Concluding a year in which the beloved beer destination Toronado was purportedly being sold to a crypto bro who was talking about installing a roof deck, and then that sale fell through, we now have word that the bar is going into good hands.

Longtime owner and the founder of Toronado, Dave Keene, announced this week that he has sold the bar to Bill Lewis, who's described as "a San Francisco resident of three decades and a regular of the beloved Haight Street bar." Lewis has partnered with his brother-in-law, Wall Pringle, to purchase the bar.

SFGate was first to the news, which comes a little over a year after a sale was announced to crypto enthusiast Orion Parrott, who spoke of wanting to turn Toronado into a "global brand" with its own crypto coin, the Xitter account for which is still live under @ToronadoCash.

SFist reported in January that that deal was officially dead, about seven months after Keene had suggested he was trying to back out of the deal, and after longtime customers of the cash-only establishment balked at the possibility of losing the bar to the tech-brosphere.

"The history, the atmosphere, and the community have to remain intact,” Keene said in a statement about the latest sale. "I want to properly pass the torch."

The release further said the the priority remained "Preserving everything that makes Toronado the Toronado,” and no changes were planned to the staff or general direction of the bar.

New owner Lewis said in a statement, "It is an honor to become the new owner of Toronado, and I look forward to sustaining it for the next 40 years."

Keene opened Toronado in 1987, and quickly turned it into a mecca for craft beer lovers that was well ahead of the curve in terms of Northern California's craft beer boom. Defined by signature annual events like its Barleywine Festival, which celebrates the less common, high-alcohol end of the craft brewing spectrum, Toronado has remained a landmark bar in the Lower Haight and a notable must-stop for beer tourists from around the world when they visit San Francisco.

The past two years, Toronado has hosted its own Beer Week that runs on a different schedule from San Francisco Beer Week.

After 38 years running the bar, Keene put it up for sale in January 2025 along with the whole building, which includes the small storefront next door that had for years been home to a sausage shop — first Rosamunde, and later Berliner Berliner.

Previously: Beer Mecca Toronado, Which Did Not Sell to Any New Owner, Hosts Its Own Beer Week Once Again

It’s ‘bottoms up’ at more SF movie theaters, as the Board of Supervisors just social-lubricated the red tape around alcohol sales at movie houses.  

San Francisco’s answer to creating economic recovery these last few years seems to be to jst add more alcohol sales to every event and get-together. And you know what? It keeps on working!

So District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill followed suit this past November, and proposed relaxing the rules so that more SF movie theaters could sell beer and wine at their concession stands. And on Tuesday, the SF Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the new rules giving more theaters permission to sell beer and wine.  

“Movie theaters have been threatened by shifting streaming habits, the pandemic, and more,” Sherrill when introducing his legislation. “The theaters who’ve been hit hardest by these tough economic conditions are the small, single-screen historic theaters."

“Serving beer and wine at theaters is good for the bottom line, it’s good for their long-term health and sustainability as businesses,” he added.

The way things stand now, the SF Planning Code holds theaters to a “revenue test” that demands a venue make a minimum of its gross sales on food. That holds movie theaters to the same standard as restaurants, and unrealistic threshold for theaters that hop to sell beer and wine.

“Regardless how much we charge for extra butter, no amount of popcorn is going to make 51% of their revenue,” Sherrill said.

Sherrill’s new legislation related rules on all movie theaters in San Francisco. But the legislation is clearly tailored to the soon-to-reopen Clay Theater in his district. The legislation even contains a line delineating that “certain Movie Theaters in the Upper Fillmore Neighborhood Commercial District [can] sell wine and/or beer without being subject to non-residential use size limits otherwise applicable in the District,” which seems to clearly single out the Clay.

The Clay, of course, shuttered just before the pandemic, and is currently in the reopening process as part of billionaire Neil Mehta’s Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project. And yes, maybe some favoritism was applied that Sherrill chose to single out the Clay for certain benefits  in ths legislation.

But this is the kind of favoritism that most of us can get behind. After all, San Francisco film lovers would be over the moon to see the venerable and historic Clay Theater open again, ad we’re all for anything that can hel facilitate that happening.  

Related: Sup. Sherrill Wants to Make It Easier for Movie Theaters to Serve Booze [SFist]

Image: Lulu L via Yelp

Toronado, the Lower Haight beer bar and mecca for beer geeks the world over, remains very much its cash-only self, in case you were wondering. And on Super Bowl weekend, they will be pouring Pliny the Younger.

During that massive blackout on December 20, every business but one in the Lower Haight had to shut its doors because they had no power. That one would be Toronado, which still uses an old-timey, non-electrical cash register with punch buttons and a hand crank, still takes only cash, and beer taps don't require electricity.

Cheers to ancient technologies.

The story was left hanging last summer after a new crypto-bro owner had stepped in looking to take over the bar — and launch a Toronado-themed coin! — and after that deal appeared to be in jeopardy once longtime owner Dave Keene discovered these details and looked to cancel the deal. But SFist can confirm now that the deal was, indeed, canceled, and everything remains as it was at the bar.

The staff is now prepping for Toronado Beer Week, which the bar started hosting last year, as a separate event from SF Beer Week — which happens later in February.

As it did last year, the festivities kick off with tapping a keg of this year's edition of Russian River Brewing's Pliny the Younger, and the Pliny will keep flowing for 10 straight days.

