Seven Stills Will Multiply Beer and Whiskey Output With Massive Mission Bay Flagship

Seven Stills is poised to outgrow the Bayview brewery and distillery where owners Tim Obert and Clint Potter opened in 2016: The duo will expand to an 18,000 square foot space inside 100 Hooper, a brand new development under construction in Mission Bay.

The new building, which is mostly office space upstairs, will house Seven Stills on the ground floor. The new location will be one third restaurant and retail space and two thirds production facility, with room for Seven Stills to brew 30,000 barrels of beer annually and distill up to 70,000 cases of whiskey — an output that would make it the city’s largest distiller. For comparison, this past year, Seven Stills brewed just 5,000 barrels of beer.

At Seven Stills, Obert and Potter have quickly made a name for themselves with fresh beer — and, more unusually, whiskey distilled from it (think hoppy whiskey made from double IPA and chocolatey spirits distilled from oatmeal stouts). Seven Stills has already spread its grain gospel with an Outer Sunset Taproom, wholesale cans at Whole Foods, and recently, a bar and restaurant in the Stanford Court Hotel on Nob Hill.

Kilroy Realty

But the new Mission Bay space will be the brand’s biggest coup to date. In 2015, Kilroy Realty Corp. acquired 100 Hooper (previously a 3.3 acre self-storage facility) for development into office and light industrial space. In 2017, the developer leased several floors of the not-yet-built office space to Adobe, kicking off the construction phase. And after seeking a light industrial tenant like a coffee roaster or brewer, Seven Stills signed on for the project this spring.

“We’ve got a ton of momentum with our beer and spirits, so [with 100 Hooper] we’re just trying to keep up with demand,” Obert says. He hopes the new location will be open by November.

The distiller and brewer will continue production in the Bayview, where the team will turn its attention to cranking out six packs of year-round IPA offerings. They’ll move their 750 gallon pot still to Mission Bay, where it will be joined by a 300 gallon spirits still, making it the site of all the company’s distilling.

Beyond serving upstairs Adobe workers in need of happy hour drinks, “there’s so many people moving to [Mission Bay.] and it’s just four blocks from the Warriors stadium,” Obert says. “We want to be [to the Warriors arena] what 21st Amendment is to AT&T Park.”

FORGE

There’s definitely capacity for game day crowds: Including an outdoor beer garden space, Seven Still’s 100 Hooper space will have room for 250 people. The downstairs bar will feature views into the distillery and offer flights of whiskey and 24 draft beers and cocktails made with Seven Stills spirits.

The restaurant’s menu will have a global street food theme, likely including tacos, falafel, and pretzels. And members of Seven Stills’ beer and whiskey club will get access to a private club level, where they can stock whiskey lockers and shoot pool.

To complete their expansion, Seven Stills is launching an online fundraising round, using a service commonly employed by tech startups (details to come on their website). They’ll release 100,000 shares totaling one million dollars in equity, timed to a beer can release — an Initial Can offering, or ICO. In near Willy Wonka fashion, 7,100 of the special ICO cans will include a free share of the company, and ten of them will come with 100 shares.

• Rule-Breaking Craft Brewery and Distillery Takes Over Nob Hill Hotel Bar [ESF]
• Adobe lease kicked off construction on Kilroy’s $270 million project [SF Business Times]