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So You Want to Start a Brewery?: The Lagunitas Story
"So You Want to Start a Brewery?" is the first-person account of Tony Magee's gut-wrenching challenges and heart-warming successes in founding Lagunitas Brewing Company. In just 20 years, the company has grown from a seat-of-the-pants, one-man operation to be the fifth largest--and the fastest-growing--craft brewer in the United States. This equal part memoir, narrative, and business story is an illuminating yet hilarious account anchored strongly in time and place as a one-of-a-kind, made-in-America journey that culminates with the success of one of the nation's most popular and enduring craft beer brands.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
65 people are currently reading
322 people want to read
About the author
Tony Magee
7 books3 followersTony Magee, the founder of Lagunitas Brewing Company, and his wife, Carissa Brader, were born and raised in the periphery of Chicago, IL. Carissa studied trumpet and Law and Tony studied music composition until moving to San Francisco in 1987 where he founded the Brewery in the fall of 1993. This is the story of the first 20 years of one brewery among hundreds that brought a flowering of uniquely American brewing styles that will still be brewed a generation from today. Life is so uncertain. Don't Sip!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
January 30, 2016
There are some interesting stories about Lagunitas in this book, but they're pretty overshadowed by the poor writing. There's no sort of chronological order to this at all, and I felt like if Magee said, "but I digress" or any other variation thereof one more time I would scream (he literally says this at least 25 times). A lot of the things he seems to think are witty or funny are actually just really offputting, although the narrator certainly didn't help. I think I pretty much just totally zoned out and dozed off towards the end. I could use being sick as an excuse, but I think probably my brain just couldn't handle anymore humble bragging.
October 11, 2015
I grabbed this one for a couple of reason's. First it was the daily deal at audible recently, second I have a part time job in a liquor store and while Lagunitas isn't my favorite beer I do like the packaging and sell a ton of it.
There were times when I was listening to this one that I couldn't have shake my head. Tony did take some crazy chances and had some great luck. It was nice to see the behind the scenes of how this company grew.
There were times when I was listening to this one that I couldn't have shake my head. Tony did take some crazy chances and had some great luck. It was nice to see the behind the scenes of how this company grew.
May 16, 2015
A little all over the place, and overuse of the phrase, "I digress". No practical information for opening a brewery.
June 16, 2016
Quick read, fun, made me want to go out and get some Lagunitas beer, which I did.
Was kinda expecting a bit more of a "howto start your own brewery" type book, but that's what I get for just diving in and not reading the description of the book. From the book I did get a general fuzzy understanding of how the company got started technically; funding (or lack of) equipment, location, distribution, permits etc. However the book mostly is a series of stories revolving around the initial start and various growing pains He ran into, and a lot of the personal relations and fun things that happened around the brewery. A couple of shots were taken at folks, but nothing too mean, mostly just tongue in cheek.
I like the conversational style, a few of the stories are repeated with a little variation of perspective or more depth of coverage, but nothing ad nauseum.
Was kinda expecting a bit more of a "howto start your own brewery" type book, but that's what I get for just diving in and not reading the description of the book. From the book I did get a general fuzzy understanding of how the company got started technically; funding (or lack of) equipment, location, distribution, permits etc. However the book mostly is a series of stories revolving around the initial start and various growing pains He ran into, and a lot of the personal relations and fun things that happened around the brewery. A couple of shots were taken at folks, but nothing too mean, mostly just tongue in cheek.
I like the conversational style, a few of the stories are repeated with a little variation of perspective or more depth of coverage, but nothing ad nauseum.
December 27, 2021
I have loved Lagunitas since Maximus first touched my lips. This memoir makes me all the more proud to support a company guided by someone that is truly doing what he loves while supporting neighborhoods, charities and beer geeks in the process. As Tony would say: Beer Speaks. People Mumble. Cheers!
9/9/15 Update
Clearly I jinxed myself: it was announced today that Lagunitas is now 50% owned by Heineken. What crap.
9/9/15 Update
Clearly I jinxed myself: it was announced today that Lagunitas is now 50% owned by Heineken. What crap.
December 18, 2020
Entertaining to read, just like the Lagunitas labels.
Also as frustrating if you are expecting a coherent, organized, or chronological story - none of which Tony Magee promises or would enjoy writing.
In the end, it was a fun read with some good stories. Though the ethos of craft beer throughout is overshadowed by the 50% acquisition by Heineken in 2015 and 100% in 2017.
