Redhook Woodinville Is Closing

Huge news for two big breweries with ties to Seattle: First, Redhook has announced that it will close its large Woodinville facility to concentrate on opening its Seattle brewery. And Lagunitas, which recently opened a satellite location in Ballard, is now completely owned by Heineken International.

Redhook’s parent company, Craft Brew Alliance, decided it no longer needed to hold onto the Woodinville brewery, which was running at only 30-percent capacity, according to The Seattle Times. The brewery and its 20-acre plot will be put up for sale, and the Forecasters Pub restaurant will close, though there’s no word yet on when.

Redhook will turn its attention to its Capitol Hill pub, which should arrive by August, The Seattle Times notes. The company has been building out a new pub inside the Pike Motorworks building on Capitol Hill at 714 E. Pike Street for some time now, and the project has been plagued by construction delays.

When it opens, the Capitol Hill brewery will represent Redhook’s effort to return to its Seattle roots; the company launched in the city in 1981.

In other brewery news this week, Heineken International has bought the remaining 50 percent stake in Lagunitas Brewing, the Petaluma, California-based company that opened a Seattle location inside the former home of Hilliard’s Beer in January. Heineken bought the first half of Lagunitas in August 2015.

Lagunitas founder Tony Magee tried to forestall critics of the move on his blog, saying, “Lagunitas has truly remained an independent company since we began this trip in 2015.” He also explained his new role: “Along with working as Exec Chair for Lagunitas I will be serving in a special consulting role to [Heineken’s] Executive Board in Amsterdam as the Director of Global Craft.”

While the current beer offerings at Lagunitas’s Ballard location are brewed in Petaluma, the company is planning to brew some small batch, experimental beers on site soon.