One year after Anchor Brewing’s sale, is a big comeback running out of steam?

Through fencing at the old Anchor Brewing taproom in Potrero Hill, passersby can spot a branded, baby-blue, 1940s-era GMC truck at one end of a lot overgrown with weeds. Since July 2023, when Japanese beer giant Sapporo vacated the complex, both the monolithic off-white Art Deco headquarters at 1705 Mariposa St. and the taproom across the street have remained idle. 

Now, vines and delicate purple flowers snake through the truck’s rusting grille — and San Francisco beer drinkers continue to go without longtime favorites Anchor Steam, Liberty Ale, and the annual Christmas Ale. 

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Exactly one year ago, billionaire Hamdi Ulukaya posted a video on social media in which he sports an Anchor baseball cap and explains that he’d purchased the defunct company and was eager to take on the responsibility of reviving the country’s oldest craft brewery.

“It’s the essence of San Francisco. It’s the essence of this country that we can always bring it back better than before,” Ulukaya said in the clip.

Sapporo, which purchased the brewery in 2017, had been lambasted for running Anchor Brewing into the ground; as Exhibit A, critics held up the redesign of vintage beer labels. In light of that, Ulukaya, who made a fortune as the founder and CEO of the yogurt company Chobani, was hailed as the savior of a beloved local icon.

“Being part of a rebirth and brand of the company and being part of maybe a new dimension of the city is pretty exciting,” Ulukaya told The Standard last year. While he promised to bring back the old beer labels, he declined to provide a timeline for reopening.  

Since then, the brewery has been quiet, apart from making occasional headlines over noxious odors emerging from its depths. There have been no public announcements on what’s next, and the facility is largely bereft of activity, other than a skeleton crew of maintenance workers. One employee declined to comment when The Standard reached her by phone.

Initially, many former Anchor employees were elated that Ulukaya had taken ownership, going so far as to compare him to onetime owner Fritz Maytag, the dairy and appliance scion who rescued Anchor from obscurity in the 1960s. The Standard contacted three former brewmasters, but none had heard official word about activity at the brewery — let alone been offered a job.  A representative from the new ownership group did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication. 

“A lot of us have moved on since trying to get in contact with Hamdi, with no response,” said Patrick Machel, a former employee who tried to revive the brand as part of the Anchor SF Cooperative. “We can only do so much.”

Gears are starting to grind. Local real estate sources said unsolicited offers from investors to purchase portions of the Anchor Brewing complex have gone unanswered, implying at least a commitment to make good on the reopening pledge. 

In February, the new ownership group received an Alcoholic Beverage Control permit to make beer, as well as to import and wholesale beer, wine, and spirits. The president of Ulukaya’s investment firm, Shepherd Ventures, is listed on the permit. The firm partnered with local developer Presidio Bay Ventures as part of the acquisition.

Elsewhere, Chobani is ramping up its business dealings, breaking ground on a $1.2 billion factory in upstate New York, launching a $500 million expansion of its Idaho plant, and acquiring smoothie company Daily Harvest.

Ulukaya has said that before purchasing Anchor, he had been to San Francisco only a handful of times. He’s returned to Potrero Hill at least once in recent weeks. Irfan Yalcin, a fellow member of the Turkish Kurdish community, hosted Ulukaya in April at his Mexican restaurant Papito, three blocks from the brewery. Yalcin said Ulukaya told him he was moving forward with the project.

To Potrero Hill neighbors, former employees, and anyone who misses their pint of Anchor Steam, the silence has been deafening. Ulukaya’s May 2024 announcement, which remains the last post on Anchor’s Instagram account, has dozens of comments asking for an update. 

Mike Walsh, a local investor who previously bid to purchase the brewery, went so far as to publish an open letter to Ulukaya in February, saying he and other Anchor fans were “eagerly awaiting visible action and tangible changes that reflect your commitment.”

He received no reply.

Whoever attempts to revive Anchor has their work cut out for them. A dormant facility — especially one known for hewing to traditional production methods that make use of San Francisco’s ambient yeast — can’t start cranking out bottles of Liberty Ale at the press of a button.

“Breweries are like ships, in that they’re always needing to be maintained,” said Brian Reccow, an industry veteran and consultant who recently opened brewpub Fifty Vara by retooling equipment he’d inherited from its predecessor, Sunset Brewing. “A brewery that is in motion is a happy brewery.”

Anchor’s pumps and pipes may need repair or replacement, Reccow said, singling out refrigeration as a particular concern. The building’s age is another factor. “I know Sapporo did some upgrades, but I’m sure [Ulukaya’s team is] looking at the entirety of the system,” he said. “Is it the grain handling? The fluid dynamics? Is it fermentation? Probably automation is a big thing they’re going to be looking at.

Steam beer — also known as California common beer, the only brewing method to originate in the U.S. — is rarely produced these days. Maintaining Anchor’s adherence to old-style ways, including the use of open-air fermentation tanks and copper equipment, may require a learning curve for employees. Above all, it will require an embrace of tradition, warts — or worts — and all. “I wouldn’t say Anchor was cantankerous,” Reccow said, “but it required a great deal of craftsmanship.”

Keith Goldstein, president of the Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association, said the last time he heard from the new Anchor owners was a few months ago, when they reached out to get an estimate for restoring the exterior of the brewery.

During his career running a waterproofing and restoration company, Goldstein was enlisted by Maytag, the property’s former owner, to maintain it over several decades. Goldstein also hosted numerous holiday parties at the brewery. In a meeting last year with Ulukaya, he said the billionaire appeared “raring to go.”

“I know for sure they’ve been putting numbers together for what it’s going to cost to get the building up and running,” Goldstein said. “I was just looking at the outside of the building, and it’s become the biggest eyesore on Potrero Hill.”

Several sources raised the potential of redeveloping a portion of the land acquired as part of the purchase. The area is zoned as a light industrial district, and construction of housing or a mixed-use development on the site would require rezoning and a community development agreement with city officials. 

In the meantime, hope is running thin, and Anchor’s faithful employees are moving on. When Dane Volek was a student at SF State, he started working at Anchor part time. He gradually moved up the ranks, ending his tenure as the 125-year-old company’s last brewmaster.

After a decade and a half in the beer industry, Volek embarked on a career change when the business closed. He now works in financial services.

“I’m excited for a fresh pint of Anchor Steam in the nearest possible future,” Volek said. “But I can’t keep sitting around hoping that something is going to happen or somebody is going to reach out.”

Indeed, San Francisco’s dreams for the revival of its signature beer are running out of steam.