For the first time ever, Anchor Brewing’s four main beers are getting a new look.
Some breweries change their labels all the time, but when it comes to Anchor a re-brand carries special significance. This marks the first time that the beloved, vintage-feeling labels for the porter, California lager and Liberty Ale beers have gotten a makeover — and the first time in modern history that there’s been a significant change to the label for the brewery’s oldest and most famous product, Anchor Steam.
“We know it’s going to be a shocking change to some people,” said Dane Volek, who runs Anchor’s pilot brewing program. But, he said, coming up on the brewery’s 125th birthday next month, “it seemed like a nice pivot point.”
Anchor Steam beer’s new label is bright yellow with big blue lettering, a pared-down image compared with the busy, antique-looking label of the past. The goal, Volek said, was to retain a “retro-chic” look with the new packaging, but also to differentiate the name of the brewery (Anchor) from the name of the beer (steam), since that has long been a point of confusion for many consumers. “We still get some mail addressed to ‘Anchor Steam Brewery,’” Volek laughed.
The re-brand marks the first major change to Anchor’s core beers since Japanese beer giant Sapporo acquired the San Francisco brewery in 2017.
These newly packaged beers will be available for to-go sales from Anchor’s taproom in Potrero Hill and will roll out to retail outlets nationwide in February. This week only, the brewery is selling what it’s calling “retro-priced” six-packs of Anchor Steam, for just $1.25 a piece instead of the usual $9. (Orders can be placed starting Jan. 25 for pickup from the taproom between Jan. 28-31.)
The porter, Liberty Ale and California lager labels have never changed since they were introduced in 1972, 1975 and 2012 respectively, and the steam label has remained mostly unchanged since longtime owner Fritz Maytag revived the brewery in 1965. (The steam beer label did undergo some minor tweaks around 2013, Volek said, but they were small enough that many drinkers likely didn’t notice.
Part of the goal of the rebrand was to distinguish the beers from each other. With the previous packaging, the labels for all of Anchor’s mainstay beers all had the same color scheme. Now, they’re starkly different, with California Lager an electric green and Liberty Ale a deep blue. Anchor Porter’s rebranded look feels the closest to its previous incarnation, with familiar-feeling cursive lettering across the bottle’s round label.
In August, Tom Riley — who started at Anchor 36 years ago, initially working on the packaging line — took over as brewmaster from predecessor Scott Ungermann. In March, Anchor will add three new beers created by Volek to its permanent lineup: a tropical hazy IPA, a pilsner and a 100-calorie, gluten-reduced, mango-flavored golden ale called Little Weekend. That will be the first time since the 1970s that Anchor releases three new brews intended for year-round, indefinite production.
Volek said he’s especially proud of Little Weekend, which is the sort of beer that health-conscious drinkers at the taproom have been clamoring for in recent years. “It’s kind of going after the hard seltzer crowd, but I still wanted it to taste like beer,” he said. The mango flavor is inspired by the success of the brewery’s now-discontinued Mango Wheat.
The last decade has been a period of intense change at Anchor. Maytag, who elevated Anchor into what many consider to be America’s first craft brewery, sold his business in 2010 to an investment group owned by two former Skyy Spirits executives. Anchor had long been known for sticking to a short roster of basic, tried-and-true, old-fashioned beers; Maytag released only 10 styles in his 45-year tenure, becoming known for things like the antiquated-feeling Christmas Ale and Old Foghorn barleywine. After Maytag sold it, however, Anchor grew much more experimental, in large part thanks to Volek, releasing more of-the-moment brews like fruited beers and hazy IPAs.
A new design for Old Foghorn will be debuted at some point soon, Volek said, and it will look somewhat similar to the new look of Anchor Porter. Christmas Ale, the seasonal holiday beer whose recipe changes every year, is not expected to have a different sort of label in 2021.
Since the Sapporo purchase, Anchor’s workers have unionized, improving their wages and benefits. The spirits business that Maytag had founded, Anchor Distilling, was not included in the Sapporo sale; now a separate company, it has rechristened itself as Hotaling & Co.
Any changes at Anchor always inspire strong feelings among its fan base, especially in San Francisco. “Some people will flinch,” Volek said. But he emphasized that the only thing that’s changing is the way these beers look on the shelf — the beers themselves are the same as ever, using recipes that have remained virtually unchanged for decades or, in the case of steam beer, a century.
“Change is always hard,” Volek said, “but it’s about keeping the future alive.”
Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley
January 25, 2021 at 09:00PM
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On eve of 125th birthday, S.F.'s Anchor Brewing is changing its vintage beer labels - San Francisco Chronicle
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