mechanical refrigeration at the time, what they had in abundance was fog.

Anchor Brewmaster, Tom Riley at Anchor Brewing, San Francisco CA. Photography by @hewittvisuals

“Steam Beer” was born in the gold rush days in SF. The “Steam” part of the name could have come about because of the method used to cool the wort after boiling. Shallow rooftop vessels (cool ships) were used, so steam would rise into the cool SF night, dubbing the beer, Steam Beer. – Anchor Brewmaster, Tom Riley.

San Franciscan brewers cooled their beer in the open air, and as the heat from the boil mixed with the fog and chilled Pacific air, plumes of steam would rise off rooftops and around the San Francisco Bay, and Steam Beer was born. It was the beer of the time.

In Frank Norris’s famous 1899 novel McTeague: “A Story of San Francisco” , he mentions drinking ‘Steam Beer’ on Polk Street no less than two times in the first two paragraphs. Historical accounts throughout the late 1800s also mention SF’s Steam Beer, f rom stories of roving gangs on Irish Hill sharing “steam beers” after bare-knuckle fights with their rivals at Mike Boyle’s Steam Beer Dump , to reports from SF’s Barbary Coast, where after buying a nickel’s worth of steam beer “one also got a generous free lunch of spaghetti, Italian bread, and fried fish”.

Fritz Maytag, known as “The Godfather of Craft Beer”.

The History of American Craft Beer

In San Francisco in the 1960s & 70s, experimentation and outside thinking were the new norms, and Anchor’s new owner Fritz Maytag, was not afraid of taking risks.

“In the late 60s when Fritz Maytag took over the brewery, craft beer wasn’t a term.” Recounts Anchor Brewmaster Tom Riley, “Big industrial beer ruled the day ( Miller/Budweiser ). What Fritz was making was very unique, very small in scale and very artisanal. It’s not until a trend grows that people take notice of who started it. As the trend got bigger the term “craft beer” was coined, Fritz got credit for starting it. I’ve heard Fritz referred to as ‘The godfather of craft beer’.” – ANCHOR BREWMASTER, TOM RILEY.

So how did Anchor start the craft beer revolution in the US ? Pedro Mancilla, who leads the Anchor Brewery tour program, has an encyclopedic knowledge of brewing history. He recounted the beer and date that Anchor began the revolution, “Anchor produced the first Post-Prohibition Porter in 1972,” Mancilla said, “When the norm was to drink pale light lagers here in the states, Anchor Brewing introduced to the American palettes a new beer style.”

“We are celebrating its 50th birthday this year and it’s the beer that started the American craft beer scene. What I like to call it is “History in a glass” – Pedro Mancilla

Anchor Steam Beer. Photography by @hewittvisuals

So what does Steam Beer taste like? Brewmaster Riley says, “Anchor Steam is a robust yet balanced beer. It starts with the aroma of fresh bread, herbal hops and yeast esters. Taste of caramel malt and bready notes, with the balance of bitter herbaceous hops. The look is crystal clear copper or amber color, with a creamy beige head.”

Beer delivery men in San Francisco. The first brewery workers union was formed in San Francisco in 1888. The beer delivery men were reportedly among the more militant. Photo foundsf.com

Union-Made Beer

San Francisco has a long historic past when it comes to Organized Labor. The first San Francisco brewery workers union was formed way back in 1888 , and today, Anchor Steam workers are proud members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) which was originally established in 1937. This was three years after the 1934 Waterfront Strike, where two workers lost their lives in clashes with police and union breakers, in order to finally secure their right to organize and improve working conditions for the common man.

Pedro Mancilla, Visitation Lead at Anchor Brewing Company . Born and Bred in the Bay Area.

ILWU member and Anchor employee Pedro Mancilla told us, “Historically, we wanted to be a part of the ILWU and felt it matched our values as one of the last working-class factories still in San Francisco. Plus, how cool is it that the first ILWU beer is Anchor Steam? That just sounds right.”

The bottling line at Anchor Brewing. Photography by @hewittvisuals

In 2015 the city of San Francisco proclaimed the third week of August to be Anchor Steam Week , celebrating Anchor’s pioneering role in the American craft beer movement and continued commitment to brewing in San Francisco.

