Jake Leinenkugel to Retire

MillerCoors announced Tuesday that longtime Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing president, Jake Leinenkugel, 62, will retire at the end of the year.

His brother, Dick Leinenkugel, will take over as president of the company, which is part of MillerCoors’ craft and import division, Tenth and Blake.

In a note to employees, Tom Cardella, who heads up Tenth and Blake and will also be retiring at the end of the year, described Jake Leinenkugel’s time with the company.

“A fifth-generation brewer, Jake grew up inside the brewery and helped grow the business from a regional business concentrated in the upper Midwest, to a national brewery now distributed in all 50 states,” he wrote.

Cardella also used the moment as an opportunity rally the troops, calling on sales personnel and distributors to sell more product.

“Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company was a 60,000 barrel brewery when Jake took leadership 25 years ago,” Cardella wrote. “This year it looks like Leinie’s will sell close to a million barrels. My ask: help send Jake to retirement with a million barrels. Two additional truckloads from each of Leinenkugel’s top 100 distributors will put Leinie’s past the million-barrel milestone.”

The announcement comes just two weeks after Coors Distributing president, Scott Whitley, was named the new CEO of Tenth and Blake.