What sets it apart?

What sets it apart from San Francisco are two mountain ranges and a desert. What sets it apart are deep arctic high pressure fronts in February and tropical lows in August. Chicago is an Island Nation afloat on a sea of undulating prairie.

What's your favorite non-Lagunitas brewery in the city (or suburbs)?

Off Color Brewing.... rock stars.

Lagunitas is one of the oldest, largest, and best known breweries in the United States. Tell me a little about how you grew the business. Did you always know you wanted to expand or was it something you fell into?

We never aimed to be a larger small brewer, we aimed at being the most luminous thing that we could be. We wanted to find new things and make them exciting. In the course of that we made a few friends, then a few more, and then yet a few more. Eventually we grew but the growing was an artifact of something way more interesting, I think.

Lagunitas has been described as "iconoclastic" and "irreverent." Do you agree with these characterizations? Is that reputation something you set out to achieve or something that was applied to you?

We have always just been ourselves and did things we dug. If we didn't dig something, we scrubbed it off. If that's being irreverent or iconoclastic then I'm good with that!

In a 2014 interview you predicted that session beers were the future of craft beer. Since then, sours, barrel aged, and New England style beers have made the rounds. What do you see as the Next Big Thing for craft beer, in 2018 and beyond?

If I said that, then I was pretty smart... I hope I really did say it! The next big thing for craft will be.... wait hang on a sec, uh... hang on... I gotta take this call... I'll be right back....

Can you tell me what's on the horizon for the brewery?

On the horizon for Lagunitas is more of what we've tried to be all along: luminous and exciting to ourselves, and I hope others have fun right along with us. This is the best time in the last thousand years to be a beer lover.