To celebrate, the 7th annual Anchor Steam Week is at Anchor Public Taps and there will be:

• An afternoon of special Anchor Steam beer flights • The legendary Sam’s Chowder Mobile will be on site serving fresh Anchor Steam Beer Battered Fish Tacos for $4.15 • A DJ spinning vinyl • Prizes & games • A create your own Custom Anchor x Culk bandana station, based on SF graphic designs by artist Sam Culkins. • Plus WAY more

When: Sunday, August 14th, 2022 12:30pm-4:30pm Where: Anchor Public Taps, 495 DeHaro St, San Francisco

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Broke-Ass Stuart (@brokeassstuart)

Steam Week Event Page here For Everything Anchor Steam go here For Anchor Brewery tours here!

Our article and tour were sponsored by Anchor Brewing, historical photos were provided by Anchor Brewing, and tour photography was taken by @hewittvisuals. Stuart’s ‘Steam beer’ t-shirt in the photos was made by SF-based designer @culk, specially for Steam Week.

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How San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company Could Still Stay Open

Please try again

Two people sit at a high top table holding glasses of beer towards each other.

More than two dozen interested buyers have come forward to keep Anchor Brewing open after it announced earlier this month that it would close by Aug. 1, according to a company spokesperson. But there are still a few steps before Anchor Brewing can go full steam ahead again, and time is ticking.

“We’re open to work with anyone who is willing to work with us,” said Pedro de Sá, a representative with International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6, which includes workers at Anchor. “People have reached out to us, some investors who originally talked about going on their own.”

Anchor Brewing workers have started laying the groundwork to purchase the business from parent company Sapporo USA and run it as an employee-owned cooperative. Sapporo is open to the idea, but there’s not much time before a state-appointed liquidator will take over the company’s assets and determine whether it will remain open.

Unionized workers at the brewery — representing about a third of the staff — are now hoping to extend that timeline as they evaluate the brewery’s worth and formulate their bid. They have selected a point person to talk through some of the logistics with the parent company, but next need to secure funding and legal representation by Aug. 1.

“We want more time. The timeline right now is very short,” de Sá said. “We had a lot of people reach out to us to help, individuals and investors saying they want to invest.”

Meanwhile, other offers are brewing.

People stand in a line inside a large indoor space with a banner on the wall reading

Venture capitalist Mike Walsh, who lives in the Potrero Hill neighborhood where the brewery and taproom are located, has spent the weeks since the company’s announcement talking to fellow investors and putting together an offer.

One person he already tapped is Tony Foglio, who co-owned Anchor from 2010 to 2017 before he and Keith Greggor sold the company to Sapporo for about $85 million.

“There’s definitely enough investor interest” to make an offer, Walsh said. “I just have to figure out that offer amount.”

Both parties are now crunching the numbers. Walsh said that he plans to meet with employees at the brewery about involvement or collaboration. De Sá did not definitively say what the brewery workers would be open to, but that they “feel strongly at this point that they want to have governance and a say in how that company is run.”

The latest dash for a new owner to come in and keep Anchor from shuttering comes after a long history of highs and lows for the historic brand and brewery.

People sit under umbrellas in a sunny outdoors space.

Anchor was founded 127 years ago, using actual steam and San Francisco’s cold temps and fog to brew its iconic Anchor Steam beverage. It survived the 1906 earthquake, prohibition and even the boom and bust cycles of the local tech sector.

In 2019, brewery workers unionized, citing the need for higher pay and better working conditions.

But Anchor couldn’t make up for sliding sales and broader pandemic-fueled challenges.

“About 70% of the company’s sales were on-premises, meaning in bars or restaurants. When the pandemic came along, that just absolutely tanked sales,” said Anchor spokesperson Sam Singer.

Singer told KQED that there is no definitive timeline for when a new owner could step in. As of publication, plans to close the taproom and brewery on Aug. 1 are moving ahead.

“After that date, it will be in the hands of the liquidator to make a determination as to whether it will remain open,” Singer said in a text message.

Production has already stopped at the brewery and Anchor Public Taps, the company’s brewpub, will stay open selling what’s left of the inventory.

In the meantime, Anchor beer lovers are showing up in droves at the brewery to pick up cases of beer and merchandise while they still can.

“It’s super sad. I’m somewhat not surprised after Sapporo bought them in 2017, but I’m staying hopeful someone will pick it up and take the brand forward,” San Francisco resident John Elliott told KQED between sips of Anchor Steam at the taproom. “It’s a huge part of being in the city and growing up in California.”

