Lagunitas Owner, Tony Magee

Tony Magee, Owner of Lagunitas Brewing out of Petaluma, has been trying to expand his brewery’s reach into communities across the US. They recently announced plans to move into the Northwest and Chicago. They plan to move into communities by using existing taprooms and closing brewery equipment.

Following suit with this plan, Lagunitas announced plans to open a brewery right in Seattle, WA. According to Washington Beer Blog and a few other sources, Lagunitas will be taking over the old Hilliard’s Brewing equipment in the Ballard neighborhood at 1550 49th Ave. NW.

Odin Brewing acquired Hilliard’s Brewing in June, leaving open speculation as to who would take the space and equipment. In steps Lagunitas from San Diego. Some may think the regional expansion of Lagunitas is fueled by money from their recent partnership with Heineken. Tony Magee is here to tell you that’s not the case.

Heineken actually has no role in any of this at all. That’s the god’s honest truth, it’s not spin. All these things we are doing on our own balance sheet. That’s why we are partnering with small breweries, because that is what we can afford for an investment…The thing I did learn from Heineiken, is that it is in the Dutch nature to collaborate and to partner. Everywhere in the world, beer is local. And, so Heineken was able to make themselves global by partnering with local players. So, my thinking is that the United States is not just one place, it’s a lot of different places. There’s this rising sense of regional identify returning and I think craft brewing has something to do with that. And, so my thought was that we can emulate that model here in the 50 states by making partnerships.

Lagunitas was ranked one of the largest craft breweries in America in 2015 and they plan to partner with Heineken to make sure their brand makes it not just into local communities through projects like this, but also to become a national and international brand.