Also as frustrating if you are expecting a coherent, organized, or chronological story - none of which Tony Magee promises or would enjoy writing.
In the end, it was a fun read with some good stories. Though the ethos of craft beer throughout is overshadowed by the 50% acquisition by Heineken in 2015 and 100% in 2017.
August 20, 2018
He says the phrase, "I digress" about 25 times or more. Great stories, not the best storytelling.
January 1, 2022
Turner also had a knack for changing the rules when presented with a nowin scenario.
Four suitcases and a plane ticket to California
Another personal axiom of mine is less poetic but every bit as useful: “You are what you did.” You are not what you talk about or believe or are planning on doing more of someday. You are what you did, so get to work.
My freshly reminted self was making a surprising amount of money at the printing sales job
Because they had to spend weeks aging before they tasted their best, they were known as ‘Lager’ beer. Lager is the German word for ‘storage’.
ings like heat-exchange ratios, hemocytometers, commercial lease negotiations, basic uid dynamics, workman’s compensation insurance, trucking companies, payroll taxes, and cash-ow statements.
For the owner it is heartbreaking when the people who have helped make the rst part happen leave before the promised land appears on the horizon.
making the beer stronger does not really cost the brewer a few dollars more, but making stronger beer allows the brewer to charge a few dollars more
He said how there was increasing growth in consumer interest in the more avorful imported beers at the time, and he gured that if he could make a beer just as good, then he could deliver it fresher, and it would have the bonus of being locally produced. Imported beers were more expensive, and so he looked to their pricing as a model. Besides that, craft beers made up something like 2 percent of all beer sold, and imports were 12 percent.
when a beer lover walked into the beer aisle in those days, and he had six dollars to spend on a six-pack, there was a two-to-twelve chance that he would grab a microbrew and a ten-to-twelve chance that he would grab an import. I liked the import odds a lot better
un-cultured Yeasts that produce bone dry, sour, face-puckeringly tart beers called Lambic Ales
One time, due to a dispute with our two distributors, Sierra Nevada’s pale was taken off tap and our pale ale was put in its place. Instantly we were selling ve kegs a week—more than any other account we had anywhere. I knew that this was not because we were so loved, but rather because people were ordering “pale ale” and expecting to get a Sierra Nevada beer. So far, my dangerous assumption seems to be accurate
One spring, always a nancially hard time because the big summer ramp-up in distributor inventories would begin
we had never, ever missed a payroll. at would have been like using a Bible for kindling, or smoking in a cancer ward. Payroll is the highest sacred trust in running a business.
I turned to our house for liquidity.
I did not know why at the time, but my bank seemed more than willing to continuously renance my house if I xed up parts of it enough to move the needle on the appraisal even slightly. Once I got the hang of it, I would purloin a few thousand dollars from the brewery to x up a bathroom, have it reappraised, slip the appraiser a couple of cases of beer, yuck it up a bit with him, get the appraisal up by $50,000, borrow back the revised maximum loan to value metric, and—presto!—$3,000 in diverted cash ow became $40,000 in new working capital for the brewery.
I was later told a story by a senior guy at that bank about a $1 million line of credit that the other brewery was in danger of defaulting on. As can be the case with big-bank logic, their internal analysts decided that if one brewery could have such troubles, the whole category could be doomed.
I THINK WE’RE ALL BOZOS ON THIS BUS… I mean, really; who would ever have given their money to a guy with a name like ‘Made-Off? If one day an oily guy named Soprano showed up at your door wearing a suit that said ‘Countrywide’ offering free money; who would have taken it? Isn’t ‘free money’ an oxymoron?
ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL
Drains and the six-inch-thick slabs seemed in danger of failing altogether under the hundreds of thousands of pounds of beer-lled fermentation and bottling tanks.
capricious
So over the course of 1993 I opened a dozen different bank accounts so that the money would be harder to nd, and as the net grew tighter, I began moving checks around daily. Something like this: I’d deposit a check for X dollars in Bank A, then I’d walk down the street to Bank B and deposit a check from Bank A for the same uncollected and freshly deposited X dollars. I’d repeat this up and down the block between the banks, arriving back at Bank A again, where I’d rewrite that same check. e deposits would all reconcile the next morning, and if the IRS or California tried to get the money, some other bank would already have earmarked it for transfer. I thought it was pretty clever. Truth is, banking was not nearly as efficient in the backrooms as it is today, and the banks I was using were mostly small mom-and-pops, so they were inclined to be more friendly than suspicious. But it was genuine check kiting! Finally, one of the banks detected the “unusual movement,” closed my account, and notied the other banks too.
