Lagunitas Setting Up Chicago Brewery in 2013

Chicago's craft beer scene just keeps getting hotter. With new spots like Argyle and Broad Shoulders brewing and the New Chicago Beer Company all coming online this year and recent openings of Finch's Beer Company and 5 Rabbit Brewing, local beer drinkers keep getting spoiled. And with the announcement that Lagunitas Brewing will open a brewery here, the beer spotlight just got brighter.

Tony Magee, owner and founder of the Petaluma, Calif.,-based brewery, tweeted yesterday that he and his sister, Karen Hamilton, who both grew up in Chicago, signed a five-year lease on a 150,000 square-foot former steel factory with 57-foot ceilings at 18th and Rockwell in Douglas Park.

In an interview with the Tribune, Magee said he has already placed an order for a 250-barrel brew house that will look identical to one in California. The beer brewed in Chicago will likely service all of Lagunitas' accounts east of the Rocky Mountains. The brewery, which will include a tasting room in the center and have tours, should be up and running by the end of 2013, which will likely point to more restaurant collabs like the one Lagunitas did with the Publican and Big Star last year for Zephyr.
· Argyle, Broad Shoulders Brewing Both Coming in 2012 [~EChi~]
· Why Lagunitas is opening a Chicago brewery ... and what it will mean for beer drinkers [Tribune]
· Zephyr, the Lagunitas, Big Star, Publican Collaboration Beer Premieres Monday [~EChi~]

The future home of Lagunitas in Chicago [Photo: Twitter]