Breaking news courtesy of Washington Beer Blog.
Tony Magee, the founder of Lagunitas Brewing, goes by the Twitter handle @LagunitasT. You should follow him; he’s a good follow. In fact, Twitter is where we caught wind that Lagunitas Brewing is coming to Seattle.
Last night in a string of tweets, Tony began talking about the company’s Seattle-bound plans, albeit 140 characters at a time. I talked to Tony Magee this morning and have more details.
Lagunitas has leased the space once occupied by Hilliard’s Beer in the Ballard neighborhood (1550 49th Ave. NW) and acquired the brewing equipment therein.
As we reported recently, Odin Brewing acquired Hilliard’s Beer in June — the brewery, the tasting room, the brewing equipment, and the brands. Odin said that they will continue to produce the Hilliard’s lineup of beers, but planned to find someone to move into the turnkey operation in Ballard. We knew it wouldn’t take long to find someone. Now we know the someone is Lagunitas.
“It’s an opportunity to entertain people in Seattle and hopefully add something to the scene,” said Tony Magee. “We’ve got some work to do on the building, like adding a sprinkler system so we can up the occupancy. We’ll increase the size of the beer garden. We hope to be up and running by Christmas. Seattle’s already got it, but we hope to add some new energy to the scene.”
“We’ll bring in some of our California beers, but we’ll also do things in Seattle that will be unique to there. It’s an opportunity to expand our barrel program. You know, just play.”
Tony noted that a big brewery is something like an aircraft carrier, slow and somewhat difficult to maneuver, with each little thing requiring lots of planning, but the new operation in Seattle will be more like a sports car.
Vroom, Lagunitas, vroom!