Here’s what I learned about how the IRS does what it does: if you have a problem, and you don’t have the money that you owe on April 15, le anyway. Forty-ve days later they will send you a letter demanding the dough. Take the letter and smoke it. Don’t answer! If you do, you will end up talking to very menial 1-800–type attendants who will push a little button on their screen and start a sinister timer running. ere will be no negotiating. Instead, if you can stand it, wait until you get the h letter around September. It will come via certied mail. Answer that one right away. at letter will have a different phone number on it that rings into a Seattle office called the ACS (Automated Collection Service, but it is not automated at all). e hold music is Vivaldi, and it will drive you crazy. Eventually you will speak to a person who can make deals. Not on the amount, but on the terms. Make them a promise, and then, by all means, keep it. If you can’t keep it, call the day before and tell them. ey won’t like it, but if you keep up your end of the deal—which includes telling them before you are late—they will keep up their end of the deal too. No more seizing bank accounts.
If you’re keeping score, then you have guessed that instead of catching up and paying my taxes on time, I was putting all of my money back into the brewery. at is correct: even though no bank would step up and fund a growing business because of its immaturity, the IRS did! Of course, they didn’t know they were funding my growing brewery, but it seems like they might have agreed to it if they had been disposed to consider it. e interest rate they charge on unpaid taxes is better than any bank would have offered me, and the “loan” helped support the brewery’s cash ow and ultimately helped to generate the remittance of millions of dollars of my current and future employees’ income taxes as well as many, many more millions in future excise-tax payments. It was a classic win-win. By 1997, even though I was still not on payroll myself (although we did have ten or twelve others on payroll by then), the brewery had sufficient cash ow for me to make a payment arrangement with the IRS.
So I went to the private world for money in July 1998. at project was a high-wire act for me.
My future landlord, Mike Buckley, put in a good-sized portion. He agreed to it one morning during a very plain two-hour conversation—our rst meeting—without any haggling or posturing. ere was no “I’ll need to think about it” or “Let me discuss it with my accountant or wife.” ere was just a simple “is looks good. I like the beer; it seems like it’ll be fun.” us began the most straightforward and integrity-based relationship that the business or I ever have enjoyed. In that sort of relationship it is so very easy to tell the unvarnished truth, good or hard, and know that you’ll get useful feedback. Would that they were all like that. Mike has also ever since been the single most important business advisor, nancial mentor, and fearless supporter of me personally and of the business. It was another of those “unbelievably right thing at the perfect moment” events
stock-market bubble du jour
e signed subscription agreements already in place included a deadline of December 31 for completing a minimum capital raise
Four suitcases and a plane ticket to California
Another personal axiom of mine is less poetic but every bit as useful: “You are what you did.” You are not what you talk about or believe or are planning on doing more of someday. You are what you did, so get to work.
My freshly reminted self was making a surprising amount of money at the printing sales job
Because they had to spend weeks aging before they tasted their best, they were known as ‘Lager’ beer. Lager is the German word for ‘storage’.
ings like heat-exchange ratios, hemocytometers, commercial lease negotiations, basic uid dynamics, workman’s compensation insurance, trucking companies, payroll taxes, and cash-ow statements.
For the owner it is heartbreaking when the people who have helped make the rst part happen leave before the promised land appears on the horizon.
making the beer stronger does not really cost the brewer a few dollars more, but making stronger beer allows the brewer to charge a few dollars more
He said how there was increasing growth in consumer interest in the more avorful imported beers at the time, and he gured that if he could make a beer just as good, then he could deliver it fresher, and it would have the bonus of being locally produced. Imported beers were more expensive, and so he looked to their pricing as a model. Besides that, craft beers made up something like 2 percent of all beer sold, and imports were 12 percent.
when a beer lover walked into the beer aisle in those days, and he had six dollars to spend on a six-pack, there was a two-to-twelve chance that he would grab a microbrew and a ten-to-twelve chance that he would grab an import. I liked the import odds a lot better
un-cultured Yeasts that produce bone dry, sour, face-puckeringly tart beers called Lambic Ales
One time, due to a dispute with our two distributors, Sierra Nevada’s pale was taken off tap and our pale ale was put in its place. Instantly we were selling ve kegs a week—more than any other account we had anywhere. I knew that this was not because we were so loved, but rather because people were ordering “pale ale” and expecting to get a Sierra Nevada beer. So far, my dangerous assumption seems to be accurate
One spring, always a nancially hard time because the big summer ramp-up in distributor inventories would begin
we had never, ever missed a payroll. at would have been like using a Bible for kindling, or smoking in a cancer ward. Payroll is the highest sacred trust in running a business.
