Anderson Valley Brewing Company is a staple favorite amongst craft beer aficionados in the Bay Area and beyond. This week, the venerated brewing company will officially have a change in ownership, but unlike some other brewery handovers and acquisitions in the recent past it will retain its status as a craft brewery.
Since ‘87, Anderson Valley Brewing Co. – named after the valley in Mendocino County – has produced such libations as the Briny Melon Gose and Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout inside their NorCal brewery in Boonville. They've always been a craft brewing operation under the definition of the Brewers Association, defined by their size and independence, but a recent handoff could've put that label in jeopardy. Winemaking veteran and brewmaster Kevin McGee bought the brand, promising not to toy with the company’s signature line of beers, and saying the brewery will remain small and independent.
“We didn’t buy Anderson Valley to change it,” McGee tells the Eater SF and “[hopes to] do more of what it does best.”
McGee also plans on keeping this a strictly family affair: “I’m looking at this as something for my family, that could be multi-generational,” he said to the Chronicle. “We don’t have to be beholden to quarterly reporting pressures or private equity exit timelines.”
(Spoiler alert, though: McGee, who has been bottling beer in his garage for over a decade, plans to move his residential microbrewery practice into the larger facility and taproom at 17700 Highway 253 in Boonville. )
He, again, intends to keep the “long-proven quality and authenticity” of Anderson Valley’s selections … though the fate of their hot, IPA mustard has yet to be decided.
The Healdsburg lawyer will replace Trey White, the brewery’s current president and CEO, once the deal is finalized on December 13th.
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