Lagunitas plans third brewery in 2017

Construction is underway for a new Southern California production brewery for Lagunitas Brewing Company, the third such facility for the Petaluma-based company.|

Construction is underway for a new Southern California production brewery for Lagunitas Brewing Company, the third such facility for the Petaluma-based company.

Located in the Los Angeles County town of Azusa, the brewery will add around 420,000 barrels of annual capacity after expected completion in 2017, said Lagunitas founder Tony Magee.

Further expansion could boost that production to 1 million barrels annually, roughly equal to the capacity of a brewery that Lagunitas opened in Chicago one year ago. The Petaluma brewery on North McDowell Boulevard is also undergoing an expansion that will increase the local capacity to 750,000 barrels annually.

“We knew that we needed to build a brewery on the west coast, as our Petaluma home was not going to grow past its present capacity of 750,000 barrels annually due to basic site constraints,” Magee told the Argus-Courier. “L.A. was generally attractive due to the large population of beer lovers emerging there, and also because it is a different cultural landscape and has a lot in common with the Southwest generally, in the same way that the Bay Area is more culturally attuned with the Pacific Northwest.”

The location, expected to cost between $35 million and $50 million, will include a taproom and “beer sanctuary,” similar to the open-air setting at the Petaluma and Chicago locations, Magee said. Between 130 and 150 people will be hired to staff the location, while most administrative work will remain in Petaluma. The company currently has 675 employees, which Magee calls, “The Tribe.”

The brewery will be located on the western edge of Azusa along the San Gabriel River and use municipal water from the San Gabriel mountains, which Magee said matched nicely with the Russian River water source used in Petaluma.

Advanced water efficiency technology could allow Lagunitas to build a brewery that used only two gallons of water to produce one gallon of beer, which Magee said would be “the most water efficient brewery in the world that I know of” in a summary of the project posted to the company website. The $30 million expansion in Petaluma, which includes several water-saving measures, is expected to result in a ratio of 2.5 gallons of water for one gallon of beer when completed this summer, he said.

Lagunitas is the sixth-largest craft brewer in the United States based on sales volume, according to the most recent numbers from the national trade group, the Brewers Association. The company opened its brewery in Petaluma, now a destination for lovers of highly hopped brews and a major force in popularizing the now ubiquitous India pale ale style, in 1994.

Magee noted that the company’s current size, along with lessons learned from the Chicago expansion, made it easier to embark on the brewery project in Southern California. The location is expected to make it easier to pursue consumers in Mexico in the future, he said.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.