Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company

The Lumberjacks Were Thirsty


Designing a Better Brewery Tour Experience

Image

Challenge
Accepted.

Embracing the 150-year history of Leinenkugel’s, ZEBRADOG’s experiential design team—equipped with digital technology, strong storytellers, and a love of beer—set out to show the world what Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company is all about.

Image
Image

Working with your team has been terrific.

The work we have completed together will continue to strengthen this great brand as we continue to delight when they visit us in Chippewa Falls.
Richard J. Leinenkugel
President and Chief Beer Merchant, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company

THE DETAILS


EXPERTISE

Facility Brand Integration
Visitor Experience
Facility Tour Design
Content Development
Storytelling
Interactive Media
Strategic Planning
Wayfinding / Signage

MARKET

Museums / Cultural Centers

In 1867, Jacob Leinenkugel discovered the magic waters of Big Eddy Springs and built his brewery is Chippewa Falls to quench the thirst of Northern Wisconsin’s lumberjacks. Over 150 years and six generations later, that same spring water still flows through the heart of the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company.

To elevate the brand’s growing national presence, ZEBRADOG reimagined the entire visitor experience, designing a comprehensive storytelling program across the campus. From the Brewhouse to the Leinie Lodge, we delivered environmental graphics, digital media, wayfinding, and interpretive moments that celebrate the legacy and future of Leinenkugel’s.

Areas of Impact


In the epicenter of the campus is a new Legacy Circle conceived of and designed by ZEBRADOG for tour guests to stop and learn about what the campus was like decades ago. When you step through the “Gateway” you are touching history by walking over the original bricks that lined the brewhouse and pathways for the workers and horses making and delivering the famous brew.

The brewery campus provided a wealth of textural and environmental inspiration for ZEBRADOG to define a palette of materials, graphics, and digital environments. Red barn wood, copper, brick, historic labels, bottle caps, and the natural ingredients of hops, grain, honey, citrus, and water all made their way into the fabric that is Leinenkugel’s.

125,000 customers file through the Leinie Lodge’s doors each year. A campus-wide signing system was designed to provide the “story thread” from building to building, room to room, bottle to bottle. All conceived of, and meticulously built, in an authentic style sure to extend the story for the next 150 years.

While beer has been brewed for over 6,000 years, the process remains unfamiliar to many. ZEBRADOG clarified each step by designing an interpretive art experience that guides visitors through the brewing journey, from water, grain, and hops to the final keg, bottle, and can, all within a multi-sensory environment.

Don’t feel like walking in the heat or cold of Wisconsin? No problem, ZEBRADOG designed an interactive virtual tour of the brewing, bottling, packing, and shipping processes. Plus the sample bar is a lot closer.

“We fell in love with the Leinenkugel’s Brewery after taking the new tour. The whole experience blew us away! We’ll be back.”

Six generations of product history await you at the Bottle House, where a timeline exhibit helps to identify Leinenkugel’s role throughout history from inception to Prohibition to today.

The brewery tour ends at the dream log cabin, complete with a four-sided fireplace, canoes, fishing lures, family pictures, custom clothes for everyone, and the BEST BAR in Northern Wisconsin.

When you collect 150 years’ worth of beer maker photographs for a single family, people get confused between great, great, great grandpa Joseph, and great Aunt Mary.

With modern technology and a History Major on staff, ZEBRADOG was able to make beautiful sense of all of it with an interactive display clarifying which Jacob belongs to each generation.

Everyone is part of the Leinie family! The Family interactive exhibit includes an invitation to add a selfie to the Family Photo Album that can also be shared through social media.

An informed customer is a better customer. ZEBRADOG developed a special exhibit that teaches you everything you need to know about the current seasonal Leinie selections. Plus you can take a “Beer Quiz” that will guide you into selecting the perfect six-pack, all readily available to take home.

HUZZAH!

Top 10 Brewery Tours by USA Today