There will be Pliny for Super Bowl Sunday starting at 11:30 am on February 8, and on Saturday the 7th, the bar will be celebrating its status as "The Birthplace of IPA," being one of the key beer establishments that elevated bitter IPAs to the cult status they ultimately achieved in the last two decades.

Tuesday, February 10 is being billed as the "Best Night of Beer Week," with a taco pop-up and brewers coming to showcase stuff from Alvarado Street Brewery, Cellarmaker, Track 7 Brewing, Emeryville's Wondrous Brewing Co., and more.

There will also be a Queer Night on February, February 13, celebrating the Bay Area's queer beer scene. And Sunday, February 15 will be the last day to get Pliny at Toronado for this year, starting at 11:30 am.

Other bars around town will have their own kegs of Pliny, likely coinciding more with SF Beer Week. In recent years, The Page on Divisadero, and Hi Tops in the Castro, have gotten Pliny allocations, among others.

SF Beer Week, meanwhile, kicks off on February 20, and once again they will be hosting a beer-tasting festival in Salesforce Park on the afternoon of February 21. Find tickets for that here.

Previously: That Toronado Deal Appears In Jeopardy as Staff and Patrons Balk at Potential Tech Bro Takeover

There will be no more Clydesdales a’clopping in Fairfield, as the Budweiser plant that opened there in 1976 will fully close down in January, because parent company Anheuser-Busch is pulling a national downsizing on production.

The economic meltdown in the craft beer sector seems to apply to more than just craft beer. Even those good old union-made traditional American beers are seeing slumping sales too. And that point hit close to home in the Bay Area this week, as KRON4 reported on Thursday that US beer manufacturer Anheuser-Busch announced it is permanently closing its Fairfield Budweiser plant, among a handful of US brewing facilities that they will also be shuttering.    

That Fairfield Budweiser brewery opened way back in 1976, and will close permanently in January 2026. And there will be a permanent reminder of the loss for Fairfield, as the street on which the facility sits is named Busch Drive.

“After conducting a thorough review, we have decided to sell our Newark, NJ facility to the Goodman Group and to close our facilities in Fairfield, CA and Merrimack, NH in early 2026,” Anheuser-Busch said in a statement, according to KRON4. “We will be shifting production from these three facilities to our other U.S. facilities and these changes will enable us to invest even more in our remaining operations and in our portfolio of growing, industry-leading brands.”

Affected employees will be offered full-time employment elsewhere at other facilities, along with a relocation package. Those who decline that deal will be offered severance, according to the company.

But it’s still a huge blow to the Solano County City of Fairfield, whose leaders say they were blindsided by Thursday’s news.

“The impacts for us will be loss of local employment and impact to our water utility operations and revenue,” Fairfield City Manager David Gassaway said in his own statement. “I requested that they put me in touch with their real estate team so that we can promptly get to work on trying to find a potential reuse for the site. To be clear, I don’t think that will be an easy task given the large and highly specialized nature of the facility. I hope I’m wrong though.”

Fairfield’s mayor Catherine Moy was more blunt.

“Fairfield and other Solano cities have lost major businesses because California is a hostile business environment,” she said, according to KRON4. “A one-party super majority is like a dictator. Benicia is losing a refinery, we lost Copart, a huge company, and now Budweiser. If we don’t change course, our beautiful state will sink further.”

But Anheuser-Busch is closing a total of three plants nationwide, so this does not sound like a Califrnia-specific issue. The company's sales have been declining for multiple years in a row.  

Anheuser-Busch estimates that 475 jobs nationwide will be affected by the three closures, though it’s unclear how many of those are specifically Fairfield Budweiser plant jobs.

Related: 21st Amendment Shutting Down Permanently, Both SF Taproom and East Bay Brewery Will Close [SFist]

Image: O M G via Yelp

The grim times continue for the craft beer industry, as the SF-born brewery 21st Amendment has announced it is shutting down for good, and both the South Beach SF taproom and San Leandro brewery will close in November.

It was more terrible news for craft beer fans on Thursday, as the beer industry publication Brewbound broke the news that the San Francisco brewery 21st Amendment will permanently close both its original Second Street taproom location, and the San Leandro brewery that was one of the largest in the Bay Area.  The Chronicle has follow-up reporting that both locations' final day will be November 4.

21st Amendment was among the early wave of craft brewers on the SF scene, way back during the dot-com boom, and the closure news comes barely a month after the brewery's 25th anniversary.

"The craft beer world has changed a lot since we opened in 2000, and we are proud of the role we played in shaping it," co-founder Shaun O’Sullivan said in a statement to the SF Business Times. "While this chapter is closing, I hope our story inspires the next generation of brewers and dreamers."

21st Amednment's demise is a familiar story in the craft brewing sector. As has been widely discussed, young people don’t drink like they used to, and those that do are leaning more toward canned cocktails and lower-calories hard seltzers — a trend that is impacting wine sales as well. Aluminum tariffs are also a heavy load for the all-canned brewer 21st Amendment. O’Sullivan told the Chronicle that sales have dropped a full 20% every single year since 2021.  

The company has faint hopes of funding a buyer, and the statement to the Business Times adds that the brewery is "exploring opportunities to continue the 21st Amendment brand in new ways."