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The history of San Francisco’s original craft brewer will live on at the Smithsonian

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A long-handled copper tool. A painting of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of brewers. A yellow metal sign that reads “Steam Beer on Tap.”

These are the kinds of artifacts that tell the story of Anchor Brewing Company, the 127-year-old San Francisco institution that many consider to be the nation’s first producer of craft beer, ones that historians have selected after surveying a voluminous amount of material.

“It’s so challenging to make those kinds of decisions,” said Theresa McCulla, the curator of the American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, which already has on display artifacts and photographs from Anchor.

Yet that was precisely what McCulla was charged with doing when she visited Anchor’s Potrero Hill brewery in July, accompanied by an archivist and a collections specialist. Together, the trio combed through the site in search of objects that will give future generations an understanding of the San Francisco icon and its role in the craft beer revolution.

Curators at the Smithsonian select objects not only for their exhibition potential but also for their utility for future researchers. Thus, along with the pipettes and signs, tap handles and tiles, McCulla also collected scores of business records—items that can be useful long into the future, because the Smithsonian pledges to preserve whatever it collects in perpetuity.

Gallery of 4 photos

But it’s the artifacts that harbor secrets to be decoded. Like the barrels that were used to transport steam beer, which required six iron hoops—more than the typical beer barrel—because the beer was so effervescent. Or a 1989 batch of Anchor Steam that has the labels affixed upside down in recognition of the earthquake that had shaken the Bay Area that year, and a menu board in the taproom that reflects the very last beers that were available on tap.

Perhaps most heart-wrenching is a paper calendar McCulla noticed near the fermentation tanks during her visit. Circled in pencil was July 31—the last day the brewery would be in operation before its liquidation.

McCulla had already visited the brewery in her capacity as a curator—but under much different circumstances. In 2017, right around the time that Japan's Sapporo Holdings Limited acquired the company, she went to Anchor Brewing for her very first research trip in her new position. She met brewery historian David Burkhart, collected artifacts and recorded an oral history with Fritz Maytag, the washing machine heir and longtime owner of the brewery, who saved it from extinction in the 1960s.

“I never would have expected that I would record oral history, sitting in Fritz's office in 2017 and be back in that same office six years later, recording oral histories with a very different frame,” she said.

Gallery of 3 photos

Now the brewery itself is history, and its Art Deco building is up for sale.

“I can’t believe how fast it all happened,” said Lana Costantini, director of education and publishing at the San Francisco Historical Society. “With a place so big, you’d think it would be a monthslong process.”

Constantini selected artifacts for the historical society’s collection after the Smithsonian had finished. She scooped up objects like a handmade woolen flag that carried stories with them—artifacts that will be made accessible to the public at a pop-up exhibition at the history center later this fall.

She also took with her cases of embossed glasses, labels for every beer and one of the last cases of beer. They’re treating it the way a Star Wars obsessive would regard a vintage Princess Leia figure that’s still in its packaging.

“We won’t open it, not even the cardboard,” she said.

Julie Zigoris can be reached at [email protected]

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Restaurants, food and drink | nfl draft: 49ers make two trades en route to defensive back green, offensive lineman puni, restaurants, food and drink, subscriber only, restaurants, food and drink | is it all over for anchor brewing or does hope still remain.

A farewell tour of San Francisco's historic Anchor Brewing, from its burnished copper brewing vessels to its stash of hops, proves bittersweet. (Courtesy Jay R. Brooks)

A correction has been appended at the end of this story.

Sapporo USA’s decision to shut down San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing has been the talk of the beer world for weeks now. The news had been rumored, but the reality of it hit on July 12. Soon after, I had the opportunity to visit the historic brewery for a farewell tour organized by one of Anchor’s local sales reps, who invited Bay Area industry veterans for the impromptu event on Potrero Hill.

A coffee roastery when it opened in 1937, the building is a majestic sight, with a corner tower topped with a flag pole reaching to the sky. Stepping inside was like going back in time. Brewing had already ceased, although there was still beer in the tanks waiting to be packaged. But the copper brewing vessels and the coolships were all empty, with only a skeleton crew on hand, making it unusually quiet as we walked the empty corridors.

While I was grateful to have a last look around and commiserate with colleagues, it was ultimately bittersweet. Steam beer has been synonymous with San Francisco since long before I moved here, almost 40 years ago. It would be a sad thing for it to disappear entirely from the Bay Area landscape. That has happened before — briefly — on three distinct occasions, but like the city itself, risen from the ashes like a phoenix.

