Lazy Magnolia Brewery Continues Innovation

March 30, 2020

Hancock County, MS (March 30, 2020) Lazy Magnolia Brewery was recently featured in local news, answering the call for unprecdented demand for hand sanitizer.  Since Covid-19, it has been difficult for local residents to purchase various supplies, including sanitizer.

As Co-Owner Leslie Henderson told The Sun Herald newspaper, "We had a drum of denatured food-grade alcohol,” Henderson said. “We found a recipe from the World Health Organization to make an effective hand sanitizer".

Mark and Leslie Henderson, owners of Lazy Magnolia Brewery in Kiln, MS, have been working hard since opening their local brewery in 2005.  Lazy Magnolia is Mississippi’s oldest brewery, and the first packaging brewery built since prohibition.

When Mark and Leslie opened the doors to Lazy Magnolia Brewery, there were under 1,000 breweries in total across the United States.  Since 2005, and with laws changing the landscape of homegrown brewing, there are currently over 8,000 breweries nationally.  With approximately 15% year over year growth in the brewing market, competition has proven fierce over the last few years. 

“You can sit around and say ‘I make the best beer’, or you can make whatever it is people are buying” Mark, co-owner of Lazy Magnolia said.  “You do what you’ve got to do to keep your business going”. 

As evidenced in their quick response to producing hand santizier for the local community, Mark & Leslie are no strangers to innovation to keep business rolling.  As brewery laws have changed, and the market has tightened,  Mark & Leslie have sought additional ways to keep Lazy Magnolia Brewery thriving and successful.  Lazy Magnolia has varying components to the business, which include the wholesale side and the retail side.  The retail side is known as “The Porch” and touts the Lazy Magnolia brand through sales of beer, beer mugs, t-shirts, and even hosts local events. 

To continue expanding “The Porch”, Mark and Leslie added a café component, including the installation of a pizza oven in November 2019.  They source the ingredients for their brick oven pizzas locally and are using their new, bottled rainwater to make the dough.  The dough is hand-made in the kitchen and is even fermented naturally to ensure the quality flavor of a homemade pizza.

“We’ve really got two businesses” Mark said.  “The brewery is the Lazy Magnolia brand and retail, and then we’ve also got a packaging company, where we’re also pulling in other brands and doing work for other people.  Ultimately, we built a brand and used that to build a packaging facility”. 

For the secondary aspect of the business, the packaging facility, Lazy Magnolia has expanded in two areas: rainwater and canning.

In November 2019, Mark and Leslie acquired a canning line, which opened an entirely new facet of business for their brewery.  As the market continues to be oversaturated with unique, locally brewed beers, distributors are cutting back – meaning access to distribution is limited.   The canning line opened another facet of opportunity for Lazy Magnolia and has allowed them to partner with other breweries through consolidation of efforts. 

Lazy Magnolia has contracted with Blue Pants, a brewery which recently closed their facility in Huntsville, AL.  Lazy Magnolia acquired the Blue Pants canning line and is now contracting with the brand to can andpackage  Blue Pants brews.

Along the same lines of consolidation, a rainwater company out of Austin Texas, Richard’s, was looking to scale their rainwater production, and ultimately formed a mutually beneficial partnership with Lazy Magnolia.

“Richard’s Rainwater was looking to scale without the need to make a large investment, and we already had the equipment” Mark said.  “We were looking for more products and we have this facility that can do some amazing things”.

According to Mark, water sales are now outpacing beer sales.  As water sales continue to rise, Lazy Magnolia has added canned still water to their line of products, thanks to their new canning operation.  The canned still water adds to their line of Richard’s products, which also include sparkling rainwater in a bottle.

Lazy Magnolia brewery is located in Kiln near the Stennis International Airport, and offers a variety of events and activities, including First Friday, Trivia night, Karaoke night, and live music.  You can check them out on their website at www.lazymagnolia.com.

The Lazy Magnolia Brewery recently held a Ribbon Cutting hosted by The Hancock County Chamber of Commerce

in honor of "The Hancock County Visitor Lounge" at the Brewery in Kiln, MS.