Though it's not much to look at just yet, Azusa’s massive new Lagunitas Brewing Company outpost has big, big things planned. So large, in fact, that when all is said and done the production facility and taproom will cover some 250,000 square feet of space, spread across three buildings.
Beer writers and the general public got their first taste of the in-progress space on Tuesday during a walkthrough of two of the three buildings. Though the facility is ostensibly nothing more than a couple of industrial shells at the moment, things are already starting to ramp up on the construction side. Eventually the location will be able to push 1.8 million barrels of beer per year, at a bottling clip of roughly 750 bottles every minute at its height.
What’s more, Lagunitas has plans for a 5,000 square foot taproom that will actually be (at least in part) elevated above the production floor, which means that in lieu of walking brew tours downstairs drinkers will be able to follow the action from on high. Eventually the party will move outdoors too, with a 300-seat amphitheater for putting on a variety of live events. Ownership has long maintained that community ties are important for the company, and will actually be using the outdoor space and the taproom for a variety of local events as time goes on.
The only thing that’s really left now is the waiting. With that much massive build, things won’t really start kicking into life until January of 2017. The proposed opening date for Lagunas Azusa currently sits sometime in late summer or early fall of 2017, though they’ll likely be rolling out more events like the Tuesday night experience for fans as time goes along.
Lagunitas Azusa
1223 W. 10th St.
Azusa, CA