The big question is, is Anchor really gone? Sapporo’s intends to liquidate the brewery, but a white knight — like Fritz Maytag in 1965, for example — has swooped in to save the company before.

One potential savior is Anchor’s own employees. The brewery’s union sent a letter to Sapporo USA on July 19 saying they intended to make a bid to purchase the brewery. Sapporo was open to that, as long as funding, of course, was in place. But the union’s latest announcement, delivered by union spokesman Pedro Sa last week, indicates they’ve run up against issues of time and access to Sapporo’s financial information. Sapporo told them on July 27 that they could not share their financial information because, Sa said, it was now “too close to the date when they would hand over control of their assets.”

When I spoke last week to packaging lead Patrick Machel, who’s active in the union negotiations, he was still cautiously optimistic, but noted that there were major hurdles to overcome. But he has been impressed by the outpouring of support for Anchor since the announcement. The sense of history at the brewery and the feeling of being part of the Anchor family is palpable, he said, and workers hope they’ll be able to create a “new generation of workers that respect the brand they’re a part of.”

It’s hard to overstate the brewery’s importance to today’s vibrant beer scene. The fact that you can walk into almost any local bar and drink a unique beer from one of almost 10,000 American breweries is due in no small measure to Anchor and its resurrection at the hands of Fritz Maytag, who bought the then-failing brewery in 1965.

Between the brewery’s founding in 1896 and the 1960s, it struggled through the 1906 earthquake and fire, Prohibition, multiple owners and several locations. In 1959, then-brewmaster Joe Allen announced he was closing the brewery, one of the last to brew steam beer in California. A white knight arrived from Marin in the form of Minnesota-born Lawrence Steese and his partners, who bought the equipment, moved the brewery again and by 1960, were making Anchor Steam Beer once more. But by 1965, with big national beer brands gaining traction with younger drinkers, Steese was struggling.

One of Anchor Steam’s most ardent fans was Fred Kuh, who owned the Old Spaghetti Factory in North Beach. One night, he told one of his regulars, recent Stanford grad and fellow Anchor Steam fan Fritz Maytag, that the brewery was about to close, so he should go take a look around before then. Maytag did. By August, Maytag had purchased a controlling interest in the brewery.

The brewing scene in 1965 was a far cry from what it is today. Back then, it was dominated by just a handful of large national companies with a few older regional breweries hanging on by a thread. By 1980, there were fewer than 100 breweries left.

Of course, Maytag didn’t know he was going to change that trajectory. In 1965, he was trying to figuring out how to make steam beer the old-fashioned way. Steam beer was common throughout the American West in the 19th century and early 20th, but it died out thanks to Prohibition. After repeal, Anchor was the only brewery making anything like it, but it took several years of research and experimentation to re-create the original — and then bottle it for market beginning in 1971.

There were side projects, such as Ninkasi Ale. Using an ancient Sumerian text known as the Hymn to Ninkasi, they re-created a beer using the same methods and ingredients used in 1800 B.C.E. Ninkasi was the Sumerian goddess of beer, and the hymn is essentially the earliest known recipe for beer.

And then there was the mentorship. Jack McAuliffe, who founded Sonoma’s New Albion Brewery, visited Anchor seeking advice before starting what is considered the first microbrewery built from scratch in 1976. So did Ken Grossman, before he launched Sierra Nevada Brewing in 1979.

Maytag made Anchor Brewery an inspiration for almost all that’s come since in the brewing world.

Correction, Aug. 7, 2023: An earlier version of this story referred to an ancient Egyptian text. The Hymn to Ninkasi was a Sumerian text.

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Last Batch of Anchor Steam Rolls off the Line at Historic San Francisco Brewery

words: VinePair Staff

photography: Anchor Brewing

updated: July 28, 2023

On July 27, 2023, the final bottles of steam beer rolled off the packaging line at the Potrero Hill brewery where Anchor Brewing Co . has operated since 1979. The last case was packaged on Thursday morning sometime before noon local time, according to Instagram posts from brewery employees. Just like that, a century and a half-long San Francisco brewing tradition came to an end.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kristyn Carter (@kristyncart3r)

In June, VinePair contributing editor Dave Infante broke the news that the brewery would cease national distribution, instead pulling back to service only California markets, and discontinue its popular Christmas ale. Only weeks later, Infante again broke news on VinePair that Sapporo USA (SUSA) would cease all operations and liquidating the beloved brewery.

