21st Amendment Brewery

Nico Freccia and Shaun O'Sullivan met in San Francisco in 1995 and hatched their plan in a summer brewing science class at UC Davis. Nico was a theater major who had worked in restaurants his whole life; Shaun was a former paralegal who traded his suits for boots. Researching the city's old breweries, they learned San Francisco once had about 40 within city limits, and named their brewery for the amendment that ended Prohibition.

They opened in 2000 on 2nd Street in South Park, two blocks from the ballpark. Hell or High Watermelon Wheat started as one of Nico's homebrew recipes in his apartment near the Panhandle and became the brewery's signature. In 2006 they began canning when only a couple dozen craft breweries did, and later moved production to San Leandro.

The original company closed in November 2025. In 2026 Philadelphia's Evil Genius Beer Co. bought the brand and brought the core beers back.