but do they really? do they see all that you are? at kaiser permanente all of us work together to care for all that is you. >> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. answers on abc 7. every day we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and get answers in real-time. inflation may be slowing but san francisco grocery stores are pricier than ever we will talk with a sonoma state university professor about where to find the best bargains.

nasa marks the one-year anniversary of the james webb space telescope's first photographs by releasing another batch of photos. they area astronomer andrew will show us the dramatic close-up of the dramatic close-up of 50 stars being born. first, the end of the line for an iconic san francisco business that defined after beer. anchor brewing has stopped operations after 127 years. the company made the announcement overnight saying economic pressures have made the business no longer sustainable. abc seven news reporter amanda take us to leo has the details. >> with roots dating back to the california gold rush, what is referred to as america's craft brewery is liquidating business. >> these are tough economic times we are struggling through and anchor's demise is symbolic. >> it's sad to see an institution go out of business. >> announced this morning, anchor brewing has ceased operations. growing has stopped but they will continue this riveting beer

on hand. while available or through the end of july. sad news for fans who have loved their fleet of beer. the flagship anchor steam that started it all and so much more. >> sales were centered in bars and tap rooms and when the pandemic came along, those ended completely. the company had to switch to selling in grocery stores and markets and it was late to the game to do that at a large level. >> spokesperson sam singer says anchor was out of cash and time. there is hope of another buyer might be able to keep the brewery in san francisco but that is not happened yet. the company's 61 employees were given a 60 day notice today and will be given transition support and separation packages. >> there is a lot of skill and care that goes into kraftwerk and in particular trades and that is really important.

different types of labor are important. i think we need to be more conscious of how each individual is getting something to our society, you know? whether it is beer or tech or whatever. >> this latest development comes one month after they announced they were stopping national distribution and discontinuing their christmas ale which it has produced since 1975. a difficult decision after what representatives are calling many months of careful evaluation. >> i don't drink the beer but i'm sadder leaving. >> the tap room will remain open temporarily until they sell out their inventory. amanda, abc 7 news. >> for craft beer lovers of anchor brewing is met with disappointment and sadness. it originated steam beer and was one of the last breweries to produce it. joining us to talk about their legacy is someone who knows beer

well. glenn fox, professor of brewing science at uc davis, a imposition endowed by anheuser-busch. thank you for joining us. >> you're welcome. >> uc davis has a certificate program on brewing. highly regarded i think. >> we have a long history of providing brewing education since the 1950's and was actually motivated by the brewing industry, either at time initiated the conversation with the university saying we need to get people trained in brewing specifically. and through undergraduate, graduate and continuing education we have provided brewing education. >> i want to hear more about that toward the end of our segment. if there's a reason this was a hub and part of that had to do with anchor brewing, a big part of it. growing up here i knew that was part of bay area history dating back to the goldrush. i do not drink beer and i don't

know what makes the product great. i do not know a lot about anchor steam, but tell us about it beginning with may be i guess the history part. what is the origin story? >> so during the history of people there has been times when people created a food product or a beverage. beer has been around almost as long as humans have settled. and it has sort of traveled through time as societies develop. based on what people were using. if we linked forward to the 19th century in california, it was growing as a state. people were using hops grown locally and all of those contribute to beer flow. so the brewers in the 1800s that started anchor would have taken advantage of the barley and hops

and the yeast. that is part of the conversation with the california style and how they produced the beer. and then they came up with a set of recipe and it was important that they produced consistently. talk to any brewer and quality are key to their day to day jobs. so anchor has done an amazing job and is incredibly difficult for our industry to see such icons start to maybe disappear. but as we said earlier, there has been significant economic competition as well as other factors influencing the decision that has been made. >> yeah, but when we say steam beer, which is a style they are known for that i think they originated, what does that mean and how did that change the taste in a way that the public went kind of crazy? >> well, historically, there are two types of yeast that are used in brewing. and it was only during the 1800s

that this was discovered. pastor and others at the liberatory at the brewery basically discovered how yeast converts sugar to alcohol. and there were two types of yeast that they discovered. one was the more common type. this is used in brewing ills and -- ales and fermentation closer to 70 degrees fahrenheit. the other type used is a logger strain and it is called pastorius and there are many fewer types. and the logger strain at cooler temperatures, closer to 50 degrees celsius. under those fermentation conditions, the yeast do certain things and the higher fermentation conditions, they will impart different flavors. the anchor steam was using a logger yeast at an ale temperature.

