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A familiar story… a homebrewer becoming a commercial craft brewer to give consumers the opportunity to experience good beer.

The History of Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company

Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company is the brain-child of Mark and Leslie Henderson. Born and raised in Mississippi, the couple met in college and moved to the Gulf Coast in 2000 to pursue careers in engineering. The first steps toward the founding of Lazy Magnolia happened one Christmas when Leslie bought mark a homebrew kit because she couldn’t think of anything else to get him! Mark reflects that this was very similar to the time his little sister bought him a Cabbage Patch Doll for Christmas—she really didn’t buy it for him.

Mark only got to brew one batch of beer before Leslie took over the brewing operations leaving Mark to design new equipment, tools, and gadgets to make the brewing process go smoother. It didn’t take long for this hobby to take over the house and all of their free time. “We were brewing twice every weekend, and we were giving away almost everything that we brewed to friends,” laments Leslie. The house was completely taken over with 5-gallon glass jugs, copper heat exchangers, and bubbling buckets of beer as they explored dozens of variations on their own special recipes.

Friends and family were so impressed with the homemade creations that they encouraged the couple to go pro. Many even offered to invest in such a venture.