Lagunitas Brewing Co.
- IPA by Lagunitas Brewing Co.
The brewery was founded in 1993 by Tony Magee in Lagunitas, California and moved a year later to nearby Petaluma, California when they quickly outgrew their original rural West Marin location.
Lagunitas has been one of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the United States, increasing from 27,000 barrels in 2004 to 106,000 barrels in 2010. As of March 2011, the company has 92 employees and sells its beer in 32 states. The brewery announced a $9.5 million expansion slated to begin early 2012 which will increase its brewing capacity to 600,000 barrels. On April 9th, 2012, Lagunitas announced plans for a new Chicago based brewery equipped with a 250 barrel brew house which will also have a 600,000 barrel capacity. The brew house is to be completed by July 2013 with the first mash in slated for Q4 2013.
Beers
In 2006, Lagunitas began releasing a series of limited edition beers marking the 40th anniversary of each album by Frank Zappa. As of December, 2008, five beers have been released in the series, commemorating Zappa’s albums from Freak Out! to Cruising with Ruben & the Jets.
IPA (India Pale Ale)
Lagunitas Brewing Company’s flagship beer. Moderately hoppy and well balanced IPA. Copious Cascade and Centennial hops with Crystal malt. “An IPA built to make you want another sip.” On the bottle label: “Thanks for choosing to spend the next few minutes with this special homicidally hoppy ale. Savor the moment as the raging hop character engages the Imperial Qualities of the Malt Foundation in mortal combat on the battlefield of your palate!”
PILS (Czech Style Pilsner)
On the bottle label: “Like Adam and Eve, Isaac and Ishmael, Mao and Confuscious [sic], Good and Evil, Day and Night, Hittites and Visigoths, John and Lorena, or Groucho and Moe, Ales and Lagers are as different as can be. Still, we must love each for who they are, separately but equally, with liberty, and justice, for all. Cheers!”
ALE (Hop Stoopid)
The bottle label begins with lyrics from Steely Dan’s 1976 single “Kid Charlemagne”:
” ‘Clean this mess up else we’ll all end up in jail… those test tubes and the scale… just get ‘em all outta here…’ ”
The lyrics were loosely inspired by the exploits of the infamous 1960s San Francisco-based LSD chemist Owsley Stanley. Humorously modifying this fact, the label continues:
“He was referring to the complex super-critical-CO2 hop extraction equipment set up on the table in the lab across from the brewhouse. Hop extracts are for the BIG brewers, he thought – suitable only for crummy sub-standard and barely passable industrial lagers, not the subtle and elegant craft beer made here. But wrong he was. The New Brewer does not eschew any possible inputs. In this case the extract will replace the mountains of hop vegetative material in the kettle thus creating cleaner hop flavors and preventing the otherwise spinach-like mess of a kettle full of super-hopped wort from clogging up a pump or worse. The sensuous honey-like amber ooze was administered intravenously to the wort kettle and the sacrament was complete. Another kettle of Hop Stoopid is once again raised up and fermented on high. Call us @ 707-769-4495 Cheers!”
Hop Stoopid
Lagunitas “Hop Stoopid” is an American Imperial (or Double) IPA. Hop Stoopid has an alcohol content (ABV) of 8% and comes in at 102 IBUs. It is made with hop extract and oils rather than flowers for stronger hop flavors.
Maximus IPA
[70 IBUs] A “bigger” IPA than the flagship Lagunitas IPA. “More hops, more alcohol and more body… Similar hops of the IPA, just more of them… spicy finish with s lot of rose petal with just a increased emphasis on the hops. 8.2% ABV (sic).”.
Brown Shugga
Lagunitas “Brown Shugga” is an American Strong Ale. Brown Shugga has a alcohol content (ABV) of 9.99% and comes in at 51.1 IBUs.
On the label is the following:
We believe this Special Ale is Something Unique. Feeding Brown Cane Sugar to otherwise Cultured Brewery Yeast is a’kin to feeding Raw Shark to your Gerbil. It is unlikely to ever occur in nature without Human Intervention. And it looks weird besides. But it has happened and now it’s too late.
