SAN FRANCISCO – On Thursday, 21st Amendment hosted their “not-so-annual” weBEERnar at what they are now calling ‘beer-thirty’ (2:30 PST).
The webinar began with Co-Founder’s Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan tossing watermelons off the roof of the 21st Amendment pub, located just a few blocks away from the home of the World Series-champion Giants.
The Hell or High Watermelon beer, which has found favor amongst baseball fans as the drink of choice before Giants home games, is one of the staple offerings from 21st Amendment. Originally offered year-round, the brewery decided to make it a seasonal release during the spring and summer months, with Back in Black replacing it as the year round selection.
For 2011, Freccia and O’Sullivan confirmed that two new four-packs will be making their way to market. Hop Crisis, a triple IPA which took home the silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) last year will now be distributed in four-packs starting in early June.
Hop Crisis was originally called Double Trouble Imperial IPA, but was changed after 21st Amendment realized the name was currently being used by Founder’s Brewing Company. This offering checks in at 11.8% and is 100+ IBU’s.
Also making its way to cans by way of the four-pack will be the Ninkasi and 21st Amendment collaboration beer brewed in February. This beer is scheduled to hit the markets in October or November.
“We brewed about 1200 barrels of the Ninkasi collaboration and all markets will get the beer,” said Freccia. “I expect it to stay in the marketplace for about 60 days.”
Freccia also confirmed that more of the Hops Crisis will be made than the Ninkasi Collaboration. 21st Amendment would not immediately release the name of the collaboration brew and said they will be keeping it a “secret” for a little while longer.
Shaun O’Sulluivan also commented on the recent distribution change for Avery Brewing, who will be pulling out of various markets across the U.S. Avery Brewing cans some of their offerings, and will no longer be distributed in the Northern California and Bay Area markets.
“It does open up some potential opportunity for us,” said O’Sullivan. “But we still are already maxed out on our distribution at this point.”
21st Amendment recently inked a deal with Safeway, to be distributed through 100 stores in the Bay Area, which triples their volume in that market.
Freccia and O’Sullivan also confirmed that Bitter American will soon become a year-round offering, beginning in 2012.