Lagunitas builds new brewery near Los Angeles

And we thought that California was water-stressed? One of northern California’s largest craft breweries is setting down roots in Los Angeles. Lagunitas Brewing Company, based in Petaluma, north of San Francisco, and known for its hoppy pilsner, amber ale and IPAs, announced via its owner’s Twitter account at the end of June 2015 that it is currently building a new brewery in Azusa, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Lagunitas is the sixth largest craft brewer in the U.S. and its Los Angeles plant, its third, is scheduled to open in 2017 with an initial capacity of around 420,000 barrels (500,000 hl) per year.

The reason why Lagunitas is not moving to Los Angeles proper but to Azusa may have something to do with the incoming USD 15 minimum wage for the city of Los Angeles, commentators mused.

Lagunitas brewed just over 700,000 hl beer last year, which represents an increase of 59 percent over 2013, reports say.

The company has been operating its original Petaluma brewery near maximum capacity for several years, with the facility expected to top out at 870,000 hl by the end of 2016.

The USD 26 million Chicago brewery, which came on stream in April 2014, and which was seen by many as an escape from drought-ridden California, added another 700,000 hl annually in capacity.