Anchor Brewing’s New Pilot Brewery Goes Big On Local

beer, Anchor Brewing’s New Pilot Brewery Goes Big On Local

When the Japanese beer giant Sapporo purchased Anchor Brewing, last August, it was a sobering moments for craft beer lovers and San Franciscans in particular. After all America’s oldest craft brewery was now in the hands of an international company and worries about Anchor’s future seemed inescapable, especially fot the city’s local craft beer lovers.

But Anchor’s soon-to-open pilot brewery might lay to rest some of the public’s considerations, and maybe provide a little clarity as to where the Japanese giant hopes to take their first American craft beer acquisition going forward.

Prior to the sale, Anchor had planned on opening a tap house across from their Potrero Hill production brewery and Sapporo saw that more experimental outlet fast important as well, and committed to completing that process after the acquisition.beer, Anchor Brewing’s New Pilot Brewery Goes Big On Local

You see, as Eater SF astutely explains it, aside of its “brewery tours and its ballpark-adjacent beer garden, the Yard, Anchor has largely lacked a public space — a bar or taproom for drinkers to gather (and) with Anchor’s reputation uncertain, the brand needs a home base more than ever.”

Some breweries now flush with acquisition cash might go big, but Anchor Public Taps which opens on October 21st, doubled-down on its San Franciscan neighborhood roots and smartly (we think) stayed tasteful and more importantly, small.

Opening on October 1st  Anchor Public Taps will feature both classic and new more experimental brewing directions as well as an iconic gathering place for locals and tourists alike.

beer, Anchor Brewing’s New Pilot Brewery Goes Big On LocalAnchor Public Taps space was designed by EHDD, and its taproom interior by Katie Gong Design with the overall idea to capture the brewery’s ethos of maintaining tradition while being radically inventive at the same time.

From its reclaimed redwood of the water storage tanks and copper from Anchor’s old brewhouse, to the state-of-the-art 7-barrel brewing system and a smart yet compact interior layout that speaks San Franciscan, Anchor Public taps is a welcome and reassuring first step for the now international brewing enterprise.

 

All image credits: Anchor Brewing

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