https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/dining/anchor-brewing-closing-beer.html
Will anyone acquire the brand/recipe and resume Anchor Steam production?
Resolution will be based on my understanding from public reporting.
Resolved NO since news articles in the last couple of months report that, while the company has been acquired, the timeline for restarting operations is more like the end of the year. While some product may still be available for purchase, it seems to be inventory from before production shut down last summer.
I don't think that's a date ? It says pkg number instead of best by or anything similar . Also that would be pretty old lol (if its pkging date i guess same question, are all these stores selling a run from 2022 still?)
Yep, seems like that is the bottling date: https://web.archive.org/web/20220318195644/https://www.anchorbrewing.com/blog/packaging-date/
we might need an NA on this - title and description says 'in production' which it still is, as i can get it and it is actively being sold. but these articles refer to 'operations' ? @jcb
(could be - operations in a city or region? operations at a certain scale they used to work at? etc)
How certain are you that you can buy it? I have not seen any Anchor beer on a store shelf in quite a while. Searching Instacart with a location in San Francisco turns up places that claim to have Anchor Steam for sale, but they all look like small stores that probably don't keep their inventory up to date in the Instacart system. Have you actually seen it in a store?
(Also it's theoretically possible that inventory remains from before things shut down last summer, though this seems unlikely).
Hm. I don't really want to make the assumption that it's old inventory. But I'm not sure how to prove or disprove that possibility. Hopefully there's none on the shelves and I don't have to figure out how to handle that case 😅 😰.
Also, if you want to attempt a purchase via instacart or uber eats or something, I will happily "fund" it by donating 2x your cost to a charity of your choice.
https://www.axios.com/local/san-francisco/2024/05/31/anchor-brewing-steam-beer-chobani-ulukaya
"What to watch: Ulukaya told the Chronicle that he would like to resume operations in time for Christmas, but the company first needs to get approval from the city.
Ulukaya has already met with some city officials, including Mayor London Breed, who told the Chronicle she's "grateful for his commitment to being a part of the future for our city" and keeping Anchor's beer "right here where it belongs."
Highly doubtful that it's currently in production.
how am i still able to buy it then. i think that there is a difference between operations and production, or at least there must be some more detail on what 'operations' means?
You are likely being sold old beer. This thread from r/Sanfrancisco seems to confirm that it's not being produced anymore: https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1dgoy0h/anchor_steam/
June 28 article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/a-good-billionaire-bought-anchor-brewing-what-happens-to-its-union/ar-BB1p3TAw
Ulukaya told the San Francisco Chronicle he had met with four former employees on an undisclosed date, and wants to get production up and running as soon as possible. But crucially, as of this writing, unionized workers have not heard from Ulukaya. “It’s great that he bought it, and that he’s on record saying that he wants to bring us back,” says Costello. “But no, we haven’t been reached out to yet. We’re trying every possible avenue to get this guy to actually come sit down and talk with us.”
Doesn't feel very promising for operations being up and running on July 10.
https://www.anchorbrewing.com/our-beer/anchor-steam/
Found this thing that says that they sell Anchor Steam beer
I don't think that provides any new evidence: as far as I can tell from archive.org, that page hasn't changed since June 2023.