21st Amendment opened in 2000 at their Second Street location, right as the new Giants ballpark, then called Pac Bell Park, was reviving the South Beach neighborhood. The company grew and grew, expanding to put their brewing operations at a giant former Kellogg's factory in San Leandro by 2014. The Chronicle notes that during that period, “21st Amendment became one of the nation’s top 50 craft breweries by volume,” and was 26th in the country by volume from 2016 to 2019.

But it appears there was some recent tumult at the top for 21st Amendment in recent weeks.

Just last week, O’Sullivan announced on Facebook that “After 25 incredible years since opening the 21st Amendment and nearly 30 years since Nico and I first dreamed up the idea, we are both stepping away from the 21A’s day-to-day operations. We’ve brought in a new CEO through a new partnership aimed at bringing in suppliers both inside and outside the beer space.”

But then just Friday morning, O’Sullivan posted that "in a bizarre and unexpected turn of events late last week, the decision was made that the 21st Amendment will be winding down operations for the foreseeable future.”

Those words make it sound like this was not O'Sullivan's call. The Chronicle’s reporting indicates that it was a bank or lender’s call, and that paper says “The brewery’s lender informed them that it would no longer fund the company due to its ‘cash bleed,’ prompting the decision to close.”

Who knows, maybe some deep-pocketed white knight will step in to save the 21st Amendment brewery and/or taproom. But even that scenario has not led to a swift turnaround for Anchor Brewing, and the future of craft beer seems hazier and hazier.

Related: Dogpatch's Harmonic Brewing to Shut Down This Fall, Stop Brewing Beer [SFist]

Image: 21st Amendment Brewery via Facebook

A beer festival with a bevy of local brews, live music, and food trucks is descending on the Parade Ground at the Presidio Saturday, and it should be a pretty good time.

It's the third annual iteration of the Parks4All Brewfest, sponsored by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and it's happening Saturday, July 19, from noon to 4pm.

20 local breweries are taking part, including Laughing Monk Brewing, Anderson Valley Brewing Co., and the brewery sponsor, Standard Deviant Brewing. (See the full list below.)

While not as enormous as the annual kickoff event for SF Beer Week, the Parks4All Brewfest is a beer-tasting event, with all the breweries offering tasting pours of their brews. And there will be live music all afternoon from The Soulshake, Sam Johnson, and Combo Tezeta.

There will be food trucks there to help soak up the beer, including Bacon Bacon, Mestizo, and Kabob Trolley — and you're also just a short walk from Colibri Mexican Bistro and focaccia pizza at Il Parco.

Tickets for the fest can be found here, and they are $42.50.

Established in 1981, the Parks Conservancy is the nonprofit partner of the National Park Service, supporting the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) in collaboration with the Presidio Trust. The GGNRA includes Muir Woods National Monument, Fort Point National Historic Site, Alcatraz Island, Crissy Field, Mori Point, Ocean Beach, Lands End, and the Presidio of San Francisco.

The Parks Conservancy regularly hosts ranger talks and other events at the parks.

Here are photos from last years Parks4All Brewfest.

The full list of breweries and vendors participating this year is below.

Breweries

Anderson Valley Brewing Company

Best Day Brewing (non-alcoholic)

CUVER

Del Cielo Brewing Co.

East Brother Beer Co.

Enterprise Brewing Co.

Farmers Brewing Company

Fogbelt Brewing Co.

Fort Point Beer Co.

Great Notion

Headlands Brewing

Lagunitas Brewing Company

Laughing Monk Brewing

Mare Island Brewing Co.

Match Point Brewing

Other Brother Beer Co.

RationAle Brewing (non-alcoholic)

SideTrack Mead

Standard Deviant Brewing

Sugoi Brewing

Vendors

• Alix Clo
• Blue Seal Pottery
• Cody's Cookies and Treats
• Follow The Sun Art
• Henna by Ayesha
• JAK + PHIL
• LB House of Beauty
• Luna's Good Cat and Dog Treats
• S for Sparkle
• S&C Headgear
• SPICED UP
• Stash Candle Co.
• Strawbandchoc
• The Lucky Loot
• The Weekend Store
• Tommy Breeze Art & Apparel

Top image: Photo by Ryan Curran White/Parks Conservancy

Russian River Brewing's perennial cult favorite beer Pliny the Younger — the rabid, continued popularity and cult status of which is baffling to some but completely justified to others — is more plentiful than it used to be.

It's not your average Bay Area beer, if only because of the attention it gets. Decades on, the annual winter release of Pliny the Younger continues to get news coverage, with local TV stations often doing segments about the lines that form at Russian River Brewing's Sonoma County brewpubs.

Since the early 2010s, Pliny the Younger — which is the richer, hoppier limited release of Russian River's classic Pliny the Elder — has typically been released in conjunction with SF Beer Week, which has typically happened in early February. This year, Beer Week is pushed to late February, but the beer is starting to flow from the brewery nonetheless, and kegs are being tapped as we speak in San Francisco and elsewhere.

As SFist reported earlier, storied Lower Haight beer bar Toronado is doing its own Beer Week this year which kicks off tomorrow, February 7, with the tapping of its first Pliny keg of the season. Toronado's Beer Week is also a celebration for its owner and founder, Dave Keene, who is selling the bar and retiring.

600 kegs have now gone out to bars and restaurants in the Bay Area and beyond, with some steady customers of Russian River Brewing over the years getting larger quantities like two kegs or more. In addition to Toronado, The Page (298 Divisadero) is already pouring theirs, and you can grab a pint there tonight if they don't run out.

