Lagunitas Sucks.
After running the brewhouse 24-7 since last November, the brewing company finally had to make the tough decision to brew something other than their highly anticipated Brown Shugga’.
“We had been a bit behind coming into this month,” said brewery spokesperson Ron Lindenbusch. “It takes so much more time to make a batch of Brown Shugga’ and we didn’t want our distributors to not have product.”
Lindenbusch explained that on a normal brew day, they can pump out eight total batches of their core beers, but because Brown Shugga’ requires more attention, only four batches would have been made during the same time period.
Instead, the brewery decided to experiment with a new recipe they are calling a “Cereal Medley. The result – Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale.
“We wanted to have a new seasonal,” said Lindenbusch. “We are in the process of making the batches right now and will continue to produce it throughout the holiday season.”
The beer is made with barley, rye, wheat and oats, checks in at 7.6 percent ABV and will prominently feature the hop character Lagunitas is known for. Lindenbusch said total volume projections are still being finalized.
The company is currently up 64 percent over last year and is still projecting 165,000 barrels will be produced by years end. Their new brewhouse shipped out on Monday from Germany and Lindenbusch expects it to arrive in Petaluma sometime in November.
“Once we get it installed, we should be up and running by January on the new system,” he said.
Lindenbusch did promise that Brown Shugga’ would return in 2012, citing the limitations with their current brewhouse as the main bottleneck for this years absence.
“Once we get the new system, all we will need to do for a while is add fermentation space,” he said. “Eventually we could get to 800,000 barrels on the new brewhouse.”
The handwritten font below is what will run on the label. The text font will run on the bottom of the 6-packs.
