New Belgium Brewing Company

Beers

The Fat Tire recipe originates from a co-founder's bicycle trip through Belgium from brewery to brewery. The company promotes its Fat Tire ale locally by the public placement of colorful vintage bicycles outside its brewery, which is located adjacent to the public bike path along the Cache La Poudre River.

In 2006 NBB changed its logo because they realized that beer drinkers could identify the Fat Tire label, but "didn't recognize the brewery label, or make the connection that New Belgium brewed Fat Tire and other best-selling brands, such as Sunshine Wheat." The company's new logo "pays homage to the well-known Fat Tire brand bicycle" drawn by Anne Fitch.

Esquire selected Fat Tire Amber Ale as one of the "Best Canned Beers to Drink Now" in a February 2012 article.

The brewery makes 13 year-round beers:

New Belgium also makes various seasonal and limited-edition beers.

Distribution

Before 2002, New Belgium distributed in only 16 states; by 2015, it had become the fourth-largest craft brewer in the country and the eighth-overall largest brewer in the United States.

As of March 2015, New Belgium is distributed in Sweden.

As of October 2016, New Belgium is now available in 45 states, including New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

New Belgium began constructing a 100,000 square-foot distribution center and second brewery in 2014 in Asheville, North Carolina. The brewery's potential capacity is 500,000 barrels per year. The facility went online in May 2016 and currently produces Fat Tire, Ranger and Rampant.

Business and production

New Belgium's main brewery is in Fort Collins. In 2013, New Belgium had some 480 employees and more than $180 million in sales. It has had an employee stock ownership plan since 2000 and in January 2013 became 100 percent employee-owned through an ESOP. A 2014 documentary called We The Owners examined New Belgium's focus on employee-ownership and how that shapes its overall culture of collaboration.

New Belgium is known for its quirky corporate culture; the company employs eight "carnies," who work the brewery's Tour de Fat fundraising events, in addition to chemists, microbiologists, electricians, forklift operators, and engineers. The company has low (3 percent) annual turnover, and a tenth of the brewery's employees may take extended leave in any given year. Employees who become part-owners of the business are recognized at an annual Ownership Induction Ceremony and are presented with a cruiser bicycle recalling the company's symbol. The company was named one of the "25 Most Audacious Companies" by Inc. magazine.

In May 2014, New Belgium began work on a second brewery in Asheville, North Carolina, which became fully operational in May 2016. The brewery is positioned along the French Broad River on Craven Street in Asheville's River Arts District, just ten miles away from the expansion facility of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. New Belgium's brewery, which is 133,000 square feet, has capacity to produce up to a half-million barrels of beer. New Belgium plans to invest $175 million in the new facility over seven years. Excluding construction jobs, New Belgium plans to employ 154 workers.

Label design

Most of New Belgium's beer labels were initially designed by Anne Fitch, a watercolorist whose work appeared on all New Belgium beers for 19 years. In 2006, Fitch artwork appeared on each of the over 125 million bottles sold by New Belgium, In 2010, however, New Belgium unveiled its four-beer Explore Series, whose labels featured a different design.Kim Jordan, the president of New Belgium Brewery, credits the success of New Belgium Brewery in part on Fitch's artwork: "Our beers were good, our labels were interesting to people, and we pretty quickly had a fairly robust following."

Business and energy practices

The brewery was founded by husband-and-wife (now divorced) team Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan in 1991 and emphasizes eco-friendly practices and employee ownership in its marketing materials. It is located in northeast Fort Collins near the Cache la Poudre River on the grounds of the former Great Western Sugar plant.

In 2008, New Belgium Brewing Company was named the best place to work in America by Outside magazine. This could be attributed to the brewery's efforts to ensure the "wellness" of their employees. Once a month the brewery's Wellness Committee meets to discuss activities, such as bike tours, for employees to participate in. In the Outside The Best Places to Work 2013, New Belgium Brewery was ranked 17th and listed as having 484 employees.

In 1998 New Belgium Brewing made it to a goal to offset 100% of its electricity through the city's wind-power program. . Rather than directly using wind-generated power, the brewery elects to pay an increased rate for their electrical energy, which is supplied by the City of Fort Collins Utilities to ensure it comes from the cleanest source possible. About 15% of the brewery's power comes from methane gas created as a byproduct of their on-site water treatment plant. An additional 3% comes from a 300kW solar array on the brewery's packaging hall in Fort Collins.

The brewery also uses an energy-efficient kettle for the brewing process. The Steinecker Merlin kettle heats twice as quickly by boiling thin sheets of wort in the entire kettle at once. This provides significant savings in natural gas consumption.