Hi Tops in the Castro will reportedly be getting some Pliny again this year, as they did last year, but they may wait until Beer Week (which starts February 21) to tap their first keg.

Other SF bars that could be tapping their kegs between now and Beer Week include Garaje (475 Third Street), Holy Water (309 Cortland Ave), Zeitgeist (199 Valencia), and Liquid Gold (1040 Hyde Street).

Over in Oakland, you can find Pliny the Younger at Monk's Kettle and Ben ‘N Nick’s. Gott's Roadside in Napa is apparently already pouring Pliny, and it's not clear if the Gott's locations in SF will be getting some too.

And as Sonoma Magazine reports, the Pliny will pouring on Super Bowl Sunday at The Goose & Fern (116 Fifth St., Santa Rosa), Trail House Cafe, (4036 Montgomery Drive, Suite C, Santa Rosa), and Taps On The River (54 E. Washington St., Petaluma).

Production of Pliny the Younger is much bigger than it was last decade. Russian River Brewing won't be doing their own Pliny pourings at their brewpubs in Santa Rosa and Windsor until later, when they finish a second batch of the beer in March. As owners Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo tell the Chronicle this week, this is a "happy accident" of scheduling that came out of a COVID-related shutdown of production in 2022.

"The weather is warmer, it’s daylight savings," Vinnie tells the paper. "And from a production standpoint, it works to split it up. It doesn’t tie up our tanks the way it used to."

So, expect the big Russian River brewpub event days to happen March 21 to April 3. Customers at those events get wristbands that entitle them to three 10-ounce draft pours and three to-go bottles of Pliny the Younger.

As for the first batch that has already started pouring at bars, the Cilurzos warn that extra-hoppy beers like these have a brief shelf life, which is part of the reason for the limited annual release. And they're telling bars that they shouldn't try to hold on to kegs too long — they should all be tapped in February, while the beer is still fresh.

After 38 years of slinging "extreme" beers for a crowd of beer geeks and average beer lovers alike, the Lower Haight's Toronado is facing the end of an era and an uncertain future.

The bar posted on Instagram over the weekend saying that owner and founder Dave Keene is retiring and selling the business. "This marks the end of an era for the generations of beer drinkers that have shared lives with us," the staff writes.

Keene founded Toronado in 1987 and built it into a haven for beer afficionados — particularly for those who love the funkiest, oddest, highest alcohol, and most "extreme" end of the beer spectrum. As the era of the IPA took hold over two decades ago, Toronado was already ahead of the game with many of the style's cult favorites in heavy rotation.

And it only took a few years for Toronado to gain an outsized reputation in the craft beer world, which by the early 1990s was still in its infancy.

As Keene recalled to SFGate in 2018, "A brewer that I'd met came in [in 1993] and was taking pictures, and I go, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'I've dreamed of having my beer on Toronado's board. And now I have.' He was so proud of it. That was the first time, five years in, seeing a brewer totally humbled to have a beer on the board."

In those early years, Keene also started what has become an annual pilgrimage for beer drinkers of certain tastes, the Barleywine Festival. At one point it was lined up with SF Beer Week, but now it happens on its own every November, with the bar turning many of its taps over to dozens of high-alcohol, high malt barleywines — a style that remains at the outer outskirts of beer-making world, but which Keene himself always loved.

From 2014 to 2020, there was also a second Toronado location up in Seattle, but that closed when the pandemic hit.

Now, for this special year marking Keene's sendoff, Toronado is hosting their own Toronado Beer Week, which for the first time will not coincide with the Bay Area-wide Beer Week, which starts February 21.

Toronado Beer Week will run February 7 to February 16, and at the opening "gala" on the 7th, as well as on Saturday the 8th, the bar will be tapping the latest release of Pliny the Younger — two weeks ahead of when the regular Beer Week crowd will be tasting it. The opening events will also feature new beers from Cellarmaker, McIlhenny, Monkish, and more.

Fans of Toronado are naturally anxious about the bar being up for sale, and the Instagram announcement came with plenty of comments to the effect of "please sell to a fan of the bar."

As Eater reports, the business is on the market for $1.75 million, and the listing can be found here.

The sale price includes the two-unit, single-story commercial building (543-547 Haight Street), and the bar's Type 42 liquor license. This includes the kitchen and storefront of the sausage shop Berliner Berliner next door. The impending sale of the building likely contributed to the decision by Berliner Berliner owner Christine Blunck to close up shop last month.

The streets will be closed to cars and the beer steins flowing at Oktoberfest on Front, as the Oktoberfest block part will be California’s first alcohol-drenched “entertainment zone” party under new legislation.

San Francisco’s response to downtown SF still being quite moribund compared to pre-pandemic times has been to ramp up the number of outdoor street parties with alcohol in that neighborhood. Our state Senator Scott Wiener diplomatically referred to these outdoor booze party permits as “Refreshment Areas" in his bill that legalized these parties on the state level, and Mayor London Breed’s local legislation allowing bars to sell to-go alcohol at street parties calls them “Entertainment Zones.”    

And now we have what Breed’s office is calling “the first-ever Entertainment Zone event in California history.” It’s Oktoberfest on Front, and will close car traffic on Front Street on Friday, September 20, allowing the bars Schroeder’s, Harrington’s Bar & Grill, and Royal Exchange to sell to-go alcohol to the street revelers.

