| Lagunitas Brewing Company |
| Written by Eric Brown | ||
| Saturday, 21 June 2008 02:29 | ||
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March 08, 2007
In 1993 a salesman in the commercial printing business named Tony Magee began brewing beer in his home in the redwood forests of West Marin. This beer endeavor was just a hobby, but six months later Magee was producing a bit more than he could drink by himself, with 600 or so barrels in the tank. So he went into business. He designed his own label – recognizable by a patch-eyed dog and a short blurb of wisdom in fine print – and he named his enterprise the Lagunitas Brewing Company. Today the brewery dwells in Petaluma and has grown into one of the most successful beer producers in the state. From the beginning, sales accelerated. Magee increased production to keep pace and all the while washed the dregs of fermentation down the drain, like any brewer might. But the heaps of yeast and grain began to congest the small community’s sewage system, and in 1994 local officials asked Magee to chip in for maintenance costs or get out. “They wanted us to pay $25,000 a month,” recalls Magee. “But the company was only doing $100,000 of sales each month and we just couldn’t pay that.” So Magee packed up his brewing gear and, with that lovely West Marin name, he moved his beer factory to Petaluma. There, on the east side of town, the business has grown and grown, and today Lagunitas churns out more than 30,000 barrels per year. Magee and his cohorts continuously experiment with new styles and labels, and 17 staple beers regularly show up in the course of each calendar year. Magee’s quiet office is strewn vibrantly with papers, posters and exotic beer bottles, and here the company CEO spends his workweek just like a king should. He hangs out on the Internet, jams on his acoustic guitar and constructs new label designs with long-time pal and company beer marketer Ron Lindenbusch. Magee also writes and is, in fact, a widely read author. His brain, after all, is the creator of all those wildly irreverent and psychedelic stories that go to press on the label of each Lagunitas bottle – and which Magee tends not to spell-check.Meanwhile, just out the door and a stone’s throw away from the administrative headquarters is the factory end of Lagunitas. Magee’s crew listens to loud rock ‘n’ roll while supervising the automated conveyor system. They move, pack and forklift the beer while the intense noise level discourages much conversation. The ass-end of a delivery truck is there most times, backed into the warehouse door, filling up on its cargo to ship outward into the wide and thirsty world – 22 states, Canada, the Netherlands and Indonesia, to be precise. Editor’s note: Lagunitas brews its beers about an hour north of San Francisco. Readers who’d like to learn more about that area can check Taste California Travel’s Resource Directory. In the North Coast section, there will be links to hundreds of restaurants and lodging options in Marin and Sonoma Counties, as well as all the wineries.
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