The Last Run of Anchor Brewing, Ever?

When Anchor Brewing Company's overseas corporate parent announced the brewery's liquidation a few weeks ago, I thought that was it for Anchor Steam beer and other varieties they produce. Indeed the next day I took a quick look on the apps for two big liquor store chains, TotalWine and BevMo, and both listed it as sold out at all area locations. It even came up in an online discussion forum I follow that's totally not related to beer. People reported snapping up the last few six-packs they were lucky to find.

It was a surprise, then, that I found a whole pallet of Anchor beer at a local TotalWine when I stopped by last night.



I didn't buy the whole pallet, of course; just two six-packs. Though I did wonder if maybe I should buy more since this could well be the last production run, ever. (I heard in the news late last week that the factory had completed its last production run and loaded it onto trucks.) The problem is, one, beer doesn't last forever in bottles or cans, generally less than one year; and two, I don't even super-like Anchor Steam. It's just... okay. Though along with a six-pack of Steam I also bought a sixer of their porter. I haven't had it in a long time but I do remember enjoying it. Now I've got some for a future round of my Beer Tasting project!

"Slow" Month for Blogging in July

As I wrap up the month of July I find that it's been a slow month for blogging. Slow is a relative term, of course. I posted 51 blogs this month, beating my long term goal of 1.5/day average (51 in July's 31 days is 1.65/day) but not reaching my stretch goal of 2/day. And that's where the relative part comes in. I've beaten my stretch goal 4 times already this year! Here's how it looks in a chart.



I haven't done a chart since February so I figured it's time. As you can see in this chart, my frequency in July 2023 is down from the previous several months. It's way down from my all-time high in May '23. But it's down so much that to find a slower month I have to look back to November 2021.

Why the slump? What happened? Three things....

First, I didn't travel as much in July as in previous months. After what felt like almost constant travel in April and May I only took two short leisure trips in July. One of them was just this past weekend, and I haven't caught up on blogging about it yet.

Second, on a trip to Oregon earlier in the months I cut out the need for lots of separate blog entries by posting one blog sharing an epic short video of hiking seven waterfalls. That saved me a lot of time versus writing, like, 7 blogs with photos, but it's left me feeling like I blunted the impact of how much we did & saw.

Third, my heart hasn't been in it as much this month. While I have found plenty of things to write about other than travel, I've often felt like I'm forcing myself to write. If I don't care, I don't care, and that's okay.