The daytime/nighttime Oktoberfest on Front will also have a live music stage featuring the bands AlpineSound, Ladyhosen, and Pop Rocks. KRON4 notes there will also be the usual Oktoberfest beer hall games like axe throwing, a "pretzel" toss, a stein holding contest, and a beer chugging contest.

Though the beer for the beer chugging contest will be non-alcoholic beer, as apparently the event would prefer to minimize the amount of vomiting onsite.

“We are focused on transforming Downtown into a vibrant 24/7 destination that offers more economic opportunities for our bars and restaurants to excite residents and draw visitors from across the City and beyond,” Mayor Breed said in a Thursday announcement. “We are thrilled to see the expansion of this beloved San Francisco tradition and to be the first city in the state to take advantage of the new Entertainment Zone legislation, which paves the way for a nightlife renaissance in San Francisco’s Downtown and neighborhoods citywide. I want to thank Senator Wiener, Downtown SF Partnership, Schroeder’s, Harrington’s Bar & Grill, and Royal Exchange for making this event possible.”  

You may point out that Schroeder’s has already had outdoor Oktoberfest parties in years past, and this is true. But the coming Oktoberfest on Front will take up the entire block of Front Street between California and Sacramento streets, and with three bars selling to-go alcohol.

Oktoberfest on Front will be Friday, September 20, from 2-10 pm. Admission is free, though the drinks will cost money, and Schroeder's “will be a full Hofbrau, serving liter beers,” according to organizers at the Downtown SF Partnership.

But in an unfortunate bit of timing, this event does completely overlap with the free Portugal.The Man concert at Civic Center Plaza, which is also that same day at 7 pm.

Related: Yet More Outdoor Downtown ‘Entertainment Zone’ Parties Could Be Coming Under New Legislation From Aaron Peskin [SFist

Image: Downtown SF Partnership

The billionaire founder of the Chobani yogurt brand, Hamdi Ulukaya, has stepped in to save and revive Anchor Brewing Co., and he even has plans to rehire its employees.

The iconic San Francisco steam beer brand will live on, says Hamdi Ulukaya, after the billionaire put in the winning bid for Anchor Brewing's assets — for an amount that has not been disclosed.

"San Francisco is at the heart of Anchor Brewing, and Anchor embodies so much of what makes this city great," Ulukaya says in a statement. "I am humbled and excited to be part of this city and its rich community of people, who have a spirit that is special and unique."

He adds, "I have learned so much about Anchor and its role in San Francisco's journey, and I look forward to doing whatever I can to support this amazing story of revitalization."

Last we heard, in March, the bidding process was underway and we had expected to hear about a winner in late April. But a month late, the Chronicle reports that Ulukaya is the new owner of Anchor Brewing's assets, and he sounds eager to get the Potrero Hill brewery back open once more. "Wouldn’t it be amazing to get it going in time to make the Christmas ale this year? That would be awesome," Ulukaya tells the paper.

This sounds like great news for the group of former Anchor Brewing Company employees who had formed a collective that had considered putting in a bid of their own for the assets. They ultimately decided not to submit a bid, and they put out a statement in March saying that they were open to "partnering in some manner with the successful bidder." And now Ulukaya says he's looking to bring back the company's longtime employees.

This also means that Ulukaya's bid beat out one that we had heard was put in by an investor group that included Pete’s Wicked Ale CFO Jim Collins and former Anchor owner Fritz Maytag.

Fascinatingly, Ulukaya has no real connections to San Francisco and had never heard of Anchor Steam Beer until last August, when he read an article about the brewery's closure in Forbes.

"I realized how Anchor is really aligned with the city’s history. And I thought, ‘Wow, what if? What if we can bring it back?’" Ulukaya says in an interview with the Chronicle. "And that excited me because I’ve been part of bringing back a factory back in upstate New York and building a brand."

He's referring to the story that he's shared in a TED Talk and elsewhere about growing up in rural Turkey, coming to the US, and eventually buying a failing yogurt plant in upstate New York in 2005 and launching the highly successful Chobani brand.

Ulukaya speaks in fairly abstract and emotional terms when he describes his business acumen, talking of his "anti-CEO playbook," and putting people before profits. He was inspired, he said, to revive this yogurt factory in New York in part of a familial connection to yogurt-making, but also out of a desire to give life back to the town it was in, and to its workers.

"It remind[s] me [of] a feeling that I used to remember when a kid would drown in [the] Euphrates River from our hometown," he said in a TED interview. "You will have this sadness cloud over the town for months and months. You feel like the whole place is dead. You know, it's cemetery. And I had the same feeling in there when that plant was closed, when I was buying it at the time, is that this is the end of us, this is finished, this is over."

Speaking about the Anchor brand, and his interest in the beer business, Ulukaya seems to have appreciated something about the brand itself — and he says he's actually no big beer connoisseur himself.

"It’s a competitive landscape — a lot of beers out there," he tells the Chronicle. “But who cares? From the other perspective you have the people behind it, the history, the recipe, the name and the tradition aligned with this magical San Francisco. There is no value you can put into that."

It's not yet clear whether the Anchor Public Taps taproom will return in the space next door to the brewery, or whether Ulukaya has bigger plans for brewpubs and the like. Ulukaya says those things will come in time, and he's just now talking to the former employees.

