Opening date for Lagunitas Chicago?

Yeah. It was a blast. Place is enormous. They had fenced off a majority of it but you could get a good idea.

Cheers to Lagunitas and their new venture. Wish them the best

Also glad and a little surprised nobody has come in bitching about waiting in line for free beer and food

 

You mean like some person I know and love, who was captured on video at the Central Waters 15 party bitchin?!? lol

 

Apples and Oranges. Generous brewery giving free beer and food vs. letting people go back to the front of the line for additional allotments, not being organized and a few other things that have been discussed over and over

 

That facility was crazy big. I asked the brewers how much Lagunitas beer brewed between the two facilities will come from Chicago. They said 75% which seemed surprisingly high.

 

Sounds like a touchy subject there @Lkoro. Think we need to get you some OTWOA...which was delivered to my condo's front door today!

 

Lil bit. Remember when you hated the Dark Horse line last year? I personally had a blast. That should tell how fucked up CW was last year.

Nice haul on the OTWOA. Lets crack em. Let me know

 

It's a big place. I think when it's completely built out a few years down the road running at full capacity. It'll be able to crank out 1.5-1.7 million barrels of beer a year. That's a shit ton of liquid, guys. It's also going to force other estAblished local brewers to step up their game.

 

Last night - from the event itself to the enormity of the space - seemed like a game changing moment in the Chicago craft beer scene. There's certainly a new big dog on the block.

 

I was chatting with a guy involved with real estate in the area around the brewery. It's going to drive the whole neighborhood into major hipsterdom. Hopefully without driving away the great Mexican culture there.

 

or force a ton of them out. I think if I remember the statistic they will be brewing more beer then every brewery in Chicago (including three floyds) combined. I love my city and brewers, and call it brand/city loyalty but I'm not crazy about someone who can make beer for insanely cheaper prices moving into my city and then dominating it. I feel like Lebron chose to play for the bulls here.

 

Man I work like 4 blocks from the new opening. Im drinking a delicious Lagu Pilsner as I type this.

Hazzuh!

 

No I doubt that local brewers making great beer will be put out of business. Now those operations making marginal brews? Different story. No need to name names, we kinda know who those are.

 

They're not suddenly going to dominate the marketplace here. I doubt this changes much of the actual Chicago beer scene at all, save for if you're trying to decide what tap room you'd like to go to. Lagunitas is already everywhere. I don't know of any bars here that don't carry at least one of their selections. You make it sound so ominous.

 

No your right, shits on tap everywhere already. Just seems strange that this f*ckin thing is soo big, but I guess it's more about distributing tons of fresh beer between here and the Atlantic. Maybe it's just my California hatred clouding my judgement. Oh and I'm sour grapes because I wasn't invited.

 

This is something discussed among industry types at LBC last night between gulps. The guys who really need to be concerned are the macros, who will face nearly direct price competition from LBC. Perhaps 30% of local beer drinkers over the next several years may switch from macro to craft as a result of Lagunitas pricing and advertising acting as a wedge for the other local breweries. Overall I suspect that currently, craft has about 10% of the beer drinkers here.

 

I would think it's all about distribution. Same reason SN and New Belgium built their places down south. Although I'm sure the production cost and taxation is a bit different in Chicago, I still haven't figured that one yet.

 

Oh, well, that's been happening for years already, at least in Pilsen. If Lagunitas' opening accelerates that change or maybe it spreads to Douglas Park/Little Village, we will see. Kind of a chicken and egg situation, I think...

 

Agreed. This brewery vaults Lagunitas into a different, growing sphere (see also New Belgium, Sierra Nevada) that better positions them to compete with BMC in the coming years.

I think our understanding/definitions of "craft" are going to be challenged the next few years as this stratification continues to become more pronounced.

 

Yeah i hope it doesn't and i think it won't drive away the culture. Lived all my life here and couldn't see that happening or want that happening.

living a few blocks away is going to be bittersweet.

 

Looking forward to the time when there are 150 breweries of all sizes in the metro area and 50 more "downstate". Imagine a whole 40' aisle of Illinois beer in a decent beer shop.