{"id":246500,"date":"2026-04-01T09:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/246500\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:54:09","slug":"2-pitchers-open-bay-area-brewery-marin-independent-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/246500\/","title":{"rendered":"2 pitchers open Bay Area brewery \u2013 Marin Independent Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Giants<\/a> were in the middle of their World Series run when two aspiring college baseball pitchers took an honest, but glass-half-empty, look at their futures in the game.<\/p>\n

The Major League\u2019s loss was a win for Bay Area beer fans: an Oakland-based brewery specializing in fruit juice and beer cocktails like radlers and shandies. It\u2019s expanding to a new taproom in San Francisco later this spring.<\/p>\n

Tommy Hester and Wilson Barr founded Two Pitchers Brewing Co.<\/a> nearly 15 years ago, amid the heyday of the craft beer movement, motivated by the realization that their baseball careers had run their course.<\/p>\n

The two young men had met as pitchers on the baseball team at Division III Williams College, a small liberal arts school in northwestern Massachusetts that was established in 1793.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>Two Pitchers Brewing Company co-owners Tommy Hester and Wilson Barr, from right, at their new location on Noriega Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. Their original location is on Webster Street in downtown Oakland. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

The Ephs \u2014 their mascot is a purple cow \u2014 are not exactly a baseball power, although they can claim notorious former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent as alumni. The school\u2019s most accomplished professional player, Ted Lewis, retired in 1901 to teach full-time at Columbia University, and their most recent Major Leaguer appeared in one game in 1934.<\/p>\n

Hester and Barr had modest careers with the Ephs but spent long hours in the dugout, cementing their friendship\u00a0 \u2014 and a plan to break into the craft beer business after college.<\/p>\n

The pair proudly address their origin story on the brewery website, conceding that \u201cwe were better at brewing beer than throwing baseballs and didn\u2019t have much hope of making it to the big leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as rookies, the pair quickly found their stride in the brewing game.<\/p>\n

Barr first encountered radlers and shandies while studying abroad in Europe and wondered why the beverages weren\u2019t more popular in the U.S. As novice brewers in a market saturated with craft IPAs, they knew they needed to offer something different to be competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe settled on this idea of doing craft radlers,\u201d Hester says. \u201cWe figured we\u2019d give it a shot and see where it went. And now here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

After college, the duo moved to the Bay Area and launched their first beer in 2013, developed through trial and error, Hester says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always the best part of the job,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019d start mixing stuff, and we\u2019d do samplings, but once everything started tasting good, we knew we\u2019d probably had enough to sample and would start over the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their creations include their flagship grapefruit blood orange radler, a lager base mixed with red and white grapefruit juice and blood orange juice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like sunshine in a can,\u201d Hester says.<\/p>\n

\"Co-owners<\/a>Co-owners and former Williams College baseball pitchers Wilson Barr and Tommy Hester, from left, are photographed at Two Pitchers Brewing Company in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Other flavors include Nordic Jam, made with elderberry, strawberry and cherry juices, \u201calmost like a fruit punch mixed with beer,\u201d he says. Then there\u2019s their Weekender, made with passionfruit, guava and citrus from mandarins and clementine oranges, and a lime-and-sea salt beer blend called Free Swim they\u2019re planning to bring back after a limited release last year. Rather than the super low ABV of traditional radlers, which hover around 2 or 3 percent, theirs are about what a standard light beer is, at around 5 percent.<\/p>\n

They also developed the lager they use as their base beer, called the Baseline Lager (get it? It\u2019s a baseball pun), which is available at their taproom for $3 a pint. The taproom also serves their pale ale and cider, and the bar\u2019s selection is rounded out with guest taps from other local breweries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want anybody to be able to come in and get an affordable beer. In a region that is lacking in affordability, we\u2019re trying to put our money where our mouth is and make our spots approachable for just about anybody,\u201d Hester says.<\/p>\n

Since the start of their brewery, they\u2019ve weathered ups and downs in the industry.<\/p>\n

Back when they started, Hester recalls, \u201cyou just put the word \u2018IPA\u2019 on the shelf, and it would fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

While IPAs are still a huge part of the industry today, some people are looking for other sipping options, including less hoppy ones, he says.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo Pitchers Brewing Company co-owners Tommy Hester and Wilson Barr, from left, walk through their new location as remodeling continues on Noriega Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. Their original location is on Webster Street in downtown Oakland. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Today doesn\u2019t feel like the boom days for craft beer anymore, Hester says. But they\u2019re able to continue and do well.<\/p>\n

As they expand to a new location in the Outer Sunset, expected to open this spring, they\u2019re partnering with another former college baseball player, Max Ponzurick. Ponzurick, who played at Virginia Tech, runs Maillards<\/a>, a smashburger fixture of the Outer Sunset farmers market. Maillards will be the food vendor at the new taproom, located at 3821 Noriega St. in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the locations will be a great place to watch Giants games.<\/p>\n

Hester says he\u2019s an Orioles fan, and Barr is a die-hard Giants fan, who \u201cwould be upset if we did not have all of those (games) on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Details: Open 4 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 4 to 11 p.m. Fridays, 2 to 11 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. Sundays at 2344 Webster St., Oakland; twopitchers.com\/oakland<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants were in the middle of their World Series run when two aspiring college baseball pitchers took…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2135,1115,7,421,971,1334,180,143,145,144,412,127,420,26354],"class_list":["post-246500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-baseball","tag-beer","tag-california","tag-food-and-drink","tag-lifestyle","tag-mlb","tag-newsletter","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-restaurants","tag-sports","tag-things-to-do","tag-zest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}