Local Investors Aim to Outbid Beer Giants for Anchor Brewing

A group of local investors is trying outbid large beverage industry players in order to return ownership of San Francisco’s most historic brewery back to someone who lives in the city and will keep it operating there.

Japanese beer giant Sapporo, which acquired the Anchor Brewing Co. in 2017 for $85M and shut it down last summer after 127 years, is about to pick a winning bid.

Anchor Brewing was a craft brewery a century before anybody thought that was cool, inventing Anchor Steam, a smooth amber lager made in wide, open-top steel bins.

Mike Walsh, a venture capitalist who lives two blocks from the ancient brewery in Potrero Hill and says he felt like he was being gut-punched when it closed, is leading a group of local investors bidding for Anchor.

Walsh told the San Francisco Chronicle he’s concerned that another beer conglomerate might “overpay” for Anchor and end up bailing like Sapporo. Or, it could simply buy the recipe and brand, which are being sold separately, and make it somewhere else.

According to Anchor spokesperson Sam Singer, the brewery at 1705 Mariposa Street was losing millions of dollars when the owner decided to close it down in July and lay off its 61 employees.

The landmark entered an alternative to bankruptcy known as an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors. Singer told the Chronicle there are multiple bidders for Anchor, including “familiar names,” presumably beer giants.

SierraConstellation Partners, an interim management firm and Hilco Corporate Finance are handling the bidding process. The 109K SF brewery and taproom were listed in October for $40M.

Anchor’s brand, recipe and trademarks, including Anchor Steam, are being sold separate from the brewery. According to the newspaper report, some bidders have expressed interest only in acquiring the brand and intellectual property.

Walsh, who started a website to rally people behind acquiring Anchor, soon had emails from 4,500 of his neighbors. He lined up a team of investors, including a former CEO of Pete’s Wicked Ale and former Anchor owners Fritz Maytag and Tony Foglia.

The partners say they are focused on saving the brewery, not maximizing profits. They plan to reduce Anchor’s output to four or five beers which will no longer be distributed outside of Northern California.

That’s right, Anchor will go back to being a craft beer, producing just 20,000 barrels a year, down from a pre-Sapporo peak of 150,000 barrels.

Walsh told the Chronicle his team is bidding for Anchor and its recipes to “safeguard this historic institution” and keep it “right here in San Francisco, where it rightfully belongs.”