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<\/p>\nFans of the San Francisco-based craft brewery wonder if the return of the label signals a return of the beer they love.<\/p>\n
Jul 2, 2026<\/p>\n
Updated 2:31 pm PT<\/p>\n
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An attendee at an SF BuzzWorks event serving their last Anchor Brewing kegs and Anchor Christmas Ales holds a bottle of Anchor beer in San Francisco on Dec. 9, 2023. After 127 years of brewing beer in San Francisco, Anchor closed its doors in 2023, leaving many fans lamenting the loss of one of the city\u2019s legacy businesses and early leader in the craft beer scene.\u00a0\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes sense that they\u2019re going with the old labels because of that huge backlash when we did rebrand,\u201d said Patrick Costello, who previously worked at the Anchor brewery. \u201cSome people might think that it\u2019s not a big deal, but it really was one of the nails in the coffin for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 127 years of brewing beer in San Francisco, Anchor closed its doors in 2023, leaving many fans lamenting the loss of one of the city\u2019s legacy businesses and early leader in the craft beer scene<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the years since, Costello and other former Anchor brewery workers have remained eager to get back to business. In December 2023, some formed the Anchor SF Cooperative<\/a> and attempted to buy back the brewery from the Japanese beer giant Sapporo, which bought Anchor in 2017.<\/p>\n Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya<\/a> later bought Anchor Brewing in 2024 and promised to revive the company. But any movement toward reopening has been slow and quiet. Ulukaya did not immediately respond to a request for comment this week when KQED reached out to Anchor Brewing.<\/p>\n More recent clues suggest that the business is active, however.<\/p>\n Anchor Brewing has received approval for two separate labels, one for the Anchor Steam Beer<\/a> and another for the company\u2019s Old Foghorn ale<\/a>, filings from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau show.<\/p>\n The labels both use the original art by Jim Stitt, who designed Anchor\u2019s beer labels for 45 years.<\/p>\n The old-fashioned branding is reminiscent of the early port shipping days in San Francisco, with anchor emblems and vintage fonts. \u201cIt\u2019s a classic. Everybody knows Anchor Brewing because of the Steam beer and Foghorn,\u201d said Costello, noting that one of his favorites doesn\u2019t appear on the list of labels the company recently applied for. \u201cI might have gone with the porter.\u201d<\/p>\n Rumors have swirled online about seeing people<\/a> inside the old Anchor brewery in Potrero Hill. On June 19, Ulukaya posted a photo of himself watching a World Cup match from inside the Anchor taproom<\/a> to his personal Instagram account.<\/p>\n Costello, who now works for a brewery in Alameda, said he hadn\u2019t been aware of the label approvals but was excited to see some movement. Several Anchor brewery alumni recently gathered at the San Francisco bar Buzzworks to rally support for their union<\/a>, which was part of ILWU Local 6.<\/p>\n Costello said he and several former workers said they are open to returning, and they held the event to drum up energy behind their efforts to return as a unionized brewery.<\/p>\n Anchor Steam beer is hard to come by these days with production on hiatus, but Costello said the bar owner pulled out a reserved case for the event.<\/p>\n He added that the former workers have not received any direct communications from Ulukaya.<\/p>\n \u201cWorkers are still here, and we\u2019re still ready to take our jobs back and ready to get to work,\u201d Costello said. Other former workers have also moved in different directions, but Costello said there is plenty of interest among former brewery workers in coming back and excitement for taps to turn on again.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Anchor\u2019s Potrero Hill building was quiet. But a couple of cars were in the parking lot, and behind a chain-linked fence surrounding the taproom, lights were on inside and loading dock doors were wide open.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like it\u2019s going to happen pretty soon,\u201d Costello said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/231209-FormerAnchorWorkers-07-BL_qed.jpg\")
An attendee holds Anchor Cooperative flyers as co-op members share information about their efforts to buy back the intellectual property of Anchor Brewery in hopes of beginning the brewery anew at an SF BuzzWorks event serving their last Anchor Brewing kegs and Anchor Christmas Ales in San Francisco on Dec. 9, 2023. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/231209-FORMERANCHORWORKERS-15-BL-KQED.jpg\")
Anchor SF Cooperative members share information about their efforts to buy back the intellectual property of Anchor Brewing at an SF BuzzWorks event on Dec. 9. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n