New Belgium Brewing Company

Here’s a full stein of reality, courtesy of Craft Brew Alliance’s chief executive, Andy Thomas. “If we become irrelevant to consumers, we’re all doomed,” he told a crowd of 250 beer business executives and entrepreneurs who attended the June 9 Brewbound Session conference in Brooklyn.

Addressing 760 fellow co-owners during a company-wide retreat held in Fort Collins, Colo. this week, New Belgium co-founder Kim Jordan quashed persistent rumors of a brewery sale and reassured employees that the country’s 4th largest craft brewery would continue to remain 100 percent employee owned for the foreseeable future. “While the Board of Directors and ESOP trustee have a fiscal responsibility to keep an eye on capital markets, we have found that our current capital structure serves our purpose and vision best,” Jordan said on Monday.

New Belgium Brewing has received the highest certification level possible from the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council (USZWBC) for its waste reduction efforts, gaining platinum recognition. The certification provides a third-party perspective on how effectively the brewery reduces, reuses, and recycles waste. Businesses with a 90 percent waste reduction rate can apply for the certification. New Belgium has exceeded this rate since it began tracking the data more than 10 years ago, and is currently diverting 99.9 percent year to date.

D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc., America’s Oldest Brewery, starts rolling out in Louisiana this week. Louisiana is the nineteenth state to distribute Yuengling products and will be rolling out with its three core brands: Yuengling Traditional Lager, Yuengling Light Lager, and Yuengling Black & Tan.

New Belgium Brewing and Ben & Jerry’s are teaming up once again to create a new ice cream inspired beer while raising awareness about climate change. Inspired by one of Ben & Jerry’s smash hits, New Belgium has developed Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale, a special release beer to hit the shelves in the fall of 2016. Fifty-thousand dollars in proceeds will benefit Protect Our Winters (POW) a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness around climate change. As Fellow B Corporations beholden to stakeholders, including their communities and the environment, the two like-minded businesses have long championed similar causes.

The best way to celebrate a birthday is by gathering up your friends. New Belgium’s Fat Tire & Friends Collabeeration mixed pack is starting to hit store shelves. The pack features five of the nation’s best craft breweries, with each taking a turn at reimagining Fat Tire, New Belgium’s flagship beer.

Rhode Island will soon become the 45th state added to New Belgium Brewing’s national footprint. Less than a week after announcing plans to begin selling beer in Connecticut this June, the nation’s fourth largest craft brewery today announced it had signed a wholesale agreement to simultaneously launch throughout neighboring Rhode Island via C&C Distributors this summer.

In this week’s distribution roundup: New Belgium enters Connecticut, Deschutes signs with Blue Ridge Beverage in Virginia and Short’s Brewing rolls out in Wisconsin.

The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI), along with beverage leaders including Diageo and New Belgium Brewing, and the glass processing and recycling industry, have convened a dynamic group of organizations to make glass recycling work in the U.S. The nearly two dozen member organizations announced today they are joining forces to create the U.S. Glass Recycling Coalition. The coalition’s primary goal is to help build a foundation to make glass recycling a successful industry, and an efficient, high-quality and convenient service consumers want and expect.

On Monday, May 2, beer fans can kick back along the French Broad River in Asheville and sip a Fat Tire Amber Ale in New Belgium’s sparkling new “Liquid Center” tasting room. The doors swing open at 21 Craven Street, Asheville, NC and the public will be able to taste New Belgium beers for the first time at the brewery’s new location. Tasting room hours are Monday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday noon to 8:00 p.m. Public brewery tours will start this summer.

The heat of summer will be here in no time and New Belgium is ready for refreshment with its latest seasonal Heavy Melon. This super crisp and refreshing American-Style Fruit beer is brewed with juicy watermelon and zesty lime peel. Ripened fruit aromas of melon, papaya and citrus offer an invigorating wash of fruity sweetness, grassy bitterness and the slightest touch of tartness.

For the first time ever, New Belgium Brewing is producing its coveted special edition cruiser bikes in the U.S., using Detroit Bikes, a Detroit-based bicycling manufacturer and North America’s largest bicycle producer. Just in time for warmer weather, the bikes are now hitting the streets through New Belgium fundraisers, giveaways and as one-year anniversary gifts to New Belgium co-workers. The partnership has created new manufacturing jobs in Detroit with the company doubling its workforce from 20 to 40 employees.

As part of its 25th anniversary celebration New Belgium Brewing is going back to its roots to pair up with four Belgian Breweries for its 2016 Lips of Faith portfolio. Lips of Faith offers quarterly beers that push the envelope on flavor, process and ingredient.

New Belgium Brewing’s flagship Fat Tire Amber Ale is flowing from their Asheville brewery and heading toward draft lines and cold boxes across the eastern United States. With production ramping up over the next few years, the 500,000 barrel capacity, 127,000 square-foot brewery gives the country’s fourth-largest craft brewer 1.5 million barrels of total capacity.