| AP Business Writer
In recent years, however, brewers have faced increasing difficulty turning a profit with a proliferation of canned cocktails, crafted drinks, spirits and wines dinging beer sales. Lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic pressured brewers further. Anchor Brewing had teetered near insolvency before and in the 1960s it was acquired by a Stanford University grad, Fritz Maytag. Maytag implemented new brewing practices such as dry hopping, and began bottling the beer in 1971, according to the brewer.
“He had this approach to beer, which was, ‘We’re going to use traditional ingredients and we’re going to use traditional methods and we’re going to be defiant as we do it and we’re going to be hyper-local,’” Alworth said. “It served as a blueprint.” Anchor recently announced that it would limit sales of its beers to California and that it would cut production of its Anchor Christmas Ale in an effort to cut costs.