Lagunitas Sucks! And they know it ;-) Lagunitas has some fantastic beer and the names and logos on their bottles are very clever. If you know Lagunitas, the names Little Sumpin', Daytime, Sucks, Maximus, Hop Stoopid, and Brown Shugga' may come to mind. The pin up girl on Little Sumpin' is very eye-catching at the grocery store and a great reason to pick up this beer. To keep up with demand, Lagunitas opened a Chicago brewery, bottling facility and Taproom to cover the rest of the US market.
We came here on a Friday in November 2015 for a special brewery tour and had the most memorable experience touring the facility and taproom. Located about 5 miles from downtown Chicago on S Washtenaw Avenue, you will come across a huge parking lot in an industrial area close to an L stop. You can take a cab or an Uber from the downtown area. This 300,000 square foot facility used to be owned by a Canadian-based Cinespace film company and now houses beer production for the California-born brewery. After Petaluma, California this Chicago location produces all the Lagunitas beer east of the Rocky Mountains. As you enter the facility, be prepared to show your ID and then head down the wonky neon blue hallway to the end where a Lucky 13 pin up girl lures you in for some beer.
We came here on a Friday in November 2015 for a special brewery tour and had the most memorable experience touring the facility and taproom. Located about 5 miles from downtown Chicago on S Washtenaw Avenue, you will come across a huge parking lot in an industrial area close to an L stop. You can take a cab or an Uber from the downtown area. This 300,000 square foot facility used to be owned by a Canadian-based Cinespace film company and now houses beer production for the California-born brewery. After Petaluma, California this Chicago location produces all the Lagunitas beer east of the Rocky Mountains. As you enter the facility, be prepared to show your ID and then head down the wonky neon blue hallway to the end where a Lucky 13 pin up girl lures you in for some beer.
At the end of the hallway, we met our awesome and fabulous tour guide named Jake. Jake was very charismatic and funny. He had so many great stories about the history of the facility and the founder Tony. You could tell by his exuberance that Lagunitas is an awesome place to work and they have an awesome product loved by many all over the world.
The first stop on the tour is the Adult Daycare room. The space has pinball machines, a dentist chair, all kinds of sofas and chairs, Jenga, board games, music and of course a bar. Take your pick from the beers on tap as your tour guide explains what you will see on the tour and get you acclimated to the Lagunitas corporate culture.
After a beer in the Adult Daycare, the tour continues to the main facility and you can see the huge fermenters. The fermenters are from Bavaria and the story of their transport from Germany involves shutting down highways to get them into the space. You can also see stacks of barrels that are used for the barrel-aged beers.
The bottling area is next and then you will see endless stacks of Lagunitas kegs and boxes of beer ready to be shipped out. Along the tour you will hear all kinds of stories about Tony, the importance of 420, why Lagunitas sucks and how everything makes you hopstoopid. The facility is impeccably clean and very organized.
As you wrap up the tour, your final stop is the Taproom. On the chalkboard are the daily beer specials. Take a seat and start day drinking. I had a fresh Little Sumpin' and it was so fresh and tasty. The food was also top-notch. The menu offers burgers, beer mussels, nachos, soups and a few other options. Everything is natural and nothing is fried or microwaved. I recommend the nachos and the beer mussels. You can't go wrong with these two dishes. There is also live music on the stage and the place was really hoppin' for a Friday afternoon. If I lived in Chicago, I would definitely come here more often. I am glad we made Lagunitas a destination on our trip ad highly recommend it to the beer lovers and hop heads out there.
The staff was great and if you have time on your way out, check out the Swaag shop. The hoodies are really soft and you can purchase a little suppin' and memorabilia to take home with you. They have magnets, t-shirts, hats, glasses, stickers, and everything with Lagunitas swag.
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