Earlier this month, the company had scheduled to brew over 600 barrels of Anchor Steam over the course of August. By July 19, this number was reduced to just 400. Now, the number is zero — and it’ll stay that way for the foreseeable future, as Anchor’s uncertain future is hashed out.

In a July 12 release confirming Anchor’s imminent closure, representatives for the brewery stated it would be liquidated via an assignment for the benefit of creditors . One week later, VinePair reported brewery employees’ plans to bid on the company and “run it as a worker co-op.” In a July 19 memo to SUSA, workers requested that the beverage company be transparent and give them a fair shot at acquiring the brewery . On July 20, they were informed that Sapporo would consider an offer, as long as it was provided with a legitimate source of funding.

According to an Anchor Union news release , employees were told that SUSA would provide them with financial information regarding the state of the business as soon as they were contacted by a representative on the group’s behalf. The following day on July 21, a workers’ representative contacted Sapporo.

But on the evening of July 27, a business agent for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union who is assisting the interested Anchor employees with their bid, Pedro de Sá, issued a press release alleging that SUSA had denied the group’s request to the information, claiming that it was too close to the date that the company is expected to hand over control of the brewery’s assets. The agent, Pedro de Sá, claims that “other prospective buyers have already been given access to this financial information” — in effect, unfairly hindering the employees’ effort to make a competitive bid.

Shortly after this story published, a representative for SUSA and Anchor, who had initially not responded to VinePair’s request for comment on de Sá’s claims, said the company “is being fair in its treatment of all parties interested in purchasing its assets.” Per the representatives, the union and other interested parties will be able to gain access to financial information once a liquidator is in place and after signing a non-disclosure agreement. The representative, Sam Singer, did not directly rebut de Sá’s claim that the firm had already provided that info to any potential buyers.”

Anchor’s assets are set to be turned over to a liquidator at the beginning of August. Yet, Anchor employees request that Sapporo USA delays doing so until Sep. 2, to give them more time to present their bid. “Provide the financial information necessary to present a fair offer,” the release states. “Now is Sapporo’s chance to show they intend to do right by their workers and by San Francisco.”

Additional reporting by VinePair contributing editor and columnist Dave Infante.

This story is a part of VP Pro , our free content platform and newsletter for the drinks industry, covering wine, beer, and liquor — and beyond. Sign up for VP Pro now!

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Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Anchor Brewing Shutting Down

The historic San Francisco brewery has already stopped production — but there may still be hope for its future

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It has been a wild ride since San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing announced its closure on July 12. But, as fans may know, this isn’t the first time the more-than-a-century-old company has come close to extinction. In 2017 Japanese multinational corporation Sapporo acquired and subsequently rebranded the company, including canning the famously bottled beer in 2020. Then in June 2023 came the announcement the 127-year-old company would quit making its Anchor Christmas Ale and limit distribution to California, which raised concerns from both customers and employees.

What’s important to know right now is that according to workers, Anchor Brewing stopped production on July 27. Now, in tandem with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6 (ILWU) and nonprofit Project Equity, Anchor workers have joined a suite of other would-be buyers hoping to purchase the company’s assets. It’s unclear who, if anyone, will end up owning the company — and whether or not the future owner will resume beer-making once again.

For now, here’s what to know about the past, present, and future of San Francisco’s most beloved local brewery.

Is Anchor Brewing really shutting down?

Yes, for now, though there’s a chance it could get purchased and brought back. Throughout its history, the company has changed hands a handful of times; in 1965, Fritz Maytag bought the business, then sold it in 2010 to Griffin Group, a local beverage company, before Sapporo took the reins in 2017. But even though the company has been rescued from the brink of extinction several times before, it’s not a done deal the company will be revived this time.

So, can I still get Anchor Steam beer?

For now — though stock is probably pretty hard to find at this point. Since the business has stopped brewing for the foreseeable future, Anchor and its various products may still be available at the usual outlets — Anchor workers say BevMo has seen something like a 200 percent increase in sales, for instance — but supply will run out eventually if nothing changes. In any case, there likely won’t be more steam beer brewed anytime soon; if more beer is produced from the company’s legendary Potrero Hill plant, it will have to be after a new owner gets things started again.

How is Sapporo related to all this?

