The winning bid for the up-for-auction Anchor Brewing Company was supposed to be announced at the end of January, but things appear to be delayed, and a company rep tells us “a winner most likely will be announced in late April.”

Last summer’s stunning bankruptcy and closure of the 127-year-old Anchor Brewing Company was a gut punch to San Francisco, especially to local fans of Anchor's beer. But reasons for optimism bubbled up, because the bankruptcy proceedings determined that Anchor Brewing’s remaining assets would be auctioned off, so maybe someone would buy the brewery business and start brewing Anchor Steam beer again. And the Chronicle reported in January of this year that a winning bidder was “expected to be chosen by the end of the month.”

Well, it has now been two months since the end of January, and the winning bidder of Anchor Brewing Company's assets has still not been announced. SFist reached out to PR representative Sam Singer, who’s been managing public relations for Anchor Brewing’s parent company Sapporo through this process known as an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, for an update on whether a winning bidder for Anchor Brewing’s assets could soon be announced.

“The sale of Anchor Brewing Co. continues on track,” Singer tells SFist. “But a winner most likely will announced in late April.”

So that means it’s likely another month of waiting until we know whether or not there is a future for the Anchor Brewing Company. But we do know that one of the buyer groups that was in the mix sounds like they are now out of the running.

A group of former Anchor Brewing Company employees had banded together and formed the Anchor SF Cooperative, in an attempt to buy the brewery’s intellectual property. But in a January 31 blog post, that cooperative announced they were taking themselves out of the bidding process.

"We have been hard at work trying to navigate through the Anchor Brewing Company sale process and have decided not to put in our bid because of the competing bid amounts,” the cooperative wrote. “In the back of our minds, we knew this could be the case, but never dreamed that the competing bids would reach such heights. Also, because of the level of attention and support we have received, we have continued to imagine other potential outcomes that may involve partnering in some manner with the successful bidder.”

SFist also reached out to investor and venture capitalist Mike Walsh, who’s said he’s also putting a bid together, but we did not hear back from Walsh’s group as of press time for this post. Walsh’s investor group reportedly includes former Pete’s Wicked Ale CFO Jim Collins, and even Anchor’s previous 1965 buyer Fritz Maytag (yes, Fritz Maytag is still alive, and 86 years young).

The last public word from that group was their February 26 blog post saying, “We are diligently navigating through the necessary stages, immersed in the process, and remain highly optimistic, though I must admit, definitive news is still on the horizon."

We should note that the Anchor Brewing Company assets are being sold off in three separate parts — it's not necessarily a lock-stock-and-barrel deal, though the winning bidder may buy the whole thing lock, stock and barrel. As seen above, Anchor's assets consist of the brand and its intellectual property (that is, the recipes and logos); the equipment at the Potrero Hill brewery; and the 110,000 square-foot historic brewery property itself.

All three parts could theoretically be sold separately to different bidders. And obviously, the brewery building figures to fetch by far the highest price of the three. The Chronicle reported last October that Sapporo was seeking $40 million for the property, but in this market, SF commercial real estate has been selling for well below asking prices on a pretty routine basis.  

Who knows, maybe someone will pay that $40 million for the brewery property, and maybe someone will even resurrect Anchor Brewing Company into something similar to what it used to be. We will not know the outcome for at least another month.

Related: The Sale of Anchor Brewing Company for Parts Is Underway [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

The bankruptcy and closure of SF’s own Anchor Brewing Company is now in the inevitable auctioning-off-its-parts phase, with the brewery, its equipment, and its intellectual property all being sold separately, but some local beer preservationists are in the hunt.

With the holiday season set to begin, it’s a sad footnote that there will be no Anchor Christmas Ale this year. But it’s an exponentially sadder matter that the SF-born Anchor Brewing Company closed and declared bankruptcy this summer, sending many tears into many beers. Whatever future the Anchor Brewing Company may or may not have is now in the hands of an Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC), a third-party trust that is handling the sale of Anchor’s remaining assets.

And the Chronicle reports today that the bidding is underway for Anchor Brewing’s assets. The assets are being offered in three separate categories: the Potrero Hill property that’s the home of the company’s brewery, the equipment inside the brewery, and the intellectual property and beer recipes for anyone who may want to continue the Anchor Brewing brand.

The auction is being handled by a firm called Hilco Corporate Finance, and the screenshot above is from their pamphlet marketing the assets. There are no prices listed, though a Chronicle report from last month noted that the asking price for the brewery property is $40 million.

But what beer drinkers probably care about most is whether Anchor beer will be resurrected. That’s the intellectual property component, and there are at least two interested local buyers, both of whom spoke up last week.