so the logger yeast that normally does not create a lot of flavor was now in an environment where it was actually creating different flavors. so logger yeast used ale temperatures is not new but a lot of breweries will not even try that. and certainly anchor champion it and did a great job with that style. >> looked, it had a lot of fans, survived economic challenges in its 127 years, but why didn't it survive the latest challenge? did the pandemic contribute? did its own uniqueness contribute to its demise? >> i would think it has been external pressures. i do not think it is the brewing process or the beer styles, because as was mentioned, the quality is very, very good and the christmas ale was particularly good. i think over -- covid when rooms were closed and breweries

where they made their income from taproom sales suffered a lot when taproom is closed and they had to transition to packaging and then how did they distribute? did they have a good distribution network? as covid subsided, then the rooms opened and people were happy to go out. i think it has taken a lot longer to recover than most people think. certainly when you go to craft brewery on a friday afternoon, it does seem to be very happy and a popular place. but in general the industry is suffering a little. we do see a huge volume of brewers coming online. almost 10,000 breweries in the u.s. and we are just wondering where is that point going to stop? it is competition having an effect as well. >> right, but do you think the state of the craft beer industry is good? obviously your program, 15 to 18 weeks, is designed to train

people who could get into the industry. is it a growth industry? >> it very much as a growth industry. we are still seeing good attendance in our in person programs and our new online options. this is an industry that you can actually learn a lot about science. and while we try not to do the heavy science, it is an industry where understanding the science becomes important. a lot of people are home brewers and many of those students that do the master program are home brewers and have aspirations to come into the industry. so i see that this is still a popular educational platform and i do not see it changing in the near future. people have long goals or even dreams to have their own brewery. that is not going to go away. >> there is a romantic notion attached to it.

glenn fox, professor of brewing science at uc davis, thank you for coming on today. coming up next, soaring prices at grocery stores. what is driving the surge in the bay area and where can you get a better deal? economics professor from sonoma state will b

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thank you for joining us. let's start with the good news really quickly. inflation shot up so much the last year but data suggests it is slowing down. why? >> we have had interest rates go up and that is meant to push inflation down because we stop spending as much. we are seeing job changes or an increase in jobs starting to slow down and in california specifically jobs have been flat for eight months but that is conspiring to start slowing prices down. >> if that is the case why do grocery prices remain high? let me just show our viewers what were talking about because sfgate checked items at the same grocery stores in san francisco. 2% milk, one gallon of milk, trader joe's text one dozen -- eggs one dozen. a pound of chicken breast,

$6.99. a pound of ground beef will run you anywhere from five dollars to eight dollars. first of all, they look high to me but are these all-time highs? >> i don't think they are all-time highs. i don't know for sure but from my shopping experience and watching the data i do not believe these are all-time highs yet. the critical factor is how is it affecting people's decisions at home? if it is leading to different budget decisioning, keeping you from buying the things he would not be buying otherwise because the prices are creeping up that's the critical factor. inflation income houses more than high income houses. >> these are staples that we most by whether we make $1 million or $10,000 a year. have grocery prices increa more than the cost of other things? >> yes, a little bit but one thing about food prices is economists tend not to watch food prices when they think about policy changes because they tend to be moving up and

down with quick things that happen. for example, a conflict that will threaten the harvest or weather changes. looks like it will threaten the harvest. some change in distribution networks or when the pandemic hit and we had supply chain problems, those are things that when they are relieved prices should go down. the critical factor is that because there is volatility in food prices, we watch them and think about how they affect budgets but not make policy decisions from those changes. >> i see why that makes sense if there are little ups and downs. what are the recent events that have caused those prices to go up? a small lingering effect of supply chains from the pandemic, those mainly have washed away. the issues in eastern europe and how ukraine has a beginning point for the global breadbasket with sunflower and wheat and other items, that will start to reverberate over the water and come to the united states and that is basically part of the equation. that will continue to be there

and that is one thing to say before we are done is do not expect relief until those conflict's are over and we feel like the complete on the supply side we flew more confident there will not be continued choking of movement from basically farms to retail. on the demand side, we have come back. >> ok but what about the bay area? are we an anomaly? other factors specific to our region that keep our prices higher? >> yes, that is in general true about california. california has different food standards which means that we see eggs are higher priced. milk is higher priced. then other parts of the country. also we have other inputs. gasoline prices moving goods from the distribution chain to retail to us as consumers cost more in california because we have a higher tax structure and it is more costly for the things that get food from dirt to us. >> given this experience and dependency on food being moved