I turned to our house for liquidity.
I did not know why at the time, but my bank seemed more than willing to continuously renance my house if I xed up parts of it enough to move the needle on the appraisal even slightly. Once I got the hang of it, I would purloin a few thousand dollars from the brewery to x up a bathroom, have it reappraised, slip the appraiser a couple of cases of beer, yuck it up a bit with him, get the appraisal up by $50,000, borrow back the revised maximum loan to value metric, and—presto!—$3,000 in diverted cash ow became $40,000 in new working capital for the brewery.
I was later told a story by a senior guy at that bank about a $1 million line of credit that the other brewery was in danger of defaulting on. As can be the case with big-bank logic, their internal analysts decided that if one brewery could have such troubles, the whole category could be doomed.
I THINK WE’RE ALL BOZOS ON THIS BUS… I mean, really; who would ever have given their money to a guy with a name like ‘Made-Off? If one day an oily guy named Soprano showed up at your door wearing a suit that said ‘Countrywide’ offering free money; who would have taken it? Isn’t ‘free money’ an oxymoron?
ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL
Drains and the six-inch-thick slabs seemed in danger of failing altogether under the hundreds of thousands of pounds of beer-lled fermentation and bottling tanks.
capricious
So over the course of 1993 I opened a dozen different bank accounts so that the money would be harder to nd, and as the net grew tighter, I began moving checks around daily. Something like this: I’d deposit a check for X dollars in Bank A, then I’d walk down the street to Bank B and deposit a check from Bank A for the same uncollected and freshly deposited X dollars. I’d repeat this up and down the block between the banks, arriving back at Bank A again, where I’d rewrite that same check. e deposits would all reconcile the next morning, and if the IRS or California tried to get the money, some other bank would already have earmarked it for transfer. I thought it was pretty clever. Truth is, banking was not nearly as efficient in the backrooms as it is today, and the banks I was using were mostly small mom-and-pops, so they were inclined to be more friendly than suspicious. But it was genuine check kiting! Finally, one of the banks detected the “unusual movement,” closed my account, and notied the other banks too.
Here’s what I learned about how the IRS does what it does: if you have a problem, and you don’t have the money that you owe on April 15, le anyway. Forty-ve days later they will send you a letter demanding the dough. Take the letter and smoke it. Don’t answer! If you do, you will end up talking to very menial 1-800–type attendants who will push a little button on their screen and start a sinister timer running. ere will be no negotiating. Instead, if you can stand it, wait until you get the h letter around September. It will come via certied mail. Answer that one right away. at letter will have a different phone number on it that rings into a Seattle office called the ACS (Automated Collection Service, but it is not automated at all). e hold music is Vivaldi, and it will drive you crazy. Eventually you will speak to a person who can make deals. Not on the amount, but on the terms. Make them a promise, and then, by all means, keep it. If you can’t keep it, call the day before and tell them. ey won’t like it, but if you keep up your end of the deal—which includes telling them before you are late—they will keep up their end of the deal too. No more seizing bank accounts.
If you’re keeping score, then you have guessed that instead of catching up and paying my taxes on time, I was putting all of my money back into the brewery. at is correct: even though no bank would step up and fund a growing business because of its immaturity, the IRS did! Of course, they didn’t know they were funding my growing brewery, but it seems like they might have agreed to it if they had been disposed to consider it. e interest rate they charge on unpaid taxes is better than any bank would have offered me, and the “loan” helped support the brewery’s cash ow and ultimately helped to generate the remittance of millions of dollars of my current and future employees’ income taxes as well as many, many more millions in future excise-tax payments. It was a classic win-win. By 1997, even though I was still not on payroll myself (although we did have ten or twelve others on payroll by then), the brewery had sufficient cash ow for me to make a payment arrangement with the IRS.
So I went to the private world for money in July 1998. at project was a high-wire act for me.