As he said in that TED interview, "Making plans has never been my thing... Now I'm making those kind of plans because I have kids. I think adaptations of the reality has been my thing, and that is coming back to the nomadic lifestyle. You know, if you're in a Kurdish tribe and nomadic Kurdish tribe, you leave, you go to a place and you say, 'This is a good place for us to stay.'"

All in all, this is great news for the city and for lovers of Anchor beers. There was a possibility in this whole bankruptcy process that the brand and recipes might be sold to one entity, and the historic brewery building could have been sold to another for redevelopment, which would have been especially sad.

Now, maybe later this year, you'll be able to tour the place again and see the copper stills, and taste some fresh steam beer once more.

Update: Mayor London Breed has put out a statement about the acquisition, saying, "This is not just an investment in San Francisco. It's a recognition of what makes our city truly special — our history, our institutions, and our people."

Previously: Here's What We Know About the Anchor Brewing Company Auction, As It Stands

Barebottle Brewing Co., whose Bernal Heights taproom is well known as a family-friendly hangout, is capitalizing on their reputation and hosting a first-of-its-kind family-friendly beer festival this summer in Salesforce Park.

It's called Suds Francisco, and it will be held on Saturday, July 20, in the park atop Salesforce Transit Center. Taking a cue from the SF Beer Week kickoff event that Barebottle helped to host in the park in February 2023 (Barebottle has an outpost with a beer garden in the park), the event will feature 25 breweries offering tastes of their wares, as well as live music, and, for the kids, bounce houses and face painting.

"We received so much positive feedback about the previous [Beer Week] event — especially Salesforce Park’s unique urban forest setting — that we’re looking to build on its success with an event that welcomes the whole family," says Barebottle cofounder Michael Seitz in a statement.

Seitz adds, "Barebottle’s tap rooms... have always welcomed families and been seen as a community hub in the neighborhoods where they are located. We want to extend this ethos to a large-scale event by creating the city’s first truly family-friendly beer festival in downtown San Francisco, where parents can enjoy some of the best beer the US has to offer, while kids have plenty of entertainment options."

The 2023 Beer Week event saw stalls set up around the center and western end of the park, where there is a semi-circular lawn and a small stage. And musicians performed at both ends of the festival, including outside Barebottle's central beer garden area.

Suds Francisco will bring in food vendors including Joyride Pizza, Fat Jack’s BBQ, Mezcla Colombian Eats, Venga Empanadas, and Los Lobos Ice Cream.

And participating breweries that we know of so far include Olfactory from San Francisco; Ghost Town, Original Pattern and Tenma Beer Project from Oakland; Pure Project from San Diego; Great Notion from Oregon; Fair Isle from Seattle; and Weldworks from Colorado.

Barebottle will also be brewing up some special things for the festival. And they've recently enjoyed a couple of national awards, including a gold medal for their Phantasti-Cali beer, judged the best in the American and West Coast India Pale Ale category at the California Craft Beer Cup; and their Smaller Wonder Dust took home silver in the Juicy and Hazy Pale category at the World Beer Cup.

Tickets are on sale now, and they're priced at $55 for general admission and $125 for VIP.

Related: Many In the Beer Community Are Big Mad That People Are Bringing Their Kids to Taprooms

There's tempest in a pint glass brewing over pint-sized patrons being brought to breweries and taprooms, as a social media flare-up reignites the debate over parents who bring their kids into drinking establishments where minors are legally allowed.

It is not uncommon to see Skee-ball, Jenga, and other games at San Francisco bars, which can largely be attributed to how San Francisco is full of Peter Pan types who never grow up. But some taprooms and breweries use these games to actively woo the parent-and-kids patron class. And there is nothing illegal about this — a California Type 47 ot Type 75 liquor license classifies an establishment as an “Eating Place” or a "Brewpub-Restaurant," and you are absolutely allowed to bring kids there, just as you can bring children into an Applebee’s that serves Dollaritas.

Though this has become a point of contention in the craft beer community, as many beer snobs and/or drunks just don’t want kids around during their drinking experience. The tweet below has brought this discourse back into the conversation, and the Chronicle reports on the reignited debate over whether kids should be brought to breweries, with some arguing that the taprooms are becoming too kid-friendly.  

“STOP BRINGING YOUR KIDS TO BREWERIES IM TRYING TO RELAX,” says the post from @tapptastical (which is not a particularly beer-focused Twitter account), and it’s racked up 3.5 million views as of press time. The 1,100 quote-tweets are a pretty fair mix of pro-kids and no-kids responses. But toddlers in bars and restaurants have been a contentious issue in SF for years, likely because the adult population here skews so strongly toward people without children.

And really, taprooms are uniquely well-suited for bringing the kiddos. They’re large, spread-out spaces, often with many outdoor tables, and menus full of kid-friendly items like cheeseburgers and pizza. Many taprooms have even chosen to install games and features that can occupy children while their parents drink. As Bernal Heights’ Barebottle Brewing Company co-owner Lester Koga quipped to the Chronicle, “When we opened, people would call us Babybottle.”

And Koga defends how parents pack the joint with their wee ones. “That’s what at its core makes brewery taprooms great — they’re meeting places,” he added. “You’re not going there to get plastered and find somebody to hook up with. It’s an environment that feels safe for your kids.”

