The morning after a marathon 14-inning affair that underscored the often bitter, always compelling enmity between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, pioneering craft brewery Anchor Brewing Co. announced the release of a commemorative beer celebrating the 2014 Champion San Francisco Giants.

Giants Orange Splash Lager is a hoppy lager with a dose of orange zest and some experimental new hop varieties. Baseball fans in San Francisco can try the beer only at the Anchor Brewing Beer Garden adjacent to AT&T Park and at the main Anchor Brewery taproom near Potrero Hill — along with a few unnamed “selected bars in San Francisco.”

The collaboration brew, which Anchor Brewmaster Mark Carpenter calls “a longtime dream,” continues a years-long partnership between the MLB team and the craft brewery.

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In addition to the Beer Garden at the ballpark and plenty of Anchor beers pouring inside the Giant’s home stadium, there have been Giants-branded 12-packs of Anchor Steam and a few other recent marketing tie-ins.

The partnership between California’s oldest craft brewery and the Giants is one aspect of the storied rivalry in which the Giants easily have an advantage. Even with an increase in availability of craft brews at Dodger Stadium in recent years, L.A.’s home team has been slow to leverage the blossoming popularity of such brands.

Other teams have ballooned the choices at the concessions in strong craft beer markets — for example, the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres offer dozens of craft beer options. At one of the best ballparks for craft beer in the country, Cleveland’s Progressive Field, fully three-quarters of the 110 different beers available are from craft breweries, and fans can even get flights of different brews to take back to their seats — in home-plate-shaped carriers.

Why are the Dodgers so behind the times, even as more breweries open in Los Angeles and the local populace gets more craft-savvy?


Change has been slowly coming as the Dodgers’ new ownership group works to improve fan experience at the ballpark, but you can put your blame on complex sponsorship deals and concessions contracts that have the multinational brewing companies exerting a near stranglehold on what pours at the stadium.

Perhaps a new deal between one of L.A.’s larger craft operations could help usher in a new era of baseball brews at Chavez Ravine. It seems like a natural fit for a brewery like Angel City Brewing, with capacity for space and parent company (Boston Beer Co.) with deep pockets.

Maybe if the (currently) first-place Dodgers can finish the season still leading the National League West, win the big games in the playoffs to claim the pennant, and bring L.A. its first World Series trophy since 1988, fans will be rewarded with a L.A. collaboration beer of our own. We can only hope.

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