Lagunitas Brewing Company

Tony Magee, the founder and CEO of fast-growing Lagunitas Brewing, has lost about 20 pounds in the last 12 months. We know what you’re thinking and no, he didn’t stop drinking his own brew or start any kind of radical juice cleanse. How’d he do it? By traveling a great distance.

Today’s beer consumers are often heralded as smarter than they’ve ever been. Nevertheless, a new report from Demeter Group suggests the difference between craft and what the investment firm refers to as “pseudo” craft continues to elude a sizeable portion of the population. The conclusion drawn from Demeter’s new report, “Protecting Craft Against Pseudos,” is… Read more »

Zygotes. Elephants. Balloons. Wait. What were we talking about? Ah, yes. Lagunitas. Tony Magee, founder and CEO of the 21-year-old brewery out of Petaluma, Calif. is known to get philosophical when he talks about the state of craft beer and how it’s matured.

Forget May flowers. Brewers in California are hoping April showers bring steady, torrential downpours. The Golden State just recorded its driest year ever and if some heavy rain doesn’t fall soon, Bay Area craft brewers that rely on fresh water from the Russian River could be forced to find an alternative water supply, which could… Read more »

Craft Beer sales in key U.S. retail channels grew 19.2 percent in 2013, according to new data from Chicago-based market research firm IRI. Sales eclipsed $1.8 billion in IRI’s multi-outlet and convenience retail channel universe (MULC), which comprises grocery, drug, Wal-Mart, Club, Dollar, Mass-Merchandiser and Military stores, gaining 0.86 share points of total off-premise U.S…. Read more »

An assertive push for tap handles by the country’s largest craft brewery, Boston Beer Co., became a global crisis in the twittersphere as Lagunitas founder, Tony Magee posted a series of inflammatory messages to the social networking site on Dec. 17. Perhaps alarmed that amidst increasing competition for tap handles his larger competitor might be throwing its weight around, Magee alleged that Boston Beer is “specifically targeting” the Lagunitas IPA business.

MUNCIE, Ind. — Verallia North America was recently named the exclusive national beer bottle supplier for Lagunitas Brewing Company as a result of the craft brewery’s $25 million expansion. The nation’s sixth largest craft brewery is building a new 300,000 square-foot brew house in Chicago, which will nearly quadruple its annual production capacity.

Retailer shelves might be sagging with the weight of all the new craft SKU’s entering the marketplace, but Lagunitas founder Tony Magee has one idea on how to stick out in a crowd: Use big, bold letters. At least that’s what he did when he launched his IPA brand back in the early 1990’s –… Read more »

Rising demand has made it a great time to be a craft brewer, but there are still branding, marketing and financial initiatives that can help breweries succeed in the business. The interest in learning or sharing the best paths to that success is what motivated more than 130 craft brewers, distributors, and entrepreneurs to attend… Read more »

Greg Koch, Stone Brewing’s CEO and co-founder, recently told KNSD, the NBC News affiliate in San Diego, that craft beer is “in danger of being trendish.” He’s not alone in that sentiment. It’s not the headline craft brewers want to read, but a few notable names in the craft space are beginning to talk in… Read more »

Craft brewers have had a great time in the past decade as the public’s excitement over their products has led to a massive increase in demand. But with that growth has comes the need for more capacity. For many early stage companies, that has meant adding additional fermentation tanks, purchasing larger brewhouses, even expanding into… Read more »

Lagunitas Brewing Founder Tony Magee apparently has a serious affinity for sharing news via Twitter, especially at night. Last night Magee was at it again, tweeting a series of photos of what the new Chicago brewery space looks like. One of those photos was the same one he tweeted back in February with the question… Read more »

Lagunitas Brewing Founder Tony Magee took to Twitter last night to announce the biggest news in the company’s 19-year history: Lagunitas is adding a second production facility, in Chicago. Unlike recent expansion stories from larger brands Sierra Nevada and New Belgium, in the case of Lagunitas, the announcement didn’t involve back-and-forth deliberations between final choice… Read more »

Even as he grows, Lagunitas Brewing founder Tony Magee is trying to share his company’s success with his suppliers. “De-commoditizing” as Magee terms it, is the process of rewarding the ‘enormous value’ he says barley farmers offer craft brewers by offering them better prices for their products.