Jacob Leinenkugel Brewery Company
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.
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
Exhibit Design
Tour Design
Experiential Design
Facilities/Campus Branding
Interactive Media Design / Development
MARKET
Historic / Museums / Cultural Centers
Corporate Workspaces / Brands
In 1867, Jacob Leinenkugel learned of the magic waters from the Big Eddy Springs. To the delight of the mighty, thirsty lumberjacks of Northern Wisconsin, Jacob built his brewery in Chippewa Falls. 150 years and six generations later, the fresh spring water is still the bedrock of the world-famous Jacob Leinenkugel’s Brewery Company.
This classic American immigrant story continues to inspire, educate, and delight visitors who come to sample original German recipes. And the Leinenkugel family, along with their partners at Molson Coors, know that story loyalty is brand loyalty.
ZEBRADOG’s experiential design team—equipped with digital technology and a love of beer—set out to show the world what Leinie’s is about.
- The Legacy Circle provides a ceremonial bridge to the past as you learn origin stories and literally walk back in time to tour one of America’s oldest operating brewhouses.
- A campus-wide signing system designed with meticulous authenticity weaves the story thread from building to building, room to room, bottle to bottle.
- An easy-to-understand interpretive art program immerses visitors in each step of the brewing process from the water, grain, and hops, to the keg, bottle, and can.
- Six generations of family history transform into an interactive media family album to clarify which Leinenkugel belongs to each generation.
- An invigorated retail experience engages with a seasonal beer tutorial and interactive quiz to personalize the perfect six-pack to take home.
No trip is complete without sampling ice-cold beer at the Leinie Lodge and capturing pictures. Visitors are considered family and invited to share the love with a social media-integrated Family Photo Album to commemorate the day.
Special places have special stories to share.
Areas of Impact
Placemaking
Legacy Circle: A Walk Through Time
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—you walk over the original bricks that lined the brewhouse and pathways for the workers and horses making and delivering the famous brew.
Branding
Design Inspiration: A Rich Tapestry of Textures
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.
Wayfinding
A More Cohesive Campus
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.
Brewery Tour
Spring Water Into Beer
Although it’s a 6,000-year-old process, many visitors don’t have a clear picture of how beer is made. ZEBRADOG demystified the process by designing an easy-to-understand interpretive art program that immerses you in each step of the brewing process from the water, grain, and hops, to the keg, bottle, and can in 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.”
Storytelling
A Craft-Made Timeline
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.
Placemaking
Welcome Home to Leinie Lodge
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.
Retail
Discover the Perfect Six-Pack
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!