My future landlord, Mike Buckley, put in a good-sized portion. He agreed to it one morning during a very plain two-hour conversation—our rst meeting—without any haggling or posturing. ere was no “I’ll need to think about it” or “Let me discuss it with my accountant or wife.” ere was just a simple “is looks good. I like the beer; it seems like it’ll be fun.” us began the most straightforward and integrity-based relationship that the business or I ever have enjoyed. In that sort of relationship it is so very easy to tell the unvarnished truth, good or hard, and know that you’ll get useful feedback. Would that they were all like that. Mike has also ever since been the single most important business advisor, nancial mentor, and fearless supporter of me personally and of the business. It was another of those “unbelievably right thing at the perfect moment” events
stock-market bubble du jour
e signed subscription agreements already in place included a deadline of December 31 for completing a minimum capital raise
January 28, 2016
I live dangerously close to Lagunitas. It's pretty easy to head up to Petaluma after work, grab a beer tasting and a huge pretzel, fill up a growler of whatever I liked the most, then bring that baby home on a short, lovely drive through vineyards. A lot of my friends live dangerously close as well, and the beer sanctuary has live music and lots of picnic tables and everyone is super friendly. An early afternoon visit can turn into a late night pretty easily there. You've been warned.
Of course, I also live dangerously close to Fieldwork, Russian River, Racer 5, Marin Brewing, and a number of local spots I don't want to name drop because I don't want you creepers driving around the Bay Area trying to find me. It's a pretty good life.
This is the story of Lagunitas, and it's pretty interesting if you enjoy geeking out about adult beverages (which I do, that's one of my very favorite activities). Everything's in here: creating the recipe for the IPA, moving from West Marin to Petaluma, coming up with the copy on the labels, opening the sanctuary and starting the brewery in Chicago. And, in case you were wondering, the undercover investigation shutdown is well documented, and (as you would expect) not that exciting, because the fact that people in Northern California smoke weed is not exactly brand new information.
That said, this might be hard to follow for a casual reader who's only nominally interested in craft beer. Magee assumes some level of background knowledge, and a reader who doesn't know about the systemic issues around growth and distribution of craft beer in the US during the first waves of the scene will not understand how real the struggle was. Magee alludes to the fact that growth was a double-edged sword, but he's humble enough to downplay it. It is important to know, though, that breweries would often grow too rapidly, but would still be unable to obtain bank funding to manage that growth, leading to a lot of closed breweries. If you're interested in those sorts of issues, The Audacity of Hops: The History of America's Craft Beer Revolution is more relevant (and, while you're at it, read Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, which does a great job of explaining why Americans' relationship with booze is so wonky to begin with, as well as how the big breweries got to be so big in the first place).
Of course, I also live dangerously close to Fieldwork, Russian River, Racer 5, Marin Brewing, and a number of local spots I don't want to name drop because I don't want you creepers driving around the Bay Area trying to find me. It's a pretty good life.
This is the story of Lagunitas, and it's pretty interesting if you enjoy geeking out about adult beverages (which I do, that's one of my very favorite activities). Everything's in here: creating the recipe for the IPA, moving from West Marin to Petaluma, coming up with the copy on the labels, opening the sanctuary and starting the brewery in Chicago. And, in case you were wondering, the undercover investigation shutdown is well documented, and (as you would expect) not that exciting, because the fact that people in Northern California smoke weed is not exactly brand new information.
That said, this might be hard to follow for a casual reader who's only nominally interested in craft beer. Magee assumes some level of background knowledge, and a reader who doesn't know about the systemic issues around growth and distribution of craft beer in the US during the first waves of the scene will not understand how real the struggle was. Magee alludes to the fact that growth was a double-edged sword, but he's humble enough to downplay it. It is important to know, though, that breweries would often grow too rapidly, but would still be unable to obtain bank funding to manage that growth, leading to a lot of closed breweries. If you're interested in those sorts of issues, The Audacity of Hops: The History of America's Craft Beer Revolution is more relevant (and, while you're at it, read Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, which does a great job of explaining why Americans' relationship with booze is so wonky to begin with, as well as how the big breweries got to be so big in the first place).
October 8, 2015
A fun book which actually describes how Lagunitas beer company was started.One good motto I learnt from this book is "When you don’t know what you are doing, anything is possible.” This is a good book on what its like to start up a brewery in basic terms
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2019
I’m trying to read (or listen to) books about beers, brewing, and business. This one was the first of five that I’ll be pursuing this summer and fall. The narrators voice was easy enough and the subject matter was good, but...
The intro was horrendous and had nothing to do with Lagunitas. Some may find this amusing and catchy, I hit skip.
