About 10 years ago I met Tony Magee for the first time - it was a panel discussion at Jerry’s in Chicago talking about beer branding.

Tony was a great personality on stage. Folksy wit, shook his fist at Big Beer and rallied the crowd. Lagunitas was growing like a weed.

I remember him saying that beer branding was misguided - that you don’t become a classic by changing things all the time.

I also recall him saying that he personally designed his labels at a Kinkos and he used a 1500pt font for the truck wraps. Hilarious shit.

Afterwards, in my first personal convo with him ever, he told the story of a time early on when he almost had to sell - he invited Kim Jordan of New Belgium to visit.

In his telling, she looked around the place, seemed unimpressed, and passed on the offer to invest in his operation. I can only imagine how scrappy and disorganized it was at the time.

But she was also fighting for the future of New Belgium - I can’t imagine trying to do that AND save the Lagunitas ship at the same time. Would have been a disaster.

He took the rejection hard. “That fucking cunt” he said to me and the few people listening to his story. Everyone started looking for an exit as he continued trying to sully the name of one of the industry’s best and brightest.

It’s been wild watching his decisions and listening to his tortured logic since that day. But I’m sure he’s happy enough with his bag even if the brand is now sinking inside of Heineken.

Anyways - this week New Belgium surpassed Lagunitas for IPA sales in the U.S. and is on trend to be #1 globally with only those U.S. numbers.

Congrats to the NB team for balancing their timelessness and adaptability for 30 years, helping raise the ships worth raising around you, and to Kim for being one of the real ones.