Pub Crawl NYC visits the New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, CO

At Pub Crawl NYC, we love visiting breweries. Really, what more fun is there to learn about the brewing process, the history of a brewery and the best part, of course, is the beer sampling! After visiting Sam Adams and Mayflower earlier this summer, we went west to Colorado and visited New Belgium, makers of Fat Tire and other delicious brews. The tour at New Belgium lasts for 90 minutes (definitely the longest brewery tour we’ve experienced) and we got to see many aspects of the operation. Even though New Belgium is the third largest craft-brewery in the United States (behind Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada), New Belgium does all of its brewing in Fort Collins (New Belgium is now constructing a new brewing facility in Asheville, NC, which will serve the East Coast primarily, but it may not be completely up and running until 2015).

What stood out at New Belgium (aside from the quality beer samples!) was the focus that the brewery had on its employee working environment and its environmentally-friendly power usage. On the first point, New Belgium is consistently ranked as a top place to work in the U.S. New Belgium is a privately-owned company (specifically, an ESOP – Employee Stock owned plan) and has a unique Brewing Purpose Statement. Concerning its environmental policy, New Belgium uses renewable energy and recycles water, among other environmental successes.

Below are some pictures from our visit.