Overview
- Evil Genius, which announced the deal Monday at the Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia, is bringing the shuttered San Francisco label back to market.
- The purchase, described by the buyer as a seven-figure sum, includes 21st Amendment’s brand, recipes, and national distribution rights but not its San Leandro brewery or San Francisco taproom.
- Production restarted last month through partner breweries, and core beers like Hell or High Watermelon and Brew Free! Or Die IPA are back on shelves in California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
- The company says the beers’ recipes and packaging are unchanged, and it will brew near each sales market to cut shipping costs and avoid heavy capital outlays.
- Evil Genius funded the acquisition with friends-and-family money, a contrast to 21st Amendment’s private-equity era, in a craft beer market where volumes have fallen and shelf space is harder to win.