21st Amendment Brewery unveils plans for new production brewery

In equally awesome news, 21st Amendment Brewery announced the release of Lower De Boom Barleywine, a powerfully balanced American-Style barleywine packed with citrusy hops. Co-founders Shaun O’Sullivan and Nico Freccia said they believe this is the first American craft beer ever to be packaged in an 8.4 ounce can, the perfect size for the traditional barleywine “nip.”

21st Amendment Brewery Co-founders Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan were thrilled to announce plans for the new 21st Amendment production brewery, tasting room, restaurant and event space located in the former Kellogg Cereal factory building in San Leandro, Calif. Set to open later this year, the 95,000-square-foot facility will have an initial brewing capacity of 100,000 barrels (bbls), scalable to more than 250,000 bbls, making it among the largest breweries in the Bay Area. The company expects to brew more than 70,000 bbls in 2014.

“Since we began packaging our beer six years ago with our Minnesota partner brewery, we have never been able to keep up with demand,” Freccia said. “Building our own local brewery will allow us to continue to focus on improving quality and consistency, and to expand into new markets where our beer is in demand.”

“We look at this as an opportunity for us to bring the vision and beer home to the Bay Area where it all started when we opened our San Francisco brewpub in 2000,” added Brewmaster O’Sullivan. “This will allow us to continue to deepen our SF Bay Area local roots and to keep having fun making great beer. Both Nico and I are excited about making more interesting beers with our unique packaging that craft beer drinkers have come to know and love. It’s every brewer’s dream to open their own brewery and this is truly a dream come true for us.”

In addition to a state-of-the-art craft brewing facility, the new location, where Pop-Tarts and Frosted Flakes were once produced, will feature a tasting room and retail area as well as the company’s world office headquarters. Phase two will commence in 2015 and will include a full restaurant/pub, beer garden, event and meeting rooms and more. The company expects to create 20 new jobs over the next nine months and 100 jobs over five years.

The space is being designed by San Francisco architects Aidlin Darling Design, winners of the 2013 National Design Award by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Nation Design Museum for their complete body of work, two National AIA “COTE” awards for excellence in sustainable design, and a James Beard Award among many accolades.

“This project will be nothing short of the number one destination spot for craft beer aficionados and beer lovers near and far. With an interactive space that will enhance each guest’s experience as they adventure around the production brewery, the plans are to repurpose the historical cereal factory in a way that celebrates the building’s industrial character and blurs the boundaries between the production space and the hospitality space,” said lead designer David Darling.

21st Amendment will be installing a 10-bbl, four-vessel GEA/Huppmann brewhouse – engineered in Germany and made in the United States – with an initial capacity of eight brews per day. In addition, they have purchased the newest, state-of-the-art KHS high-speed volumetric can filling line that will be capable of filling up to 500 cans per minute. The team plans to use this large-scale brewing facility as an opportunity to create many more new specialty and experimental brews to add to their famous year-round beers along with the launch of new, seasonal and limited edition “Insurrection Series” beers. The company plans to continue to maintain a valued relationship with their Third Street Brewhouse partners in Cold Spring, Minn.