Anchor to build second plant — yet stay with the home team

By now you have read the news.  Anchor Brewing Company is opening a large, high capacity second location, but not in North Carolina or Chicago.  San Francisco’s oldest brewery and largest employer in the manufacturing sector is expanding at Pier 48, part of the land owned by the San Francisco Giants.   Beer and Baseball now go together in an only-in-San-Francisco way, close to the ball park on McCovey Cove.  A large production facility, attention to the historic pier architecture,  illustrations that look like a beer garden restaurant , and the promise of a museum all appear to be part of the plans.

What is the secret energy source for the folks at Anchor Brewing?   They managed to appear at events all over the nine or so Bay Area counties for SF Beer Week pouring their growing portfolio of special releases after an exciting beer launch (the return of the historic California Lager) days before, they hosted the champion home brew clubs of the state at their lovely old brewery in Potrero Hill on the second weekend of SFBW,  and then on the traditional rest day of Monday-after-beer-week, (also known as President’s Day), they give an exclusive to the home town paper and announce a collaboration with the home town baseball team, the current world champion SF Giants.

Here’s the story by Andrew Ross at the Chronicle’s SF Gate.

Anchor has already worked with the SF Giants on the “Anchor Plaza” project, with their craft beers pouring in the outdoor food court area behind the scoreboard in the ballpark.   The two organizations both respect history and their own pioneers and heroes.  If, as we hope is implied, the proposed museum is a beer museum, the new facility should become a top beer pilgrim destination.  Anchor already has a terrific West Coast beer history collection and relationships with the most serious long term beer history geeks of California.  Hopefully, the beloved tours of their old brewery will also continue after the new place is built.

With the announcement of the upcoming Mikkeller craft beer pub in downtown San Francisco, SF starts to rank as one of the great beer travel destinations of the US, if not the world.    I have a feeling we’ll all stop lamenting the overlooked goodness of Northern California as a beer mecca within a few years.

We’re pure boosters on this one.  Construction starts next year.  Go, Giants!  Go, Anchor! Go, SF!

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.