New Belgium

New Belgium

The story of New Belgium Brewing Company began in 1989 in the saddle of a mountain bike, when electrical engineer Jeff Lebesch rode his fat-tired bike through the Belgian brewing villages and was so inspired by the centuries-old Belgian beer styles that upon returning to Fort Collins, Colorado, he began brewing in his basement. His first two basement creations were a brown dubbel with earthy notes called Abbey and a remarkably well-balanced amber ale he named Fat Tire. Together with his then-wife Kim Jordan, a social worker who served as the brewery's first bottler, sales rep, distributor, marketer and longtime CEO, the two founded New Belgium Brewing Company in 1991 and created one of the most significant breweries in American beer history.

From 1996 onwards, company shares were issued as employee stock to staff members, and by 2012 the transition to a fully employee-owned company was complete, with all shares having passed to the workforce. This unique human-powered business model, which provided fully paid healthcare premiums, profit sharing and transparent management for all employees, made New Belgium a role model far beyond the brewing industry. With the acquisition of Bell's Brewery in 2021 and locations in Fort Collins, Asheville and Denver, New Belgium is today one of the largest and fastest-growing breweries in America.

New Belgium's range spans from the world-famous Fat Tire Amber Ale to the enormously popular Voodoo Ranger IPA family – America's best-selling IPA brand – through to award-winning wood-aged sour beers, which have been part of the programme since 1998 and impressively demonstrate the brewery's artisanal expertise. As a certified B Corp, a founding member of 1% for the Planet and with over 26 million US dollars donated to charitable causes since 1991, New Belgium stands today like no other American brewery as proof that entrepreneurial success and social as well as environmental responsibility can form a completely natural and inseparable unity.