While they’re still being courted by distributors to determine who will carry them locally, the highly regarded 21st Amendment Brewery out of San Francisco will be hitting the Twin Cities market in the coming months with two offerings from their stable of beers – Brew Free or Die IPA and Hell or High Watermelon Wheat. No…your ears aren’t plugged. I did say a watermelon wheat.
According to the brewery’s representative I met with, their 12 barrel system back home at the brewpub clearly wasn’t going to be enough to handle the volume for this market expansion. So they made a quasi-contract brewing arrangement with Cold Springs here in northern Minnesota. But interestingly enough, 21st Amendment’s own head brewer, Shaun O’Sullivan, has flown out to personally oversee brewing and production of the beers. I’d imagine the boys at Cold Spring likely aren’t used to working with watermelon in bright tanks.
21st Amendment plans to offer their beers in cans, a nice move and a growing trend evidenced by fellow craft brewers like Surly, Oskar Blues and even New Belgium in select markets out west.
Hell or High Watermelon Wheat
Like alot of beers at smaller craft breweries, this apparently started as a homebrewed creation from co-founder Nico Freccia. They enjoyed it so much, it quickly became part of their regular rotation. Poured like a very light hefeweizen, a bit cloudy but a nice fruity aroma of various berries and watermelon. Taste was refreshing, trending a bit more to the watermelon side of the equation as opposed to wheat, but not bad. Somewhat thin mouthfeel, but for the style I’ll give it a pass. I gotta say, quite an interesting beer, and one I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did.
Rating: B+
Live Free or Die IPA
This is west coast all the way, with a load of Columbus, Tomahawk and Zeus (CTZ) hops smacking you in the nose right up front. But unlike most super ballsy IPAs that make your eyes water with IBU punishment, this one comes in at a mere 70 bittering points, putting it more in line on the hoppy spectrum with local stuff like Summit Horizon Red. Taste was fairly clean, not as much malt backbone as I’d like, but good overall. It’s a well-balanced beer, dare I say even to the point where one could mistake it for a pale ale in its relatively reserved nature. As I sipped the beer, it immediately invoked past memories of something else I’ve enjoyed…mildly reminiscent of a tamer version of Russian River’s Pliny the Elder in its bright hoppiness, if you’re fortunate enough to have tried that. I’m sure this one will be well received here in the Twin Cities.
Rating: B+
August 17, 2009 at 10:49 am
I’ve always been frustrated that these beers are brewed less than an hour from my house and yet I have to go to San Francisco to purchase them. Finally!
August 17, 2009 at 11:04 am
I’ve only been to 21st Amendment once, but thoroughly enjoyed their brews and am excited to hear they will be braving the fierce MN beer laws to bring us their brews, even if it’s just a couple to start.
August 18, 2009 at 9:21 am
[...] Captain’s Chair reports that “the highly regarded 21st Amendment Brewery out of San Francisco will be hitting the [...]
August 18, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I had talked to Dave about this a couple weeks back. Sounds like they may have figured out the distributor now. I meet up with Dave and Shaun when I’m out in San Fran or when they’re in Minneapolis. Great guys, great beer.
September 10, 2009 at 1:55 pm
As a big fan of canned beer and creative brewers I was incredibly excited when I learn I would soon be able to purchase their beers locally. Glad to see you got your hands on some and enjoyed it.
September 20, 2011 at 10:28 am
[...] Apparently 21st Amendment has a production brewery in Minnesota, which seems to be a quasi-contract arrangement with Cold Spring Brewery, although information is sparse, so [...]