Black Pond Brews, a microbrewery in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut that’s been in business since 2014, has released a canned run of a beer named Connecticut Uncommon in collaboration with The Anchor SF Co-Op. The beer is one of Black Pond’s first recipes, a riff on the California Common style of beer. One the most famous examples of the California Common style is the beloved Anchor Steam which has been brewed by Anchor Brewing in San Francisco for over 127 years.
But Anchor Brewing and the seminal Anchor Steam are in danger of becoming extinct. In 2017, Sapporo USA bought Anchor Brewing for $85 million. A 2021 rebrand of the beers was met with mixed reviews, and sales lagged. Sapporo also bought expensive new automated equipment and tried upgrading the facilities to brew Sapporo’s rice lager, but Anchor’s open fermentation setup isn’t built for the mass production of Sapporo. Those issues, combined with new management’s wonky production schedules that changed from week to week, caused production to sag from 500 barrels a day to around 200 a day within a couple years. Employee turnover on the floor rose to around 60% and, as people left the office jobs at the brewery, their positions were simply never refilled. But Sapporo kept growing: in 2022 Sapporo USA bought San Diego’s Stone Brewing for $165 million. Stone’s facilities were already set up to mass produce a beer like Sapporo’s flagship lager. In June this year, Sapporo pulled the plug on Anchor’s national distribution, and limited sales to California. Shortly after, in July, Sapporo halted production at Anchor and announced they’d close and liquidate the business.
Right now, Anchor Brewing is in a “liquidation limbo”, as Dave Infante of Vine Pair puts it. Sapporo USA has handed off the company to a liquidator whose one job is to get the most money for the brand and assets as it can. The clock is ticking on the fate of Anchor Brewing. But the Anchor workers aren’t going down without a fight. And they’ve recently won a couple fights already: in March of 2019 they won a lengthy battle to unionize and in December that year they won their first contract. Shortly after the news of the closing, the workers geared up for the fight to save Anchor by forming the Anchor SF Co-Op. It’s an entity made up of the brewers, production workers, managers, bartenders, and other former Anchor employees that can legally purchase Anchor back from the liquidators. In September the group started a GoFundMe to help raise money for lawyers, and to show big investors that they’re serious about the sale. As of time of writing, they’ve raised over $111k from over 1,800 individuals, and many of the donations are small-dollar amounts. The people clearly want the beer to stay around.
Black Pond Brews is inspired by the actions of the co-op, and is donating a portion of the proceeds of Connecticut Uncommon run directly to the co-op’s GoFundMe. Cory Smith, Black Pond’s Co-Founder/Head Brewer, says,
“One of my first experiences with American craft beer was Anchor Steam. Anchor Steam was a beer geared towards people like us-a beer with a long, interesting history with a unique production method. It inspired us to start brewing our own California Common, which we call Connecticut Uncommon, which became one of our most recognized offerings. It seemed that after Fritz Maytag revived Anchor, it was here to stay. However, like so many breweries across the country, that may not be the case. A lack of brand loyalty, chasing consumer trends, and oversaturation has brought us to where we are today. We haven’t brewed Connecticut Uncommon in 5 years, and this seemed like the perfect time to revive this incredibly flavorful yet approachable style, and we hope to contribute to the revival of Anchor in the process. A brewery with a history as storied as Anchor’s, led by the passion and dedication of the brewers, cellarpeople, and everyone in between, deserves a better fate than being shut down by a distant parent company.”
Black Pond is the fifth brewery (so far) to offer up a Solidarity Ale, and the first one outside of California. Enterprise Brewing in San Francisco, Fox Tale Fermentation Project in San Jose, Mad Pursuit Brewing Company in Hollister, and Ruhstaller in Dixon have all brewed and released a California Common in conjunction with the co-op.
Black Pond’s advertising partner duda+salisbury designed the new Connecticut Uncommon cans that feature the Black Pond mascot Mr. Kitty overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. They also worked with Connecticut ad agency Decker to promote the beer with a social video and posters.
It’s going to be a hard fight but Anchor has survived an earthquake, fires and even prohibition. With a little help from friends along the way, hopefully it can survive being bought by an international conglomerate.
For More Information:
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