Brewbound 2025 Person of the Year: Lauren Woods Limbach

Speaker 1 [00:00] The next conversation on the Brewbound Live live stream is a must-watch for anyone who appreciates a well-made complex beer with a touch of funk. I'm thrilled to be joined by New Belgium wood cellar, director and blender, Lauren Woods Limbach, who we are honoring as Brewbound's Person of the Year as she prepares for retirement. Lauren, congratulations. How are you? I'm great. Thanks, Jess. Well, your work has helped acquaint American craft beer drinkers with traditional Belgian styles, you know, talking about beers like La Folli, Laterroir, Transatlantic Creek, real like stalwarts of the American sour segment. But these beers were introduced at a time when most craft exploration involved just an abundance of hops and pretty much no other serious consideration given to any of beer's other ingredients. So, Consumers probably were trying something they've never had before. What were you expecting their reactions to be?

Speaker 2 [00:53] I think, uh, well, when I joined New Belgium, 28 years ago, we were, you know, New Belgium, we were making the, you know, the doubles, the triples, beers with fruit, um, doing the, the kind of traditional amber, the Belgian amber, and I I think that that alone, just because of the vast array of ingredients that were in front of us and we were already um definitely in that uh like well some people were emulating German styles, some people British styles, Belgian styles because we were New Belgium. Um, we're already our toolbox was full of fruits and spices and yeast strains and malts, um, and almost no hops. So we were definitely doing something different already. And then with uh Peter Bouckaert being, you know, that kept bringing in the Belgian sour ales, I think that that's kind of The where we were getting everybody's uh taste buds acquainted with the concept that beers can be sour and beers weren't just bitter and beers weren't just um fizzy and light. Um, and I think that that was You know, back in like the late 90s, it was such a funny thing to think about now what we considered sour then compared to what we're um OK with. Now, we just know that beers can be anything. And so while we started with Lafali and while we started with um that, it, it was actually the, the boutique hops, um, like with the Amarillo hop that kind of got me to say, can you dry hop a sour beer? That started the La Terroir when that really kind of said, well, then what else can you do with all these barrel aged and food or aged sours? And we started Uh, doing experimenting with different fruits, not just the traditional Belgians, uh, tart lychee, um, back in 2003, um, probably one of the first tropical, uh, and certainly not last tropical sour ales, and then just kind of that explosion of I, what can't I put in. A beer and how, like, what, how can this beer kind of emulate my personality, my creativity, and that's where we went from Belgian style sours to American sour ales. And that was a huge runway for craft brewers to be able to say, you know, that this is like my time to shine. What can I do?

Speaker 1 [03:26] So you just said something that made me think of something really interesting. What can't you use?

Speaker 2 [03:31] It is amazing. After 28 years, I am not kidding. We, every single time that we make a beer and we do monthly releases of of all of our wood age, food or age and barrel age beers. Every single release, it's either a barrel that I haven't used, an ingredient I haven't used, a process that we haven't done before, and it It, it's literally like blows my mind. When, you know, I think that when Ted, our wood seller manager came up and said, Have you ever had a Palo Santo beer? And I'm like, not yet. So I think that that's kind of the attitude and that was the attitude of all kind of the American. Craft brewers is we were just, we hadn't done even been able to think about the possibilities. And it just became like a fever pitch of creative releases. And that was just so inspiring. And that's why that sour beer kind of boom happened. Um, and you know, I think that while That kind of went, you know, too crazy. Um, when I think back now that every single person was telling me sour beer is my favorite beer, you know, like 57 years ago or 10 years ago, whatever it was. Um, but now, you know, like you don't see them again as much. Um, and I think that that's something that New Belgium is really great at, like we just kind of Kept it steady. Um, while we have, you know, 55, 56 fooders there, we just always were not trying to chase the new shiny thing. We're just doing our thing. And we still are. When everybody is like, I can't get a sour beer, just go to the New Belgium taprooms and there's like 10 or 12 of them on, um, brand new ones on tap, along with Lafali, Terrois and Transatlantic Creek all the time.

Speaker 1 [05:27] My hunch is that the American sour beer segment really helped open craft doors to people who weren't traditional craft drinkers, you know, it helped bring in people who drank wine or cocktails or probably women. What do you think the style was able to do to boost the overall segment in that way?

Speaker 2 [05:44] I think that that that sour ale was, it was like probably like the canary in the coal mine where you're like, when people loved it so much, it really wasn't. They stopped identifying with the word beer and just started identifying with the word flavor. And um that's what I think that we did really right, is we really understood that you don't, you know, like we were talking about like dogma is is not going to get you far. It's really closes doors and boxes you in. Whereas, you know, being able to put whatever you want into a beer just to make it taste delicious, unique, um, refreshing, inspiring, whatever that is. And I think um a lot of people joke around and say that I make beers for people that don't like beer. You don't have to like, quote unquote beer to like beer. You know, like you just have to say, when people, I'm like, what do you like? And I'll tell you, they can, they tell me what they like, and I'm, I'm like, I got a beer for that.

Speaker 1 [06:47] Everything you just said really like highlights how the, not just beer, but the broader beverage alcohol industry has gotten to the place where we are right now, which is super flavor forward and drinkers know to seek that out and you could find uh an alcoholic beverage that matches pretty much any flavor profile. You're, you. Can dream up and you had such an important hand in that, you should be so proud.

