Is Anchor Falling Behind?

Remedy this immediately.

 

Does their new Zymaster series and Brekles Brown not highlight their ability to create anything they please? Are you all bummed they don't make a 95 IBU IPA and a Russian Imperial Stout? Their line up is solid and superb quality.

Zymaster 1 Video:

 

I hardly think they're falling behind. If anything, seems to me that there's a lot of breweries catching-up!

P.S. "Anchor Summer" is a bitchin' seasonal thirst quencher.

 

Does anybody else get a pear aroma and flavor from Breckle's? That was unexpected. And I got a very banana aroma from Steam.

 

Anchor Porter is all they need to brew! Amazing stuff!!!

 

Glad that you were able to get it as it was meant to be enjoyed. They do have a weird dating system, but the Bros. have included it on their Anchor page:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28
For practical purposes, though, all you need to figure out is the year and month, which isn't that hard.

And now that Liberty is on my mind I think I will post in that 'Beers that you haven't bought in a while' thread. Then I'm going to get some this week! It's been a while, and it's about that time...

 

Their sours were really good too, they were just too small to be dealing with those bugs so they had to postpone it for now. CCB has damn good flagships though, regular jai alai and maduro are solid as hell among others. The Bruery flagship beers we get here are crap and they're all 750s. I don't think I'm alone in saying that for the most part, the Bruery is pretty much worthless without its RS beers.

 

I've tried Jai Alai and Maduro several times now and have never found them to be anything special. I don't think I'd take Maduro over Newcastle, and Jai Alai is definitely in that class of "completely forgettable" IPAs for me, like pretty much everything not from Vermont, Minnesota, or California. And I've had a reasonable number of other CCB beers, but Hunahpu's is the only one (that I can remember, at least) that has been very good. I don't know if they just don't ship or what, but CCB is "the Hunahpu" brewery to me. If there's something else they do that I should try (that wouldn't take a testicle to get) then feel free to let me know.

And yes, I agree that the Bruery's regular stuff is forgettable. I was at Provisions and ordered the "standard" flight, which is pretty much only their shelf stuff, and I found out that I hadn't even bothered to have most of them (and, of course, they were all perfectly fine but forgettable beers). At least they're making more and more and more of the good stuff.

 

This is exactly how I feel about it. I don't think it can be successfully argued that Anchor isn't a hugely important brewery with an awesome lineup, but when a brewery keeps doing the same-old same-old they end up losing my attention to other breweries that also make great beer but are better at generating interest by doing new and exciting things.

I think a good counterexample is Goose Island, which is also a relatively large craft (let's leave that whole debate out of this) brewery that has been historically important for craft beer, has a more than solid regular lineup, but is constantly brewing new beers to keep their customers interested. Anchor hasn't done anything in recent memory that got people as pumped up as King Henry. Just take a look at their BA profiles, Anchor has a total of 35 beers, about half of which are their Christmas Ale, Goose Island has nearly 400. A lot of them are brewpub beers that don't ever see distro, but I think it's indicative of a big difference in how these breweries market themselves.

 

I didn't really say special, just solid as in I'll take them over 90% of the other beers I've had, including the Bruery's flagships. You live in Cali, what were you expecting...you pretty much have all the best hoppy beer breweries there. I agree though, Hunahpus is my favorite beer and the only one I'd say world class but solid is fine for me since I don't live in Cali. I'm more than happy drinking a jai alai or maduro.

I agree, they clearly have noticed what beers from them people like...I don't think they brew their flagships much, if you can even call them that. Its the only brewery I can remember that has increased production of their special beers so drastically just between batches 1 and 2 and 3 of something. Just look at the steep dive CR and BT have taken trade value wise because they've become much more available from one year to the next. Unlike a lot of people though, I consider it a good thing when a brewery makes their hyped beers much more available.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't. They're probably in my middle quintile, or lower.

Agree, I love love love what the Bruery is doing.

What's this thread about again?

 

re: the usual "bruery regular line up sucks" BA opinion, i disagree, but i think they should nix the 750 only shit. i actually really like all their core beers, but it's rare that i'm up for 750ml of any of them.

re: bruery limited beers being amazing, i agree ._.

re: anchor, continued praise from me.

 

It's interesting that we often expect American brewers to release new beers and special releases. Yet I never hear anyone ask this of foreign brewers.

Anybody have a problem with the monks at Orval sticking to their 1 beer? Me neither.

 

I am sad because Anchor Bock is the only beer that I haven't tried of theirs (not counting all the vintage OSA). Right now is the distribution for the beer per the Anchor website but all of my local stores seemed to have skipped from OSA to Summer.

 

Anchor Steam is always in my fridge. Great go to beer

 

Their Barleywine isn't -Bal, so that's a downer.............

 

If anything, Anchor is on the rise again due to the craft market becoming diluted with mediocre "me too" breweries/marketing ventures. Anchor is too busy brewing consistent, quality beer at their full capacity to spend a lot of time on marketing.

 

I totally agree...this is a great brown ale. Was totally surprised how much I liked this one.