The story was thematic, not chronological and some of the stories repeated themselves almost verbatim. And as the book went on, some of the stories repeated themselves almost verbatim. The book was formulaic as well: there’s a problem with growing the brewery, the brewery didn’t have enough money, they got the money, they had a slightly smaller legal problem, it got better, repeat. And these stories were repeated, either by theme or...they were the exact same story.
I didn’t mind the digressions from the main arc, but I got to thinking....I don’t even like Lagunitas beer...
I finished the book, but I asked Audible for a refund.
The intro was horrendous and had nothing to do with Lagunitas. Some may find this amusing and catchy, I hit skip.
The story was thematic, not chronological and some of the stories repeated themselves almost verbatim. And as the book went on, some of the stories repeated themselves almost verbatim. The book was formulaic as well: there’s a problem with growing the brewery, the brewery didn’t have enough money, they got the money, they had a slightly smaller legal problem, it got better, repeat. And these stories were repeated, either by theme or...they were the exact same story.
I didn’t mind the digressions from the main arc, but I got to thinking....I don’t even like Lagunitas beer...
I finished the book, but I asked Audible for a refund.
November 23, 2019
Knížka, ke které jsem se dostal víceméně náhodou, když mi ji doporučil algoritmus Amazonu zrovna v době, kdy jsem měl zaplacený Kindle Unlimited.
Pokud máte rádi kalifornské pivo Lagunitas, vřele doporučuju. Pokud ne, stále se to dá číst jako příběh o startupu, o tom, jak založit pivovar, nebo lekce z ekonomie (jak může být společnost vysoce zisková a přesto být na hranici krachu).
Jedinou chybu, kterou knížka má (a proč jí nechci dát pět kvězd), je její délka. Když si Tony dělá ze začátku legraci, že zase odbočil, smějete se s ním. Ale tak někdy v polovině - kdy začne zběsile skákat tam a zpátky - už je ten úsměv tuhý. A u pěti závěrů a dodatků si zoufale přejete, aby už konečně přestal.
Pokud máte rádi kalifornské pivo Lagunitas, vřele doporučuju. Pokud ne, stále se to dá číst jako příběh o startupu, o tom, jak založit pivovar, nebo lekce z ekonomie (jak může být společnost vysoce zisková a přesto být na hranici krachu).
Jedinou chybu, kterou knížka má (a proč jí nechci dát pět kvězd), je její délka. Když si Tony dělá ze začátku legraci, že zase odbočil, smějete se s ním. Ale tak někdy v polovině - kdy začne zběsile skákat tam a zpátky - už je ten úsměv tuhý. A u pěti závěrů a dodatků si zoufale přejete, aby už konečně přestal.
July 8, 2018
This book is written with the voice of Lagunitas. It is witty, irreverent, and sometimes even rambles in random tangents, keeping the reader engaged and entertained throughout. The reader will find themselves both wanting to sprint to the bank to get a small business loan to sprinting far away from any comittment, and considering writing a thank you note for the work put into every bottle of craft beer. In the end the whole process makes Petaluma the beer Mecca where every drinker needs to pilgrimage to.
May 15, 2019
I found this memoir/business book to be very interesting. I'm interested in craft brewing, although I never heard of Lagunitas before. I enjoyedearning about how this business started and also learning more baout the industry. The author was interesting and his anecdotes were entertaining. I particularly liked hearing about their interesting labels and the difficults that were overcome in order to make this venture successful. I listened to this on audio and the narration was good.
March 29, 2020
As many have previously mentioned, this is not a technical "how to" start a brewery but more of an anecdote about an entrepreneur. With that in mind I found this book entertaining and inspiring. Magee's slightly off humor shows through, and his musings about how to approach buissness and life have stuck with me. Recommended.
March 29, 2025
Any beer lovers or home brewers will certainly enjoy reading this rollercoaster of a tale. And everyone can learn leadership, creative, and life insights from Tony. Fun and engaging, easy to read writing style fitting of him and the brand.
August 16, 2017
Funny and a fascinating look into starting and growing a business with skill, learning as you go, good luck and grit
Also helps that I have never met a beer I didn't like.
Also helps that I have never met a beer I didn't like.
October 11, 2017
This guy really loves himself.
April 2, 2018
I really enjoyed reading the story of Lagunitas straight from the founder. He is not a writer by any means, but it was fun to hear the story from his perspective.
