The Lagunitas Effect

Just curious. What breweries do you propose will be affected by Lagunitas?

 

I would agree, BUT, they are just not metal enough !!!!

 

Maybe it's just me, but Lagunitas just doesn't have much that stands out to the micro-breweries that are pushing out creative brews. Sucks, Hop Stoopid, and Undercover are good, but not that good. Cappuccino, 13, Pils, and Hairy Eyeball were all, in my opinion, hugely disappointing.

If I was shopping for an IPA, Stout, Barleywine, etc, these guys would be nowhere near the top of my list.

 

It took you 4 paragraphs to say "I love Lagunitas" and "Fuck 3 Floyds" ?

Congrats, wordsmith.

 

Did Chicago not get lagunitas distribution before?

 

The thing about Lagunitas beers is that they all taste the same.

 

Rumors are that Lagunitas is going to lower the 6 pack prices by a dollar, definitely gonna affect the Chi breweries like Revolution,Metropolitan, Off Color who are the more economical 6 packs. And it will affect the other Chi breweries with ridiculous price schemes.

My hope is the "Lagunitas Effect" is brewers start coming down to earth in Chicago with their prices. Bell's new 4 packs hopefully will set a trend too. Destihl at 9.99 a 12 oz 4 pk vs that looks pretty bad.

 

Awww, shit's going down Anchorman style among all the brewers. I still can't believe that Half Acre brought a trident.

 

If the only thing that mattered was price point we'd all be chugging BMC swill.

 

And sorry, but while they built a brewing facility here which will kick out more beer than any other previously established place in Chicago, they're not 'local', merely locally produced.

 

I haven't had enough Lagunitas beer to really have a good sense of their lineup, but to start off with, if you give me Lil Sumpin Sumpin for $6 a sixer, and $15 for a sixer of Gumballhead, I'll take the latter every time (because I don't like Lil Sumpin that much, and I really like Gumballhead). FFF stuff is a little pricey, but I usually find that it delivers.

I think the thing to keep in mind is, a lot of the pricing you're referencing isn't abnormal. Is $30 a bomber a little much? Yeah; I'll agree that FFF can be a little high on their BA stuff, but $20 is pretty standard for a lot of the rarer stuff, especially if it's barrel-aged or whatever.

I'm glad there's more beer in the Chicago landscape (because too much is never a bad thing here), but I don't see Lagunitas threatening the incumbents in all the same areas; as long as FFF still has Zombie Dust/Permanent Funeral/Dark Lord/etc., and as long as GI has a barrel program that's the envy of almost every brewery in the country, the big boys are going to charge what they want, and are going to get it.

 

I'm gunna make some popcorn, anyone need anything while I'm up?

 

Grab me a Radler ($10.99/six pack at your Castle), will ya?

 

I'm gonna agree with this to an extent. ALOT of the Lagunitas beers have the same flavor/hop profile and when I buy a new Lagunitas brew I usually know what to expect. But it's a profile that agrees with my taste buds at an astonishingly low price. Same thing with Sierra Nevada IMO, most of their beers have a similar profile.

 

Jaded Californian is jaded.

 

I'm curious to see what effect they have, too, if any.

 

I'm not concerned about the effect on other brewers as long as Lagunitas continues to put out beer that I like.

 

To address the topic aside from smarmy commentary...

I feel they'll have a slight advantage with their pricing and maybe/hopefully it drives down some of the upstart competition's format and pricing, but in the long run fanboys will stick with their loyalty and the ones churning out good/tasty product should prevail to survive. Lagunitas already had distribution here but they still have to adhere to the three-tier system, no? Even if I'm going to be able to go to the brew facility and buy cases for under $30, I probably still won't be purchasing much because as I knocked them for, I feel the majority of their beers taste the same and I don't want to drink the same thing all the time. 'Merica

 

I don't get it. Before Lagunitas "came to town" I could get as much of it as I wanted all over the place and FFF was scarce. Now that they're here, how is that going to change?