New Belgium Brewing Company

New Belgium Brewing’s new spring seasonal Whizbang, is a hoppy blonde ale bursting with Mosaic hops riding atop a malty backbone.

In this week’s edition of Last Call: Finch Beer strikes a deal for a Chicago brewery; BrewDog hires a former Wicked Weed sour brewer and Starbucks ends its “evenings” program.

Former New Belgium Brewing CEO Christine Perich has landed in the non-alcoholic beverage industry. After departing the Colorado-based craft beer company last October, Perich was today announced as the new chief executive officer of World Waters, maker of fast-growing high pressure processed juice brand WTRMLN WTR.

What’s life been like for Virginia’s Devils Backbone since it was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev? Revenue is up 18 to 20 percent over the previous year, according to the News and Advance, which recently profiled the brewery.

New Belgium Brewing recently expanded their three-person Fort Collins- based sustainability team, bringing on Sarah Fraser as the new Sustainability Specialist at their Asheville, NC brewery. Fraser will start her new role in spring 2017 after the birth of her first child, to support New Belgium’s sustainability and environmental stewardship programs as they pertain to the Asheville brewery and operations.

Three of the country’s top craft breweries unveiled their 2017 beer release schedules this week, sharing plans to introduce a host of new products and packages over the course of next year.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is striking back against a ruling that had granted craft brewers the right to sell their distribution and territorial rights, according to the Dallas Business Journal.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has awarded New Belgium Brewing co-founder Kim Jordan a 2016 Colorado Governor’s Citizenship Medal (CGCM) for Growth and Innovation. The award is given to an entrepreneur or business leader who has “led with exceptional ingenuity and growth while inspiring and creating new possibilities for others,” according to a press release from the Governor’s office.

Massachusetts’ love affair with New Belgium will begin just in time for Valentine’s Day. The Fort Collins-based, bike-friendly brewery announced today that it will begin distribution throughout the Bay State starting February 13, 2017. (The company has a second production brewery located in Asheville, North Carolina.)

This winter New Belgium brings back an old favorite, cellars a recent addition, partners once again with B-Corp friends, and joins forces with a Belgian favorite to create five beers perfect for ushering out 2016. Available this month is Accumulation, the Ben & Jerry’s collaboration: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale, the second release of Bretta IPA, and Anne Françoise Belgian Collaboration. In December, New Belgium brings back Clutch.

Christine Perich, the CEO of New Belgium Brewing, will depart the organization to “pursue other opportunities,” the company announced today. The Colorado-headquartered brewery — which also maintains a production facility in Asheville, N.C. and is ranked by the Brewers Association as the country’s fourth largest craft outfit — has yet to appoint a replacement.

As conglomerates scoop up more craft breweries, what are the ramifications for those who don’t sell out? That’s what a quartet of well-known craft brewery figureheads tried to address last week during a panel discussion at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival.

New Belgium Brewing has four new releases to help make the fall transition a little easier to bear. The beers include Pumpkick, a fall festival favorite; Le Terroir, one of New Belgium’s favorite wood-aged sours; Bretta IPA, which crosses wild Brettanomyces yeast with fruity hop varieties; and Fruit Fly, a refreshing stainless steel sour.

Here’s one way to strengthen your local market presence: help to build, design and name a bar at the new football stadium being constructed just two miles away from your brewery. That’s what Fort Collins, Colo.-based New Belgium is doing, anyways. The company yesterday announced plans to donate $4.3 million to Colorado State University’s $220 million on-campus stadium project, about half of which will go toward the construction of a “hospitality area” located behind the north end zone.