Detailing 21st Amendment’s new production brewery in California

After three years of planning and construction, 21st Amendment Brewery co-founders Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan were excited to announce that production has officially begun at the company’s new brewery in San Leandro, Calif. When the doors open to the public in early June, the space will include a tasting room and outdoor beer garden, with the full campus design being finalized over the next few years to include a restaurant, floating bars including a “Tree House” bar overlooking the production line, meeting space and an indoor amphitheater for events, beer schools and concerts.

“We look at this as an opportunity to bring the vision and beer home to the Bay Area where it all started when we opened our San Francisco brewpub in 2000,” O’Sullivan said. “The first beers out of San Leandro will be exciting new releases, and we’ll also be experimenting with our San Leandro neighbors, Drakes and Cleophus Quealy, to produce some really inventive collaboration beers. We’re working to make San Leandro a craft beer Mecca.”

The San Leandro brewing facility, which has taken over the former Kellogg Factory where Pop-Tarts and Frosted Flakes were once produced, will have 21 beers on tap, many of them experimental brews, seasonal drafts or collaboration brews only available at the East Bay location.

“The new brewery affords us creative license to play with new package sizes, variety packs and new recipes. It also allows us to continue to deepen our Bay Area roots while expanding distribution both domestically and internationally.” explained Co-founder Freccia.

21st Amendment’s transition to San Leandro will provide 25 jobs at the outset, with more than 100 jobs projected over the next five years. Both founders call the East Bay home and are looking forward to helping build the area’s economy and bring new life to the space they’ve inherited.

The brewery was 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, to name a few.

“This project will be nothing short of the No. 1 destination spot for craft beer aficionados and beer lovers near and far,” said Lead Designer, David Darling. “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,”

21st Amendment has installed a 100 barrel, four-vessel GEA/Huppmann brew house – engineered in Germany and built in the U.S.A. – with an initial capacity of eight brews per day. In addition, it has purchased a KHS high speed volumetric can filling line that will be capable of filling up to 500 cans per minute. And, although some production will be moved to San Leandro, the company plans to continue to maintain a valued relationship with its Third Street Brewhouse partners in Cold Spring, Minn., and will also continue operations and small-scale brewing at its San Francisco brewpub location in South Park, just blocks away from AT&T Park.