Sapporo USA, an arm of Japanese beverage behemoth Sapporo Holdings Ltd., bought Anchor Brewing in 2017 for $85 million. Sapporo was founded two decades before Anchor, and, at the time, it was seen as a company that could uphold the San Francisco business’ values and products. That said, workers and fans began to see the acquisition as a kind of death knell for Anchor, with current staff outright blaming the company’s mismanagement for the company’s shuttering.

How is the company being sold?

The process through which Sapporo aims to sell Anchor Brewing is called Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC), and it’s the same way Anchor was sold in 1965 and in 2017. Rather than filing for bankruptcy, this process allows a company to be dissolved and sold, bit by bit or in its entirety, to recoup lost money to investors as quickly as possible.

Who’s going to buy the company?

That’s unclear. There aren’t any known front runners at this point as the assets will be turned over to an Assignee for the Benefit of Creditors, or a liquidator, at the beginning of August. “Once the liquidator is in place the union and other interested parties can gain access after signing a non-disclosure agreement to business information to inform their bids for Anchor Brewing Co. either in whole or in part,” Anchor wrote in a press release .

Sam Singer, a legal representative retained by Anchor during this process, told the Chronicle that “two dozen investors and individuals have expressed interest in acquiring some or all of the brewery.” Liquidators will consider all their offers. The unionized workers hoped to get their bid in before this process began, but now claim Sapporo didn’t provide adequate financial information for them to do so. As of the last week of July, KRON4 reports workers are asking Sapporo to give them another month to rally efforts from the community; the company says it’s too late.

Why do San Franciscans care so much about Anchor Brewing anyway?

It’s one of those “heart and soul of San Francisco” kind of things. The company was founded in San Francisco in 1896 and invented California’s common style of beer, which the company branded as steam beer. Ardent fans including Tablehopper’s Marcia Gagliardi , local food enthusiast Andy Samwick , and Chronicle columnists Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight have taken their chances to wax nostalgic about the brewery. Anchor’s production workers report lines down the block at Anchor’s Public Taps taproom and sales exceeding yearly expectations in a matter of weeks after the July 12 announcement. “People bleed Anchor,” former Anchor Brewing president Keith Greggor told SFGATE . “They’re passionate about it.”

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Makers of San Francisco's famed Anchor Steam beer are going out of business

Bottles of Anchor Steam beer on Aug. 3, 2017 in San Anselmo, Calif.

San Francisco-based Anchor Brewing will turn off the taps and draw a close to the century-old brewery whose contribution to "American beer history cannot be overstated," it said Wednesday.

The company — one of the country's oldest craft breweries, founded in 1896 — "will cease operations and liquidate the business following a combination of challenging economic factors and declining sales since 2016," it said in a statement.

"Like many breweries and brew pubs, Anchor has been dramatically impacted by economic pressure that have made the business no longer sustainable," it said.

Wednesday's announcement triggered a 60-day period for operations to completely cease and the company to pay "separation packages" to eligible employees, officials said.

Brewing operations have already been halted, but the company will continue to package and distribute the beer that's left in a process that's likely to go through the end of this month.

Anchor Steam fans probably knew bad news was on tap a few weeks ago when the brewer announced it wouldn't be producing its popular Christmas Ale this year.

“This was an extremely difficult decision that Anchor reached only after many months of careful evaluation,” company spokesman Sam Singer said in a statement.

“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.”

It’s still possible that the company’s plant in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco and its recipes and other assets could be purchased in a liquidation sale, with a new buyer continuing the operation, Singer said.

“The Anchor team is hopeful that somebody sees the value, the history and the benefit of buying a 127-year-old historic brewery and keeping it alive,” he told NBC News on Wednesday.

“But that’s really up in the cards and in the hands of the liquidators to see if someone steps forward to make a bid,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Brewers Association, which represents more than 5,400 brewers, distributors and craft beer retailers, said the trade group doesn't normally, by policy, comment on the opening or closing of any beer company.

But the impending closure of Anchor Brewing — an iconic San Francisco staple as famous as sourdough bread , Ghirardelli Chocolate or Rice-A-Roni — prompted it to offer a heartfelt eulogy.

"Anchor’s contributions to craft brewing and American beer history cannot be overstated," chief economist Bart Watson said in a statement.

In the growing, fast-changing landscape of craft brewing, not even the most beloved brands, such as Anchor, have free passage into the future of brewing, Watson said.

"While the longevity of the brand is a testament to its innovation, the craft brewing market has radically grown and shifted over recent decades, with that change only accelerating in recent years," he said.