Speaker 2 [07:12] Thank you. I just, I love, I love when, you know, as, as a recipe designer, um, I love like when people tell me, will you make me a Barrel age sour beer that tastes like a chocolate cake with ganache icing and with a raspberry gel, you know, layer. And I'm like, sure, that's, we just released it. It's Frambozan, uh, barrel age Frambos and reserve. And I'm like, yeah, no problem. I love reverse engineering. from a flavor profile and then trying to figure out what needs to go in there. How do you need to put it? Like what's the process? What are the ingredients um to get you to the very end. It's so exciting. And that's why I feel like, although, you know, I'm leaving New Belgium, that I think about like where The, our new product development team right now that was is my team, um, they're so poised and ready and they like it's chaotic, it's scary, but it's also exciting um because people are really so much more adventurous than they used to be. They're so much more accepting of Just flavor that they love all the new product. I like the packaging types, all these things that are, we're starting to really do. And I think that because we always were Excited about new things that this isn't as scary as some people might want you to think it is.

Speaker 1 [08:44] That's such a great way to put it, and it's been fascinating to watch your team churn out new products the past few years. They've really been having fun with it. Let's take a bit of a step back and just kind of walk through your New Belgium journey because it's been really interesting. You know, you really were able to forge your own path within the company. You started out as an assistant to the co-founders, but then you Took on a few other jobs, you established the sensory program, you developed a world-renowned wood seller, you know, how was it able to, how are you able to do all of these cool, fun things that, you know, for some people, like just one step would have been their whole career, but you've got this whole path.

Speaker 2 [09:18] There was just, I think at New Belgium at the time, you know, the late 90s. It was just uh everybody did, we just looked around and said, what needs to get done? What need you like, and then everybody said, I, I don't, maybe I don't know how to do that now, but I, I could. And you know, they, we were always told yes. You know, if you were that, if you were like, look, I am, this is what I want to do. I need these resources and this amount of time. This is what I plan on doing. The answer was always yes. You know, and it was like, how can I help you to make this happen? And so going, you know, saying I would like to take the first sensory science course at UC Davis. Yes, absolutely. What do you need? Funding? Great. What do you need? Time? Great. What I need a sensory lab. And this is, here's some specs, great. They built the sensory lab. Um. I mean, I was learning on like drinking from the fire hose, learning on the job for sure. Um, but it was exactly that same amount of, you know, that time where we went from being a local brewery to gaining distribution, gaining different states, and it was that, yes, that really made New Belgium. be able to be ready to have a longer, and a bigger footprint, to be able to not just make these one-off beers or make beers that taste great for a little bit. We did shelf life studies, you know, we had, um, we understood exactly like what our beer could handle. We had quality, um, uh, measures like we started really thinking about draft line, cleanliness and in the sensory. Panel was there to say um whether, you know, like to be able to say not only is this beer true to brand and free of all flavors, but, and it will also in these conditions last for this amount of time and be able to like, stay true. And like, so when we were in Colorado, and then we're in Arizona, and then all of a sudden, one day we're in, you know, Massachusetts, like we, the beer is going to Tastes the same. And that was huge, to be able to do that. And, you know, a lot of people had analytical labs and microbiological labs, but the sensory lab was the key, the heartbeat, you know, of craft beer because you can't drink numbers.

Speaker 1 [11:41] Well, you've really had a front row seat to, you know, for the brewery when it was in its infancy and watch, you know, as you said, scale all the way up to being a national powerhouse. But, you know, in, in our previous chats, you've told me that you had fun at work every day, which is not something many people can say. So what about New Belgium's culture made that possible?

Speaker 2 [12:00] We just always had that with one of our You know, core values was having fun and we wrote it down. Like it was, it wasn't just like the unspoken. It was very, very much a spoken thing. And we did like we just built it into our day to day. Um, we were all, you know, in the beginning, we were all best friends and, you know, we didn't have a life outside of New Belgium. New Belgium just was, we've lived and, you know, breathed it because we really wanted to make it work. And I think that that had, you know, because we didn't have a lot of boundaries, our private, you know, like it just, our whole lives were that and we were always having fun. And You know, we, we were laughing, we were crying, we're scared, we were, you know, all those things. We worked so hard and, you know, back in the beginning, and I know everybody says the same thing and you know, and I know that they really do. But man, when I think about like the tire, like the nights where I'd finally get home, open my computer and start working again, and just, and I never once thought like, poor me. You know, I was like, holy crap, this is awesome because if I do this, then this will happen. You know, if I finish this uh project, um, beer mentor, I'll be able to, you know, roll this program out and teach people at New Belgium how, you know, how beer is made and Um, if I can just finish this, you know, like it was, it just was fun, like and I just love the people that I work with. They're kind and considerate, hardworking, and I think it's not, it, it just became like part of our DNA was to do that. And I think that The, the second that it isn't that much fun, I, you know, like I know that there's days that I I cannot believe that I'm going to go do it again. But then something happens that, that, that next day, and someone smiles at you or ask you what's going on and it's just like wanting to do it for those people too, you know, I think that when the going gets tough, like, just look around and all the people that work at New Belgium, like they're worth it, you know, they're worth giving your 100% every single day too.

Speaker 1 [14:24] Amazing. I think that's a perfect place to leave it. Lauren, congratulations on 28 incredible years. You've had such an impact and I think, uh, we and our plates are all the much better for everything that you have put into this. So, thank you and congratulations.

Speaker 2 [14:40] Thank you so much, Jess. Have a great day.