News.Props to our print (Thu, 08 May 2008 21:24:55 +0000) We’re blushing. The Denver Egotist was quite complimentary towards our current print campaign. Indulging our own ego, we’ll gladly share it with you: THE SURREAL ART OF BREWING (Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:10:47 +0000) Download PDF version of this article: New Belgium has a Belgian brewmaster. Makes sense, right? Until you meet that brewmaster and things start becoming a bit surreal. Peter Bouckaert is not your pick of the barrel brewer. More like turn the barrel on its head and take a completely different approach to brewing beer type of brewer. Throw IBU mandates out the window. Take all “style” restrictions and push them. Create from atypical angles. It’s what makes Peter so perfect for New Belgium, and New Belgium so attracted to Peter. (That, and his saucy buzz cut.) Enough translation. Let’s hear directly from Peter. Insert Belgian accent: “Coming to the U.S. I notice people think in “styles”. They say, “It’s European style,” or “It’s a Brussels style ale.” What is style? There’s no such thing. It’s absolutely nonsense in my eyes. Especially as a designer - it’s a box. It limits you. If you call it a Pale Ale or a Pilsner, I don’t care! What I do care about is do you like it?” Peter on the creative process: “So, when my brain is thinking, “I need to create. I need to get another beer out.” I start out boring, with notebooks and paper - and it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s absurd for me to write stuff down - to work on a computer to create beer. This is my process: get out of the brewery. Get away from the environment. Take three steps back. See everything around me as a whole. See the beauty. Totally unrelated things start to come together. That’s where I’ll get a spark. An explosion really. That’s where it comes.” See what we mean? It took our creative team an afternoon of sitting down with Peter and some beers to realize their concept for a brewmaster advertisement would need to be as atypical as the brewmaster himself. ENTER JOHN JOHNSTON John is an artist. He’s a photographer. He collects anything quirky, old, arty and saves it for a use he knows not when he picks it up. So, when John sat down with Peter, he got more than a little inspired. He discovered an affinity for the creation of beer. He appreciated the artistry involved in Peter’s approach. He threw out all his original ideas and notebook scribbles and let the explosion happen. The result? Magritte as beer folly was born.
Taking cues from famous surrealist art, the ad pictures Peter in a floating bowler hat. And while many may not know the artist’s name is Rene Magritte and that he, too, was Belgian, the imitation still resonates. So, while we struggled with, “Does surrealism belong in a beer ad?” and “Would Peter ever wear a suit?” we left it to the artists to create. After all, isn’t that how the greatest things come to life? BEER, FLEMISH SAYINGS, AND BLUE HOUSES So, while John crafted, Peter brewed. This ad was born and Peter fulfilled his “Blah-blah-blah,” obligations. The result should leave you with a hankering for some inspired New Belgium beer, poured into a New Belgium glass and a strange desire to go to a museum and hear Jazz music. No? Well, maybe you need to see the video Team Wonderbike: Bike More video (Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:25:24 +0000) We made an in-house short film about commuting to work by bike for our Team Wonderbike program. It’s making the rounds on the ‘ol IntArNETS. Now you can watch it here! Join team Wonderbike! www.followyourfolly.com/folly_wonderbike .html New Belgium: Best place to work in America! (Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:55:30 +0000) Outside Magazine ranked us as the best place to work in America! Read the article: AND THEN: Go check out our available jobs! Fat Tire in Cans! (Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:54:47 +0000) The 12 Packable of Fat Tire cans is coming early this summer! Check out the video and report KUSA did: The main impetus, Owsley says, for getting Fat Tire into a can was to get it in tune with the New Belgium culture. “This really came out of our own lifestyles,” he said. “Now, I can finally take Fat Tire in the backpack, in the boat, all those places we felt a little guilty taking our bottles and treated them so preciously to make sure they didn’t break and now we can throw one in the back pocket and head on out.” The Tinkerer (Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:15:38 +0000) Welcome to the new and folly-er New Belgium newsletter. Instead of a random email blast, we’re committing to a weekly, possibly daily, blog. We landed on the name Tinkerer as it plays into our history. Jeff Lebesch, our co-founder, was a tinkerer. It’s what led him to create his own home brewing equipment, which led to trips to Europe, which led to brewing Abbey and Fat Tire Amber Ale, which led to him and his wife, Kim Jordan, starting New Belgium Brewing Company in 1991. And we have been tinkering away ever since. Blogging IS tinkering. New Belgium Brewing Urban Assault Ride (Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:44:45 +0000) This is a NBB favorite! Bicycles hit the streets in this funky scavenger hunt, where teams of two take on crazy obstacle courses throughout the city. Expect to see big wheels, slip-n-slides, bike jousting and the infamous keg walk. Each team must plot their own course around town, so street smarts are equally as important as bike skills! The UAR is capped with an after party that boasts live music, an epic prize raffle and of course, cold NBB libations. Each event is on track to be a zero waste event, through waste diversion, solar energy use, alternative fuels and just good old pedal-powered good times. New Belgium part of 1% for the Planet (Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:56:23 +0000) New Belgium Brewing has become a member of 1% for the Planet! One Percent is an alliance of companies alliance of businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual net revenues to environmental organizations worldwide. You can find out more about it here New Belgium on NBC Nightly News (Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:45:41 +0000) NBC Nightly News recently did a segment on New Belgium’s sustainable approach to business. Mural Project: NBB, Jesse Ledoux, Andenken (Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:32:19 +0000) A beautiful mural has been created by Jesse Ledoux and Andenken in Denver. Check out Jesse Ledoux’s Ledouxville. Also check out Andenken and the location of the Mural. |