Not to mention, brewery taprooms tend to be open during the daytime — which is nice when everybody needs to be home and tucked in by 7 pm.

There is also the simple economics of how a four-top party with two kids is probably just going to spend more money than some individual beer nerd, or two of them on a date. And in these “people don’t go out anymore” days, families may be a more financially reliable demographic than the childless.

We see this in the Mission District’s Monk’s Kettle announcing their move to Rockridge. The craft beer crowd is aging, becoming more likely to have kids and live in the suburbs, while the younger generation seems to prefer White Claws and other seltzer drinks, and not procreating.

And to those who can’t stand kids being around, there's no shortage of options to drink at bars that do not serve food, or allow minors inside.

Related: Zazie Owner Vents Frustration About Small Children In Restaurants [SFist]

Image: Xinyu L. via Yelp

The 16-year run of Mission brewpub Monk’s Kettle is coming to an end on 16th Street, but they’re moving to a larger spot in Oakland’s Rockridge. And they’ve got choice words for the role delivery apps played in their SF location’s demise.

It’s not the case of another San Francisco craft beer destination biting the dust. but more a story of them leaving SF for Oakland. Eater SF was early with the news that popular craft beer pub Monk’s Kettle was closing their Mission location, effective this summer. But if it’s any consolation, they’ve secured a new and bigger location already lined up in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood, slated for a fall opening.

“After 16+ years, our time in The Mission will be coming to a close this summer. The Monk’s Kettle will be moving to College Ave in Rockridge, Oakland,” the tavern announced in a Tuesday Facebook post. “The plan is to stay open through June in SF, then move everything over to Oakland and open there hopefully in September.”

Monk’s Kettle has also posted a more detailed description of the new Rockridge location. “The business will be moving its original location from 16th Street in the Mission to 5484 College Ave,” they say. “We will be taking over the space that formerly held Citron, next to À Côté, two blocks south of the Rockridge BART station.”

They add that the new Rockridge location will be larger, and with a roofed back deck with seating for up to 30 people.

The San Rafael Monk’s Kettle location will continue operating and not be affected.  

And boy, does Monk’s Kettle owner Christian Albertson let loose in an essay decrying delivery apps, and the role they’ve played in the demise of the SF Monk's Kettle. Realize that Monk’s Kettle opened in 2007, not long after the release of the original iPhone, which in turn led to the dawn of the shut-in, delivery app economy.

“For the first 9 years of our tenure, our kitchen was open until 1am every night, and we’d be kicking people out at 2am. Back then, we would get a second dinner rush at 10 or 11pm when industry folks got off work and would join us for a post-shift drink and meal. Many of the region's current industry leading chefs and sommeliers spent their afterhours in our little space. Nowadays, an 11pm closing often feels too late.”

“The phenomenon of delivery encapsulates a variety of issues with running a restaurant in SF at present. The person who is currently represented by that delivery meal, in the past would have sat at the bar with a friend, had a drink or two, shared an [appetizer] and had a meal. Nowadays, instead of the 1 or 2 drinks and a meal (times two), it’s one entree, with 20% of that revenue going to a company that delivers that meal a half hour later. Never mind that the entire experience of The Monk’s Kettle has now been transformed from a welcoming place where you hang out with friends in a fun atmosphere...to eating a lukewarm burger and fries in your apartment... That unfortunate aspect aside though, it’s also absolutely wrecked the finances of the industry. We can focus on the $100K+ that we paid in delivery fees last year (really, insane), but that only reflects a fraction of the lost revenue.”

These points are well-made, and correct. But there’s also a reality that the craft beer crowd has gotten 17 years older since 2007. And the younger demographic has not replaced them, being more inclined toward fads like hard seltzers, abstaining from alcohol, and staying home to just watch streaming. The older craft-brew crowd, meanwhile, is more likely to be raising a family now, and may have forgone their beer nights for more family-friendly meals — though, of course, there are still beer fans among today's younger set.

A larger, more food-focused Monk’s Kettle in the East Bay is probably a shrewd right-sizing of the business. And we wish them the best in Rockridge. But to SF’s Mission District, the loss of Monk's Kettle reminds us that nightlife is a different kettle of fish than it used to be.

Related: Dogpatch's Harmonic Brewing to Shut Down This Fall, Stop Brewing Beer [SFist]

Image: The Monk’s Kettle. via Yelp

Are you willing to wait in a six-hour line for exceptional beer that only comes out once a year? You’ll get your chance starting Friday, as Russian River Brewing Company’s 20th anniversary edition Pliny the Younger comes out tomorrow, and will be available for two weeks.

It’s about to be the high, hoppy holidays for beer lovers! The prized, sought-after, only-once a year limited release of Pliny the Younger starts Friday at both Sonoma County locations of Russian River Brewing Company, according to KRON4. It will be available in-person at Russian River Brewing’s Santa Rosa and Windsor locations for only two weeks, from March 22 to April 4.

The triple IPA Pliny the Younger is an offshoot of Russian River Brewing’s double IPA Pliny the Elder (which is available year round), and started 20 years ago as a limited wintertime release to drum up more slow-season beer business.

Its release was pushed into the spring time in recent years because of COVID, but now the brewery is sticking with the spring release — though attendees at the SF Beer Week opening gala a few weeks ago were able to sample the first batch.

