You. *blush*  Yes, brewing and bottling a perfect beer is one of our favorite things in the whole world. But it isn’t actually the ultimate reason for our existence (though it is darn fun and ain’t nobody here complainin’). New Belgium is on this big blue planet because we care about life (check your pulse - that includes you!) and we want to do our part to make living on Earth crazy awesome. If Michael Jackson just started singing “Heal the world, make it a better place” inside your head… just know you’re not the only one, okay? NBB’s Company Purpose: To manifest our love and talent by crafting our customers' favorite brands and proving business can be a force for good. All the fine...

Did you know that scientists have proven you can live longer if you set goals for yourself? For real, just set some goals, give yourself a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and you’ll live to be at least 106.* Speaking of goals, we set a number of them here at the brewery. Not only do these goals help keep us young and healthy, but they also keep the New Belgium Mothership steered in the right direction. What are these goals, you ask? Well, they run the gamut, covering every area of our operations and values. Some of our goals are about making world class beers, and some are about making the Tour de Fat the most wondrous bicycle carnival you’ll ever ride into. Some of our goals are...

So we just did a photo shoot at the brewery. And this isn’t for your typical tasty beer pic; this photo shoot featured some very handsome men and some very sexy, fuel-efficient vehicles. What’s more, it was done in the name of greenhouse gas reductions. Random yet intriguing, no?! Both the fellas and the wheels in this particular photo shoot happened to be from our Brewery Direct Service (BDS) team, which is the group of New Belgium coworkers who deliver our beer to bars, restaurants & liquor stores all over our hometown turf of Fort Collins. Not only do these hard-working folks sling countless kegs up narrow staircases and down dark alleys day in and day out, but they are also environment...

Over Memorial Day weekend, as the country celebrated the unofficial kickoff of summer, we celebrated our very own kickoff of the 2014 Tour de Fat season. The Tour de Fat  is our favorite holiday. It combines the joy of Christmas morning, the costumed creativity of Halloween, the togetherness of Thanksgiving, and the gorgeous weather and freedom of the 4th of July. And what’s more? It does all of this on bikes. If that doesn’t sound festive, then we just don’t know what does. For those of you who are not already acquainted with Tour de Fat, it is our travelling philanthropic bicycle carnival. The event includes a costumed bicycle parade, New Belgium beer, unconventional entertainment and m...

With warmer weather – and the release of our summer seasonal beer – upon us, we’re getting jazzed about longer days spent outside under blue skies. We’re excited about floating down the river in our rafts, zipping down our favorite single track on our bikes, lazing in our hammocks, telling tall tales around a fire, cooking out, camping out, and chilling out. Arguably one of the best ways to celebrate the season is a good old-fashioned festival. Live music on a gorgeous outdoor stage just seems to shout that summer has indeed arrived. Some long-time friends of ours are the Zen masters of music festivals, and we would like to take a moment to tell you about these great folks and the beer we br...

We mentioned back in January that we would be posting packaging goals later this year, and we are happy to report that they are ready for your viewing pleasure. Please check them out! Our packaging goals fall into four general categories. We dive into each in the linked document, but in general we are focused upon Source Reduction, Sustainable Material Selection & Design, Optimizing Efficiency, and Recovery & Recycling Advocacy.  As we looked to the future in setting these objectives, it was pretty enjoyable to take stock of the past and celebrate what we have accomplished & learned on the sustainable packaging journey. A few highlights from recent years: We have light-weighted our bot...

As you may have heard, our #SnapshotWheat Tour is hitting the road this week, travelling the countryside like a modern-day Woody Guthrie. This brings to mind the fact that sometimes our beer also has to trek across the country in order to find its way to your home. Shipping of finished product is one piece of our carbon footprint pie, and that is one pie that we spend a lot of time thinking about. (Imperial Coffee Chocolate Stout pecan pie is probably a close second). Over the years we have worked to measure and manage our carbon footprint. Back in the 90s we started with an environmental audit of the brewery itself, and then in 2006 we took the leap into the world of holistic greenhouse ...

Beer brings people together, and New Belgium coworkers love coming together to drink good beer. We also love coming together to support good causes. We’ve been known to combine the two through philanthropic beer-enjoyment events like Tour de Fat and the Clips Beer and Film Tour, but it just so happens that we also enjoy supporting good causes without a pint in hand. This may or may not stem from the fact that Kim (our CEO and co-founder) comes from a social work background and instilled a spirit in us that the greatest gift we can give is our own time. To illustrate this warm, fuzzy concept, let’s shine a spotlight on the New Belgium Beer Scouts. The Beer Scouts are a group of coworkers wh...

Greetings, and a belated Happy New Year from the sustainability crew here at New Belgium. As 2013 came to a close, we found ourselves toying with an idea we never dreamed that we’d seriously entertain… making a new year’s resolution to lose some weight. What a cliché, right?! In all seriousness, minimizing our environmental impact is a resolution that we are always working toward, and slimming down our packaging is one piece of that puzzle. So starting right now, we’re going to forego dessert (except for a nice glass of Le Terroir) and commit to losing a few tons in 2014. First off, we’re looking at dropping some weight from our 24-packs of bottles by doing away with the packages’ paperboa...

New Belgium Brewing is excited to announce that the company’s Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) has purchased the balance of company shares, making it 100% employee-owned. New Belgium, brewer of a wide variety of award-winning beers including Fat Tire Amber Ale, has been a partial ESOP since 2000 with a controlling interest held by co-founder Kim Jordan and her family. This transition will put the company on a path to control their destiny into the foreseeable future. “There are few times in life where you get to make choices that will have multi-generational impact - this is one of those times.  We have an opportunity to write the next chapter of this incredible story and we’re real...

On January 1, 2013 New Belgium Brewing will redirect money, previously utilized to pay for our participation in the Fort Collins Green Energy Program, to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects directly within our Fort Collins and Asheville breweries.  Fort Collins Utility’s Green Energy Program has been dear to our hearts since we were founding subscribers in 1999, so we are sentimental about parting ways. We came to this decision after much consideration, and feel that it will help us drive sustainability and innovation.  New Belgium is honored to have enjoyed such a fruitful partnership with the City of Fort Collins Utilities. We commend the City for being progressiv...