November 28, 2018
Exactly what I expected. Great beer, simple story, iconoclastic brewer, and a lot of weed. Loved this book.
July 7, 2019
Very light and fun read. Need not be a brewer..... but it helps.
March 25, 2020
An interesting read about starting a business and in particular the 90's era of craft beer before I could drink it.
September 22, 2021
Pretty solid. It tells a good story, but not chronologically. It tends tell the story once, then go back and tell it again about a different part, then kind of bring them together. It's 'aight.
July 11, 2019
2.5. Some interesting insights, but definitely slap-dash on the execution. Also, it really highlighted the embedded misogyny in the marketing / labels.
March 11, 2017
Hilarious read. Абсолютний маст рід всім, хто цікавиться пивом. Прекрасна мова, незанудний текст, важливі речі, про які і не подумаєш, а як подумаєш, то запізно, but I digress :))))
Чисте задоволення.
Чисте задоволення.
September 20, 2016
So you want to start a brewery? "Read this and think again" are the unspoken words that follow the title. This is not a guide or a blueprint to starting your own brewery, this is the story of how Tony Magee started his. And that name, Tony Magee, founder of Lagunitas Brewery, is the main selling point of this book.
Lagunitas beers only recently started popping up in European markets but even European beer geeks should really know about Magee and Lagunitas. One of the few breweries with a pedigree dating back to the nineties, a pioneer of the current craft beer scene and instrumental in the popularity of the IPA. A brewer and brewery that deserves respect any way you look at it.
And while i guess starting a brewery nowadays is still hard, starting a brewery in the 20 years ago was even harder and that struggle is the main subject of this book. Magee has some stories to tell and he is quite the character to boot. A real good author he is not.
If you're interested in this sort of stuff, as i am, it is a fair read. The book could have done with some additional editing if you ask me and some of the style choices are questionable. But it's readable if you want to know about the history of Lagunitas. And as a beer geek you actually should.
It is well-know that Magee is quite the character and his character shines through in the book. Based on the book i don't think we would get on very well but his stubbornness and dedication is what got him this far and you have to respect that.
In the end, another beer book which, in my view, could have been better but still is a real interesting read if you're into beer and care to know more about one of the pioneering breweries of the craft scene. If you're not i'd pass on this one. (Just like the Stone Brewing and Sierra Nevada book actually, the latter being the best of the three)
Lagunitas beers only recently started popping up in European markets but even European beer geeks should really know about Magee and Lagunitas. One of the few breweries with a pedigree dating back to the nineties, a pioneer of the current craft beer scene and instrumental in the popularity of the IPA. A brewer and brewery that deserves respect any way you look at it.
And while i guess starting a brewery nowadays is still hard, starting a brewery in the 20 years ago was even harder and that struggle is the main subject of this book. Magee has some stories to tell and he is quite the character to boot. A real good author he is not.
If you're interested in this sort of stuff, as i am, it is a fair read. The book could have done with some additional editing if you ask me and some of the style choices are questionable. But it's readable if you want to know about the history of Lagunitas. And as a beer geek you actually should.
It is well-know that Magee is quite the character and his character shines through in the book. Based on the book i don't think we would get on very well but his stubbornness and dedication is what got him this far and you have to respect that.
In the end, another beer book which, in my view, could have been better but still is a real interesting read if you're into beer and care to know more about one of the pioneering breweries of the craft scene. If you're not i'd pass on this one. (Just like the Stone Brewing and Sierra Nevada book actually, the latter being the best of the three)
October 4, 2016
I listened to this text as an audiobook. When the narrator started the foreword, I thought I accidentally purchased the wrong book. I couldn’t see the book’s spelling of “fauxword.” Still, it was funny, irreverent and kept me going. This book is about beer (tasty beer at that) and the struggles the author went through to open and run a brewery. The struggles seem insurmountable like Frodo trodding to Mt. Doom, but with a sacred beer instead of the one ring. The author takes pride in making it through tough times and in many ways he should be. However, sometimes he comes off as too irreverent and a bit smug. Then he turns around and is funny, uses tons of quirky and cool literary / cultural references, and is self-deprecating. The admittance in “print” to violating all kinds local, state and federal laws is at first a bit shocking and then sort of amusing in a “at least nobody got killed” kinda way.
Overall this book is like a friend that you’re unsure about. You might have a cool lunch together or you may end up on a drinking binge with a group of nuns, questioning your sanity and place in the world. If the end truly justifies the means, then it’s all good because Lagunitas Brewing Company produces some really good beer. Mr. Magee must be a good salesman because I bought several six-packs of Lagunitas beer while I worked my way through this book.
