Heineken To Close Lagunitas Chicago Brewery

Whoa!

If this is true then this is a MAJOR closure!!

“The Chicago brewery produces about 405,000 barrels per year, beer that’s distributed east of the Rocky Mountains and overseas in Europe, Hamilton said. The second bottling line and additional fermenters would enable the facility to max out at 1.2 million barrels a year.”

And:

“Lagunitas Chicago operates with two 250bbl brewhouses. One turn on each of those represents as much or more beer than 75 breweries in Illinois made all year long in 2015.”

https://www.guysdrinkingbeer.com/just-how-big-is-lagunitas-chicago-anyways/#google_vignette

This is one huge craft brewery to be closed.

Cheers!

 

If i didn't care about the workforce i would say "After this last pathetic release of Willettized they can keep making their hard teas and stop making beer altogether. "

Since i do care this fucking blows donkey ass.


They only make shit beer now and Chicago doesn't fuck around so im sure that has something to do with it

 

How it started:

February 2023 Bill Gates invests $900M in Heineken



https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-buys-902-million-heineken-stake-not-into-beer-2023-2?op=1

How it’s going:

Chicago August 13, 2023

Brewery workers vote to be represented by International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 399.

https://www.nlrb.gov/case/13-RC-319825

Lost Dog - Lagunitas Tries to Find Itself After Leadership Turnover, Sales Slumps

https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/sig...itself-after-leadership-turnover-sales-slumps

Nigeria March 1, 2024

Heineken’s Exit After Only Two Years

https://www.inside.beer/news/detail/nigeria-heinekens-exit-after-only-two-years/

Worldwide April 24, 2024

Heineken beer sales pop but hazy days ahead

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heineken-beer-sales-pop-hazy-070102489.html

May 23, 2024

Chicago employees notified the entire brewery will be shuttered on August 1, 2024. News links pending.

 

So... what about the new New Castle Brown?

 

Firstly, I feel bad for the Lagunitas employees that will be affected by this closure.

The Brewers Association reported for 2023: “Overall U.S. beer production and imports were down 5% in 2023, while craft brewer volume sales declined by 1%...”

The beer market is in a very challenging business situation now. It would appear that Heineken is making ‘adjustments’ accordingly. It would seem they envision that only operating one brewery, the original brewery in Petaluma, CA, for Lagunitas makes business sense.

There is an ongoing thread in the France forum that Lagunitas beers are no longer available there. Perhaps an associated step for Heineken is reducing their distribution footprint for Lagunitas beer.

Maybe the closure of the Chicago Brewery is a sign of things to come?

Cheers!

 

Sad to hear. Hopefully the former Anchor employees can buy it.

 

Lagunitas Chicago's production workers were already (or previously?) in Teamsters Local 727 - this official Teamster web article claims 70 members in 2014. . The NLRB case above, with a small IUOE bargaining unit of only 12 workers, brewers and techs, suggests those brewhouse workers either weren't included in the original IBT bargaining unit or were later carved out, assuming the original Teamster local still represents other Lagunitas employees.

 

Chicago's ABC affiliate's story:
Lagunitas' Chicago location shutting down brewing, packaging and restaurant this summer

...but ABC7 didn't post it...

 

I encourage people to ponder this when considering where beer finds itself today, more pertinent for craft breweries but the point remains:
Many breweries could only function as healthy businesses during double digit sales growth.
Without that flood of income many are shaking apart.

I'm glad those captains of industry don't control my personal finances.

 

I’ve had 40 different Lagunitas beers and 37 of them I rated a 4 or above. They have always been solid across many many styles. Most of my ratings have been pre-Heineken ownership but hopefully I’ll still see some distro in Maryland going forward with this Chicago closure. It does sound like some contraction on distro. will result.

 

I wonder how this will effect the North Lawndale taproom?

I know someone who recently left a small brewery for a "better opportunity" there.

 

If anything, this is a cautionary tale against the strategy of chasing trends and abandoning your competitive advantage as a business (the unique aspects of your brewery).

Over the last 7 or 8 years Heineken has systematically dismantled the aspects of the lagunitas brand that gave it the unique character that propelled it to it's success. They replaced it with an increasingly transparently artificial marketing image that seemed aimed at claiming market share in the darling segments of the packaged beverage industry (hop water, Seltzer, hard tea, THC beverages, etc). That approach seems to have failed

 

From a beer distribution standpoint, Chicago makes more sense than CA but maybe Chicago doesn't have enough capacity? Or maybe most of their customers are in the western US?

I still enjoy their beers and was/is a fan of the Chicago tap room. I'm bummed to see that place close.

 

Obviously this sucks, but they haven't really been putting out anything worth drinking in a while. I would kill for the old versions of Dogtown Pale Ale, Sucks, Born Yesterday, etc.

Hell, even their flagship IPA doesn't taste at all like it once was.

 

The articles all seem to point to the brewery taproom as closing, but seem very vague on the North Lawndale* location.

*Never mind, it looks like they're part of the same real estate, just different addresses.

 

I’d like to try at least one bottle of Lagunitas Newcastle, but I’ve never seen it and their website doesn’t have one of those handy beer finders.

 

Another bit of local coverage.

https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/lagunitas-closing-chicago-brewery-taproom/

"Future proof the organization amid changing tides."

 

Yeah and the Brewbound article "teaser" (pre-paywall) says: