its fortunes changed in 1965 when fritz maytag of the ma family bought the company. he is credited with ushering in a boom of craft beer in the u.s.. fast-forward to 2017, anchor was purchased for $85 million and according to reports it did not go well with employees alleging mismanagement and a of understanding of craft beer. >> ucsf it announced their proposal with dignity health to acquire st. mary's, saint francis memorial hospital and the outpatient and urgent care clinics associated with those hospitals. ucsf is meeting with the university of california board of regents next week to formally request approval. in a statement they say saint mary's and saint francis would become ucsf health facilities and would no longer have religious affiliation. >> san francisco leaders are moving forward with an effort to reform the city's business tax system. mayor breed and supervisors asked the city treasurer and controller to begin the process of getting input on specific reform recommendations from the business community and others. breed says efforts to strengthen the ec

a couple months later, stanford grad maytag build out the brewery. >> we would drink it before we would see the grateful dead play. >> sapporo took over and pledged to keep anchor alive, but six years later the japanes beer giant is tapping out, citing declining sales made worse by the pandemic and bar and restaurant closures that were bountiful, but there is still a tiny chance that anchor could be sold, leaving longtime fans rooting for another comeback. >> i hope there is a company listening that can say i've got something for you. >> reporter: but as andrea nakano reports, it can be hard to keep your head above water i this field. >> reporter: your 21st amendment, the news of anchor calling it quits hit hard, but it reinforced their mission of producing the best, most innovative here on the market. >> 21st amendment brewing was founded and started by nico and shawn o'sullivan. our brewery got started in san francisco at the soma district in the year 2000. >> reporter: 21st amendment brewery has expanded and now ha a production facility in san leandro, producing customer favorites li

. >> i think back to when fritz maytag first bought anchor steam. we used to drink this before we would see the grateful dead play. >> reporter: the employees have been given two months notice and severance pay. there is still a chance it could be sold and brought back to life, but if not the brewery will be liquidated. peer fans are weighing in on social media. one user said this makes me genuinely sad. anchor beer has been a touchstone of my adult life and an important part of brewing history. another person tweeted, i thought they would be sold to another brewer. r.i.p. to one of the originals. >>> a bill that would legalize psychedelics in california has cleared a major hurdle. this is two weeks after it was approved by the public safety committee. it now moves to the appropriations committee for a vote before moving to the assembly floor. >>> a new poll shows that a majority of americans support a reform for psychedelics. over 60% are in favor of using these substances and 35% strongly approve. 56% of people think the fda should have to approve

. >> i think back to the 1970s when fritz maytag first bought anchor steam. we used of drink it before we would see the grateful dead play. >> reporter: the company spokesperson sam singer tells me that it is time to move on from a crisis that started in 2016 and is just getting worse every year. >> the pandemic ultimately drove a stake in the heart of anchor. most of the product was sold in bars, restaurants and tap rooms. when those closed during the two to three years of the pandemic, sales plummeted. >> reporter: he said the company tried to come back by putting more beer in cans and bottles, but it wasn't enough, so now it is all about helping the employees. >> it is a sad day for the employees. there are 60 one of them. they are very loyal. we have union members who are very loyal. we are doing our best to take care of them and give them severance, give them 60 day notice and try to help retrain them for other jobs. >> reporter: even though anchor will end up in the hands of a liquidation company, sam hope something can save the legacy. >> we hope someb

>> i was with maytag in the '70s.his is sad. >> reporter: pedro is a union representative for workers at the site and said employees were told about the closure this morning. he called it unexpected, since they just ratified the one-year contract with the company which included health care for part time workers. >> we were talking about the future. we were talking about people starting to get health care january of next year. now people are not even going to be here january of next year. >> reporter: the company said it has made repeated efforts to find buyers but has been unsuccessful. they plan to sell the reminding beer they have through the end of the month. employees will receive some sort of severance package but the details need to be discussed. he said for many, it will lead to most relocating out of san francisco. >> we're losing all these jobs. we've been losing them for decades and more and more and more. these are the jobs that allow people to stay in the city. >> reporter: nbc bay area news. >>> here's th

this is a -- kind of new for its maytag in the '70s when i came out here. this is sad. >> just the history, the history. iconic product of san francisco. i always brought people here to take the tour or visit when they came from out of town. >> nbc bay area's pete went to the brewery as employees processed all this news. coming up at 5:00, he is going to have reaction from a union rep, who says employees are having their lives upended by the brewery's sudden closure. >>> have you noticed? apparently prices are starting to fall. inflation fell for the 12th consecutive month, but that's the national number. so where do things stand for us here in the bay area? let's go ahead and bring in our business and tech reporter scott budman who has been tracking all of this for us. how are we looking? >> you know, we're looking good. just like the national numbers in the bay area, inflation at system of the lowest, slowest cool levels in two years. it's been two years of rapidly rising prices. now things are still moving higher, if you think about it month to month and

>> our owner, fritz maytag, who owned the brewery from 1965 until 2010, had to sort of rebuild the brewery and created the very first craft brewery in america, which became the model for all of the breweries that followed. there's a reason, for example, today even that many craft beers have cascade hops in it. well, we were the first to use that in a craft beer. so lots of the things that we did under him made it into inspiring the craft beer brewers that were coming along after us. >> amazing. david, final question for you. what went wrong in a nutshell? i get it, declining sales. but was it just not marketed correctly because it's a good beer? >> i think it's unfortunately a combo platter of a lot of things that went -- made it difficult for the owner to deal with it. it's a real shame, but i'm certainly hopeful that it will come back, and we'll see it again on shelves and at bars and restaurants. the fish market, incidentally, it's sad to hear that news. they were a great account of ours. so we hope. fingers crossed and beers aloft that the brewery will be back in one way or another, in

maytag significance of this beer, a small company had preserved this process and that is what he fellhe quality of the beer and he brought it to the whole world. this is my home. i have been here for almost 38 years. it means a lot to me. my history started here with a summer job in 1984. i now hold the position of brew master. i have had an extensive history here. >> i was a young college student starting to enjoy beer for the first time and the next thing i know age job opening popped up and being a homebrewer i was at the time, i said i better give this a shot. a week after that i was on the line washing kegs. >> my job as brewmaster is to preserve our beers as true to style as they have been. they are history in a bottle. one of the biggest challenges in brewing is consistency. water changes. it is the biggest challenge we face versus the wind industry. they can say this year was better than last year. we have to make the beer the same year over year. being at a company that was a leader in this space starting off the trend, it was really fun and interesting. my greatest reward is

a couple months later, stanford grad fritz maytag bailed out the brewery. >> my first craft beer thatl dead play at winterland. >> six years later, the japanbased beer giant is tapping out citing declining sales made worse by pandemic and restaurant and bar closures but there's a small chance it could be sold leaving long time fans rooting for another comeback. >> i hope there's a company listening that can reach out and say i have got something for. >> as andrea nakano reports, it can be hard to keep your head above water. >> it was founded and started by nike fetcha and o'sullivan and our brewery got started in san francisco in the district in the year 2000. >> reporter: 21st amendment brewery over the years has expanded and now has a production facility in san leandro. producing customer favorites like hell or high watermelon. >> when people come to visit our brew pub. it catches their eye -- what is that? is that a watermelon on a glass? >> reporter: in an industry that's flooded with craft breweries, the challenge has been to stay on top. and set new trends. >> craft beer, there