"A competitive distribution market and rising costs mean that even strong brands may be struggling to find growth in a slow growth environment that now includes nearly 10,000 breweries nationwide. Anchor’s announcement partially reflects this new maturing era for craft and should be taken in the context of the large and competitive market that Anchor helped create," he said.

Anchor Brewing was purchased in 2017 by Sapporo U.S.A. A representative for the company couldn't immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

David K. Li is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

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Buyers found for “whole kit and kaboodle” at Anchor Steam Brewery

Negotiations include beer maker’s San Francisco buildings and IP

Buyer Negotiating for San Francisco’s Anchor Steam Brewery

Several buyers are in negotiations on “the whole kit and kaboodle” at Anchor Steam Brewery, including its buildings and intellectual property, according to Anchor spokesperson Sam Singer, which could mean the 128-year-old San Francisco institution will live to brew another day.

Singer would not give additional details on the buyers, since the negotiations continue with the different parties, but said the deal would likely close by late May and would include “all assets of Anchor Brewing Company” including its real estate. The deal will also include brewing equipment and intellectual property such as recipes and the trademark on “steam beer.”

He also would not reveal how close the buyers are to the $40-million asking price put forth by CBRE on the real estate alone in October, which came months after owner Sapporo shocked the city with news that it was closing and liquidating the 110,000-square-foot property with four parcels along both sides of Mariposa Street, citing declining sales, increased competition and a shift in drinker preferences away from beer.

Sapporo bought Anchor Steam from Griffin Group, run by former Skyy Vodka executives, for $85 million in 2017. The brewery was founded in San Francisco in 1896 and became known as “America’s First Craft Brewery.”

News of the sale should hearten those who had been lamenting that the brewery and its valuable Potrero Hill real estate might soon part ways, given the growth of AI companies in the area .

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Commercial real estate experts who spoke with TRD shortly after the announcement of the brewery’s closure last year thought a redevelopment move was the most likely play.

“The 501 De Haro Street building presents a tremendous opportunity for real estate players, and even more so for prospective tenants,” John Jensen of Colliers said at the time, though he acknowledged that “significant capital would need to be invested to make the buildings suitable for AI tenant use.”

Unless a “white knight” came in to keep the brewery running more or less as is, Jeffrey Enright, senior vice president of Kidder Mathews’ valuation advisory services, said the market would most likely look at the parcels on either side of Mariposa Street as two distinct offerings. The historic Art Deco building and two-story Mid-Century on one side of the street, where Anchor Steam has been located since 1979, would be more likely to be redeveloped; the more industrial parcel and one-story tasting room on the other, which together add up to 1.5 acres, could make more sense as a land deal.

San Francisco beer lovers will have to wait until next month to find out whether or not that white knight has in fact arrived.

This article was updated to reflect that there is more than one buyer in the negotiations.