"Brewing the beer over the course of a couple of months was extremely helpful to our overall production schedule," the brewery says in their announcement. "And over 90% of people who attended in 2022, according to the Economic Impact survey, said they either preferred the new date or could go either way."

This year being the 20th anniversary edition (though it’s really a 20th annual release, and the packaging says anniversary), Pliny the Younger will be available in a commemorative, take-home three-bottle pack. There’s a limit of one three-pack per customer.

The recipe for this limited release is a little different every year. “That first batch of Younger was 11 percent ABV but still relatively dry,” Russian River Brewing co-owner Vinnie Cilurzo said in a Bay Area News Group interview, describing the beer’s first release in 2005. “Simcoe has always been the primary hop in both Pliny the Elder and Younger. Over the years, new proprietary hop strains have emerged, allowing us more creativity and flexibility with the recipe. In 2023, we added the New Zealand hop Nectaron for the first time. This year, we kept the recipe virtually the same, only adding more Nectaron because it was such a nice addition to last year’s beer.”

The first Pliny the Younger was released in 2005, but exploded in popularity in 2010, when the brewery went through the whole year’s batch in just eight hours. Since then they’ve limited orders, and no longer fill growlers.

And we gotta say, getting this beer is now a highly structured process. “Be prepared to wait 6 hours or more on a very busy day, especially on weekends,” the brewer says. Some other incredibly byzantine processes and requirements to get your Pliny the Younger are spelled out below:  

• It’s a goddamned wristband system. You get four pull tabs on your wristband; three of which can be used for your three allowed 10-ounce pours, the fourth can be used for your take-home three-pack. You can transfer pull tabs to other people in your party.
• The line can start forming as early as 5 or 6 am. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays tend to be busier, weekdays tend to be less busy.
• They will be number-stamping your hand to prevent line-cutting.
• Each guest or party can only stay in the brewpub for two-and-a half hours.
• Expect and be prepared that there may be rain while you are in line. There will be some amount of tents at the Windsor location, the Santa Rosa location is on a street with neighboring businesses whose doors should not be blocked.

Both Russian River Brewing locations are open from 11am-10pm. The Santa Rosa location is at 725 Fourth Street, the Windsor location is 700 Mitchell Lane. And again, Pliny the Younger will only be available from Friday, March 22nd to Thursday, April 4th, 2024.

Related: People Are Lining Up for Pliny the Younger Again, For Whatever Reason [SFist]

Image: Russian River Brewing Company via Facebook

It's that time of year again, when brewers from around the city, the Bay, and across Northern California come together to celebrate and sip all manner of hazy IPAs, sour beers, pastry stouts and everything in between.

SF Beer Week had grown into quite the extensive and popular, 10-day, region-spanning affair before the pandemic hit — with the last big and proper opening bash being in February 2020. The opening gala grew over the last decade, ultimately requiring the huge expanse of Pier 35 to accommodate all the breweries and beer fans in attendance, with over 100 breweries showcasing several beers apiece at the event.

The pandemic saw more of a virtual-style event with beer shipments and the like in 2021, and the Omicron surge in the early part of 2022 meant that no opening gala was planned that year, and there were just a series of smaller events. Even in 2023, the Friday opening festivities were split up between regions, and the tasting event was replaced by a smaller-scale, Saturday afternoon thing in Salesforce Park.

Now, though, on Friday (Feb. 9), the real deal is happening again at Pier 35, with 100+ breweries coming. They're selling premium tickets ($275) this year that get you in two hours before the general-admission crowd, at 4 pm. And VIP entry ($140) gets you in at 5 pm. Regular admission, at 6 pm, will run you $95.

"The absence of the Beer Week Opening Gala has left a real hole in Northern California’s beer calendar these last four years, so we’re thrilled to be bringing it back this year," says Joanne Marino, executive director of the Bay Area Brewers Guild. "The industry has gone through a number of changes since the gala last took place in 2020, but we’re excited to have the chance to gather together again and for our members to share their fantastic beers with more than 3,000 attendees."

The event, put on by the non-profit Bay Area Brewers Guild, is always a fascinating look at the state of craft beer through a California lens. While West Coast IPAs are the clearer, more bitter ones, you can be sure you'll see a ton of fruitier, hazy IPAs, which remain all the rage — the Chronicle has a piece today about how all that started. Also, because breweries like to show off for and share with each other, you can expect a lot of beer-geeky experiments, sours, and real oddities that may never make it out of their taprooms.

See the full list of participating breweries here (it's long), and know that familiar names will be mixed in with smaller upstarts and breweries from the far reaches of Santa Cruz County, Tahoe, and elsewhere. And the rest of SF Beer Week will also feature events "as far north as Cloverdale to as far south as Monterey," as organizers say.

Some highlights include Pinballs & Pints at Alameda's Pacific Pinball Museum, which will feature tastings from Mercurius Brewing, Faction Brewing, Copper Microbrewery, and others; the 10th Annual West Coast Craft Can Invitational, which will go down at Devil’s Canyon Brewing Co. in San Carlos; and Mixology Night at San Francisco's Barebottle Brewing Co., which will feature a unique flight of beer cocktails and slushies.

You can check out the roster of events and sort by city/region on the Beer Week website.

SF Beer Week runs from February 9 to February 18, and if you have a favorite local beer bar, chances are they are hosting an event there.

Top photo by Carly Hackbarth