Overall this book is like a friend that you’re unsure about. You might have a cool lunch together or you may end up on a drinking binge with a group of nuns, questioning your sanity and place in the world. If the end truly justifies the means, then it’s all good because Lagunitas Brewing Company produces some really good beer. Mr. Magee must be a good salesman because I bought several six-packs of Lagunitas beer while I worked my way through this book.
December 31, 2014
SO YOU WANT TO START A BREWERY? By Tony MaGee is the fun-filled, slightly wacky and ever eventful journey of a guy in search of a good beer.
This is the story of the Lagunitas Brewing Company out in Petaluma, California. On the back cover are a few words that seem to encapsulate the spirit behind not only the owner of the company but the company itself. “When you don’t know what you are doing, anything is possible.”
By taking that motto to heart, a lot of good fortune, a can-do attitude and, I expect, an extremely great amount of hard work, Mr. MaGee not only started brewing beer but became very successful at it.
This is not a how to book. This book will not show you how to make beer or become a brewer. If you are looking for the nuts and bolts of the process, go some place else.
However, if you want to understand the philosophy behind becoming a successful brewing concern, or if you wish to get a better grasp on the mind set needed to overcome unforeseen problems and hurdles, (and Mr. MaGee seemed to have a genius for racing headlong into trouble) you couldn’t find a better guide.
This book is both an instructive guide to starting a business and a very funny, funny view on the world and the problems you might face.
I won this book through Goodreads.
This is the story of the Lagunitas Brewing Company out in Petaluma, California. On the back cover are a few words that seem to encapsulate the spirit behind not only the owner of the company but the company itself. “When you don’t know what you are doing, anything is possible.”
By taking that motto to heart, a lot of good fortune, a can-do attitude and, I expect, an extremely great amount of hard work, Mr. MaGee not only started brewing beer but became very successful at it.
This is not a how to book. This book will not show you how to make beer or become a brewer. If you are looking for the nuts and bolts of the process, go some place else.
However, if you want to understand the philosophy behind becoming a successful brewing concern, or if you wish to get a better grasp on the mind set needed to overcome unforeseen problems and hurdles, (and Mr. MaGee seemed to have a genius for racing headlong into trouble) you couldn’t find a better guide.
This book is both an instructive guide to starting a business and a very funny, funny view on the world and the problems you might face.
I won this book through Goodreads.
January 30, 2015
I received this book as part of a First Reads promotion.
As a beer lover, I was ecstatic when I found out that I would be receiving a copy of this book. It did not disappoint. I feel that most beer enthusiasts always dream of owning and operating their own microbrewery, and Tony Magee details the exciting, scary, and interesting situations that he went through in building Lagunitas from the ground up. For better or worse, this book definitely made me think twice about actually attempting to start my own brewery. Tony definitely had many things fall exactly in the right place when he was just getting started, and it's great that he is still very humble in giving others credit where it is due.
I liked how this book infused humor into the story, and the first person perspective on some of the hiccups make for great reading. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in starting their own business, brewing, and beer in general.
As a beer lover, I was ecstatic when I found out that I would be receiving a copy of this book. It did not disappoint. I feel that most beer enthusiasts always dream of owning and operating their own microbrewery, and Tony Magee details the exciting, scary, and interesting situations that he went through in building Lagunitas from the ground up. For better or worse, this book definitely made me think twice about actually attempting to start my own brewery. Tony definitely had many things fall exactly in the right place when he was just getting started, and it's great that he is still very humble in giving others credit where it is due.
I liked how this book infused humor into the story, and the first person perspective on some of the hiccups make for great reading. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in starting their own business, brewing, and beer in general.
December 23, 2015
If you have ever thought of opening a brewery, this touches on some of the "stuff" necessary beyond "I can make beer". It does also show Tony's good luck and good timing. The story ends with a 2014 epilogue about their expansion into Chicago. Amazingly enough there is a huge part of the story after that. I would like to hear Tony's take on the Heineken 50% buy out, the fact that they are no longer eligible to call themselves craft, a third brewing location opening in Arizona in 2017, and how all this mashes up with the attitude and thoughts that Tony portrays in the book. I know there is a part of me that hears "selling out" in here because he is very clear on his "pirate" or "counter culture" attitude. And yet....now they are anything but.
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