(Petaluma, CA) – Lagunitas Brewing owner, Tony Magee, has been busy on Twitter over the past 72 hours. Not to mention, a Chicago Tribune report from Tuesday notes that the taproom at its forthcoming Chicago brewery is slated to open in November. Below, Magee reveals that the new Petaluma brewhouse went into operation this week and they are brewing a new one called IPFukinA (update: turns out this is just another name the brewery uses for its IPA). He then riffs on the meaning of craft brewing.
On production, new brewhouse and IPFukinA:
LagChi wont be up until Oct next year so I'm still building here in Petaluma! New warehouse… pic.twitter.com/tNsR1cRs
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 21, 2012
…and lotsa new kegs… They might as well be gold billion stacked up… pic.twitter.com/u478Bzog
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 21, 2012
…meant 'bullion'…auto spell… d'oh.
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 21, 2012
Today, 5/22, 2012 brewing begins on the extra shiny mondo-ultra-mega-super-Bayern 250-barrel ROLEC brewhouse. The biggest they've built yet!
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 22, 2012
Weirdest of all, its only the first of two for us! 1st brew is an IPFukinA. We'll brew 3 batches= 8,446 cases= 8 truck loads- all sold! Thx!
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 22, 2012
Wanna see sumpin' real purdy? Our new bottle filler. Still in Germany and preparing to ship… pic.twitter.com/1A4xobAJ
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 23, 2012
That 90-valve filler will go to Petaluma for a July install. We will crate up our cool 32-valve line in its entirety & ship it to Chicago…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 23, 2012
On the meaning of craft brewing:
Been thinkin alot bout what craft brewing really, really, really is. Brand researchers ask about it in terms of 'fundamental human needs'…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 23, 2012
…what 'fundmntl human need' does craft beer speak so clearly to?Across the globe; it gets humans excited t think about, t drink, t brew…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 23, 2012
Seems t me that breweries are created by their customers, not so much by their founders. Maybe beer lovers themselves nurture brewers who…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 23, 2012
…intuit their unnamed desires and express those fundamental human needs through t medium of beer. Beer lovers don't know what they want…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 23, 2012
..but they look to their brewers to brew community and illumination. The brewer as medium- less themselves than channel serving the need…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 23, 2012
…the brand operating as an oracle. Our industry is not something WE brewers brewed up. Beer lovers collective need WILLED it into being…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 23, 2012
I might take credit for sumpin' but I would only have done it at the unspoken urging of the aether of desire broadcast by beer lovers…
— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) May 23, 2012