CBRE lists former Anchor Steam Brewing site for $40M

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COMMENTS

San Francisco's Best Brewery Tour
Our beautiful copper brew kettles and classic art deco architecture provide the perfect backdrop for weddings, special occasions, and corporate off-sites. Tour San Francisco's iconic Anchor Brewing, see centuries-old brewing traditions and taste a flight of Anchor beers. We offer guided public tours and tastings every day.
Anchor Steam
The Beer That Started It All. A true San Francisco icon, Steam Beer® is America's original craft beer, named for the 19th century practice of fermenting beer outdoors due to the lack of refrigeration. As legend has it, the chilly San Francisco night air naturally cooled the fermenting beer, creating the visual of steam rising from the ...
Anchor Brewing Company
Jason was a knowledgeable and engaging tour guide. The company has an impressive history and the staff shows their pride. And the beers taste very different and definitely worth a try, practice does make perfect. Very well organized tour and entertaining. Definitely will keep an eye out for Anchor Steam on draft in the future wherever I am.
$15 Anchor Brewery Tours
Throughout Anchor Steam Week, save $10 on admission to Anchor's historic brewery tour. For just $15 per person, enjoy a 90-minute brewery tour at their Potrero Hill facility. Your experience will wrap up in their taproom where you will have the opportunity to sample 12 Anchor brews on draught during a generous open tasting session.. Anchor Steam Week: $15 Brewery Tours
Anchor Steam Brewery Tour
Anchor Brewing Company: Anchor Steam Brewery Tour - See 597 traveler reviews, 447 candid photos, and great deals for San Francisco, CA, at Tripadvisor.
Anchor Steam was the ultimate San Francisco comeback story
Anchor steam is the city's most iconic beer, and the ultimate San Francisco comeback story. ... on a recent tour for the Total SF podcast, brewmaster Dane Volek showed off an operation where new ...
Anchor Steam Brewery
Anchor Steam Brewery: Nothing quite symbolizes San Francisco as much as her famous beer, Anchor Steam. Locals always anticipate the brewery's "holiday brew," which includes secret ingredients that change every year. And both tourists and locals have made the tour of the brewery incredibly popular. Even if you don't like beer, the tour offers a fascinating local history dating back to the Gold ...
From Steam to San Franpsycho: The definitive timeline of Anchor Brewing
For decades, Anchor Brewing made only a handful of beer styles, led by its flagship Steam. But in recent years, spurred by the anything-goes ethos of modern craft beer, San Francisco's signature brewery has gotten creative. Here's a tour of (almost) every beer Anchor has ever made.
Anchor Steam Brewery. No more tours of the famous SF brewery
Anchor Steam Varieties. Anchor Steam has a stable of current beers, some year-round and others produced seasonally and available for just a few months a year. In addition, they produce some interesting, one-time, specialty beers from time to time, like Sumerian Beer (based on a 4000-year-old recipe) and Earthquake Beer, after the 1989 quake.
America's First Craft Brewery is in San Francisco
If you're wondering where America's first craft brewery is, look no further than San Francisco, CA. Not only is Anchor Brewing Co. widely credited with starting the craft beer revolution in the 1960s, they are also the brewers of America's oldest, indigenous beer style; Steam Beer®. While there are plenty of other uniquely American styles of beers today, San Francisco's Steam Beer ...
Anchor Brewing Company Unveils New West Coast IPA
Anchor Steam's $20 brewery tour is definitely worth the visit, because within one hour you will not only be immersed in the rich and bubbly history of the company's development led by the most knowledgeable and courteous guide, but also get to witness the century-old immense copper kettles, or tuns, still utilized today. ...
The Making of a Classic: Anchor Steam
Anchor Brewing. Anchor wasn't one of the founding breweries of the steam beer era—it dates "only" to 1896. It survived prohibition and passed through the hands of a few different owners over the decades. By 1965, however, it was in brewery hospice, just weeks from death. Consolidation and the commodification of beer had reduced the ...
How San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company Could Still Stay Open
Anchor was founded 127 years ago, using actual steam and San Francisco's cold temps and fog to brew its iconic Anchor Steam beverage. It survived the 1906 earthquake, prohibition and even the boom and bust cycles of the local tech sector. In 2019, brewery workers unionized, citing the need for higher pay and better working conditions. ...
Anchor Brewing Closure: Company Artifacts Sent to Smithsonian
The history of San Francisco's original craft brewer will live on at the Smithsonian. A long-handled copper tool. A painting of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of brewers. A yellow metal sign that reads "Steam Beer on Tap.". These are the kinds of artifacts that tell the story of Anchor Brewing Company, the 127-year-old San Francisco ...
Is it all over for Anchor Brewing or does hope still remain?
A farewell tour of San Francisco's historic Anchor Brewing, from its burnished copper brewing vessels to its stash of hops, proves bittersweet. (Courtesy Jay R. Brooks) A correction has been ...
Last Batch of Anchor Steam Rolls off the Line at Historic ...
On July 27, 2023, the final bottles of steam beer rolled off the packaging line at the Potrero Hill brewery where Anchor Brewing Co. has operated since 1979. The last case was packaged on Thursday ...
Everything You Need to Know About Anchor Brewing Shutting Down
Anchor Brewing. Paolo Bicchieri is a reporter at Eater SF writing about Bay Area restaurant and bar trends, coffee and cafes, and pop-ups. It has been a wild ride since San Francisco's Anchor ...
Makers of San Francisco's famed Anchor Steam beer are going out of business
July 12, 2023, 12:40 PM PDT. By David K. Li. San Francisco-based Anchor Brewing will turn off the taps and draw a close to the century-old brewery whose contribution to "American beer history ...
Buyers Negotiating for San Francisco's Anchor Steam Brewery
Sapporo bought Anchor Steam from Griffin Group, run by former Skyy Vodka executives, for $85 million in 2017. The brewery was founded in San Francisco in 1896 and became known as "America's ...