As we noted shortly after the closure was announced, a group of laid-off Anchor employees have a campaign to buy the brand back and make the company a co-op. They launched a wildly successful GoFundMe campaign that’s raised well over $100,000. But now they’re on to a more ambitious investment campaign that hopes to raise a quarter of a million dollars, which they would then aim to use to get equity from institutional lenders.

Those unionized former employees are not trying to buy the physical Potrero Hill property, but instead just the intellectual property (IP). Anchor SF Cooperative chairperson Patrick Machel told industry publication Vinepair this week that  “We’re guessing [$2.5 million] is the lowest number the IP is going to be sold for.”

The Chronicle's report adds the Anchor SF Cooperative would not be looking to buy the brewing equipment, but would likely buy other equipment for a smaller brewing operation.

Meanwhile, there are also some local investor types who’ve also expressed interest. The most serious of these may be seed investor Mike Walsh, who wants not just the IP, but the whole kit and caboodle.

“Our objective is to purchase the entire brewery and continue brewing at its current location,” Walsh said in an update last week, after submitting his bid. "Unlike some developers, our focus isn't on property development but on preserving Anchor's rich history and making it a prime destination. This might include adding onsite restaurants and entertainment facilities while maintaining the brewery's iconic status.”

Whatever happens, Anchor Brewing fans, the Broke-Ass Stuart update seen above mentions there will be a big Anchor Steam Beer Bust at Buzzworks (365 11th Street) on Saturday, December 9th from 12-8 p.m. According to Broke-Ass Stuart, the “The last kegs of Anchor Steam Beer, Anchor Crisp Pilsner, Anchor Tropical Hazy IPA, Anchor San Pancho Mexican Style Lager, Anchor West Coast IPA, Anchor California Lager will be on draft, and there will be bottles and cans too.” Plus, that report adds that “they will be raffling off Anchor Christmas Ale Magnums from the last 10 years.”

Related: No More Anchor Steam Beer: 127-Year-Old Brewery Shutters In San Francisco [SFist]

Image: SAN RAFAEL, CA - AUGUST 03: Bottles of Anchor Steam beer are displayed on August 3, 2017 in San Rafael, California. San Francisco based Anchor Brewing announced plans to sell to Japan's Sapporo Holdings Ltd for an undisclosed amount. Anchor Steam has brewed in San Francisco for 121 years. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Bruce Joseph had a secret. He and a couple of pals working at Anchor Brewing during the early '90s were distilling spirits.

Of course, this was all under the direction of Fritz Maytag, the company's then-owner and heir to the Maytag fortune, who saved the brewery from closure in 1965 when he bought a controlling share of the company shortly after his Stanford graduation.

Fritz was himself known to tinker with a distilling pot, and every so often, he, Joseph, and others would call for a meeting of the "Water Committee" to taste what they'd made — a code-name they said was just the title for a group testing the acidity and quality of the water used in their beer.

By 1994, however, the jig was up, and Anchor was marketing its spirits: first, Old Potrero Whiskey, an amber spirit that's spicy and just slightly smoky. Then came others like Junípero Gin, a clean, citrus-forward take on a London dry gin. Of course, Anchor being a brewery, the team eventually got to playing with hop-infused spirits, like Anchor's Hophead Vodka, even distilling down a version of their famous Christmas Ale, aptly called Christmas spirit. These days, Joseph is Head Distiller of Anchor's own distilling arm, Anchor Distilling.

While many are familiar with Anchor as a craft brewery and have taken its rite-of-passage brewery tour at the company's recognizable Potrero Hill facility, fewer are familiar with these craft spirits. So — you see where this is going — aiming to change that is a new tasting tour from Anchor Distilling that launches on the 21st.

The Distillery tasting room now sits above the brewery/distillery in a space that Maytag once used as his own apartment for late nights on the job. The view can't be beat — you can see down to the ballpark — and herbs and citrus for cocktails grow in the sun on the rooftop garden.

Tasting room tours, which are $35, last an hour, taking drinkers through the backbone of the distilling process and the highlights of Anchor Distilling's line. And between generous pours and the view, you'll leave a little bit woozier, and hopefully a bit wiser, than you came in.

Anchor Distilling Company - 1705 Mariposa Street, tours $35, one hour, Thursday and Friday at 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

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While Dennis Richmond's farewell received much more attention, very little has been said about CBS 5's Barbara Rodgers is leaving CBS 5. Why? We're not exactly sure yet. But her final broadcast happens this Friday, and they're giving her goodbye a Richmond-esque promotion (though not quite as grand in scale).

We liked Rodgers. Especially her bold move to go grey this past year. (Not pictured at left.) Anyway, we'll miss you, Barbara.

How about you?