in fuel prices, do you see a movement, an argument for producing locally, food things items especially to keep prices lower and be more of a buffer if you will against these ups and downs? >> i am from a farm family so anyway we can help farmers is a good thing and the more that we think about local food resilience is a really good idea. the trick is having land available, water available, workers available to take advantage of california's weather and sort of california as a potential breadbasket. we have a lot of people we've got to feed so it is tough to know whether we can fully rely on those networks given the breadth of things we buy at the store and what we can really grow and make and move forward to the groceries from california. >> alright. i want to bring it back to today's news about inflation slowing down what do you expect will happen next after the news? will there be things differently from the fed, for example with interest rates? >> the trick with the fed is that while this is good, cpi is

going down, the federal reserve is not watching seat guy. is watching a more complex price index. the job growth that will have the fed watching, waiting and think about whether it is time to start flattening out interest rates or maybe start moving them down, we need job losses and it sounds weird but we need people to lose their job and prices to fall before the federal reserve stops taking about increasing rates and starts moving the back down >> professor robert from sonoma state, thank you for your time. coming up next, a special moment for nasa, marking the first anniversary of the james webb space telescope. the incredible new images they shared today and what is next for

>> today marks one year since the set of releases from the james webb telescope and it is revolutionizing astronomy. to celebrate the one year nasa

released this new image from the telescope. it shows a stellar nursery. what does that mean and what can we learn from this? joining us live to answer these questions and more is andrew, professor of astronomy at the university of san francisco. so great to see you. >> nice to be with you again. >> you look kind of didi to me right now. >> well, i am always delighted when we get astronomy news. that is a beautiful picture that you showed. >> before we go back and talk about that really quickly let's turn back the clock. one year ago we got our first look at the images from the telescope. why was this monumental? >> it is glasses on the universe. everything we see from the hubble and other telescopes is visible light but these images from the web telescope record the universe in heat rays. in infrared light.

a completely different way of seeing the universe. it allows us to look into places we have never seen before and to look further out in space and time. then we have ever been able to do. >> buckle your seatbelts and now to the image released this morning, tell us about this and what is a stellar nursery? >> right, so one of the m interesting things about the universe is that it is not finished. stars, planets, may be even k.g. listeners are being made all the time all around the galaxy. and so that is the process that happens in dark, dusty regions. visible light does not show us those regions. it is like being in los angeles with a lot of smog, you cannot see very far. with this infrared telescope, we can penetrate the dust. we can look through the dust. and then actually see the places

where stars are being born and that is what the image that's where we see >> i want to go>> back to this photo because are each of these dots a star? the middle? that is a hot young star that is so big, it is actually pushing aside the womb that gave it birth. that greenish cloud of gas and dust was the birthplace of the star and the stars adolescent energy is pushing that material aside to let it become a visible star. now when you look at the kind of baseball bat of red to the right of the green area, that is a

region where new stars are still in the process of being born. each of those reddish clumps that you are looking at is what we call a protostar, a star in the process of forming, where there are planetary disks around it from which planets are going to form. that is a clearer view of the nursery then we have ever had >> ok.. for those who skipped their physics classes, shame on you. i'm just kidding. why do we call the space telescope a time machine essentially? >> well, that is another exciting thing about it. in astronomy, we looked out at distant objects in the light takes a while to get here so the nearest star is four light-years away as we say. that means light takes four years to get from the star to us. even though light is the fastest thing in the universe, it takes a while to cross space. with the james webb telescope,

we are now able to look something like 13 billion light years away which means 13 billion years into the past. light that we see tonight left those ancient galaxies third teen billion years ago. stars are organized into these giant groupings called galaxies. and we can see with the james webb telescope some of the earliest, most ancient galaxies back almost to the beginning of time itself. >> oh my goodness. >> this picture shows some of those ancient and faraway galaxies. >> can i ask why is this so excited intern -- exciting in terms of offering us an understanding of the universe and i'm going to throw another one and because we have one minute left, where is this headed? what is on tap for the telescope in the future? >> one of the things that p demand of astronomers is that we tell you the history of the universe from the beginning until now.

and we are piecing that history together by looking further and further out. and back in time. what's going to happen as the webkinz going is it's going to fruition inability we will be able to see what the atmospheres of other planets among the stars, like what we see now, what the atmospheres are made of we will see distant parts of our solar system, like the rings of neptune. and we are going to look further back in time than we have ever been a keep your seatbelts fastened, there's a lot more coming. >> andrew, thank you, you made us all happy as well. i am so happy to hear that stars in the galaxies, kgo listeners and viewers are being born every minute. thank you so much. get

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>> thank you for joining tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the deadly hit and run right near the white house. reports tonight several pedestrians hit. police and secret service hunting for the driver now accused of striking multiple people, killing at least one not far from the white house. uniformed secret service officers trying to make a traffic stop. the vehicle speeding through the intersection. also, the major storm threat tonight. chicago, st. louis, kansas city. then this heads right toward the already hard-hit northeast yet again. new york and