Beer drinkers are throwing a lifeline to Anchor Brewing.
A collective of workers from the nation’s oldest craft brewery has raised more than $70,000 in a GoFundMe campaign. They plan to use it to buy the company back from its current owner Sapporo, which announced plans in July to shut the brewery down after 127 years of operation.
That’s more than $20,000 above the group’s goal and the campaign hit that total in less that five days, with one anonymous donor chipping in $2,500 to support their cause. Whether the group will succeed in its quest, though, is still up in the air.
Sapporo, which bought Anchor in 2017, did not replay to Fortune’s request for comment on the initiative.
The employee group, which is made up of brewers, bartenders, managers and more, isn’t the only collective looking to pick up the pieces of Anchor. Sapporo has already started the liquidation process and other potential buyers, including serial investor Mike Walsh, who helped seed Uber, Salesforce and more, have expressed interest.
Anchor is unique in the brewing world, though. Opened in 1896, it had fallen on hard times when it was bought in 1965 by Frederick Louis "Fritz" Maytag III. Rather than compete with the macro breweries of the time, he decided to try something different, offering his flagship product at a higher price—and discovered there actually was a market for more expensive beer.
"Certainly Steam beer is responsible for starting [interest in craft beers] because every other beer in the U.S. at the time was a yellow beer," Mark Carpenter, Anchor's brewmaster in 2015, told Fortune at the time.
The staff of the brewery say they’re hoping to keep Anchor’s tradition and standing in the craft brewing world alive.
“On July 12, we all received the devastating news that Sapporo intended to shut down the 127-year old business,” they wrote. “Immediately, workers mobilized to do whatever they could to save the brewery and keep making the beer that we love.”
Beer makers have had a rough few years, between COVID losses, inflation concerns and the rise of sales of spirits. Last year, overall beer sales volume was down 3.1% in the U.S., according to the Brewers Association. Craft brewer sales volume was up 0.1% during the period, but imports are rising.
