More on Fort Collins, May 2, 2016

Blue skies were on the agenda our second day in Ft. Collins....It's about time!

A tour of the New Belgium Brewery was also on the agenda.  I had been told tours fill quickly so I had made reservations when we were still in Colorado Springs.  

New Belgium Brewery is an employee owned brewery and our guide was a five year veteran of the brewery and was very informative and funny.  The tour was  about 90 minutes long, but it seemed like it was only 30 minutes.  Tours are give every half hour and are full which speaks to their popularity.  

If you are a craft beer drinker you probably are familiar with Fat Tire Amber Ale or Abbey Ale brews, both brewed at New Belgium Brewery.  Fat Tire got the name from the guy who originally started the brewery who rode his bike (mountain bike with fat tires) in Belgium to seek out special yeasts for making brews. He met a brew master at one of the Abbeys, thus the name Abbey.

 Eric is pouring a sample  Fat Tire.  It was one of several generous samples.

Joel, really enjoyed the tour.

Wow, thats a lot of bottles of beer!

Well, the company is employee owned.  I think you won't  find this in your mature corporate office.

Clever art work

Sour beers are becoming very popular and are aged in wine barrels.  I tried a sample of it, and it isn't my thing, but others really liked it.  

That's a lot of beer to be bottled!

All of the spent grain goes to the farmers, water is recycled and the plant has solar for energy.  Employees are encouraged to submit new ideas and how to implement them.   New Belgium has just opened an new brewery in Asheville, North Carolina along with Sierra Nevada.  It seems Craft brews are becoming very popular in the East.  Check out New Belgium's web site for more on their culture and philosophy. It's pretty interesting.