New Belgium celebrates 25 years

For New Belgium Brewing, it all started with a tiny basement brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado. Home brewer Jeff Lebesch took a biking trip through Belgium and was inspired to open a small bottle brewery with his wife Kim Jordan. Their five-barrel brewing system could only produce 60 cases of beer a time, and there was no draft product.

A quarter century later, New Belgium is the nation's fourth largest craft brewery, and has opened a second brewery in West Asheville. Between the two breweries, in terms of craft beer production, it is topped only by Yeungling, Boston Beer (Samuel Adams) and Sierra Nevada (which has its eastern brewery just outside Asheville in Mills River).

New Belgium has a brewing capacity of 1.5 million barrels (a beer barrel is 31 U.S. gallons). Last year, the Fort Collins brewery turned out 914,000 barrels. It now sells beers in 46 states.

New Belgium is one of just a handful of American craft brands to make it to the 25 year mark, said Julia Herz, craft beer program director of the Brewers Alliance trade group. The employee perks are impressive — co-workers receive company ownership, a bike after one year, a trip to Belgium after five years, a four-week paid sabbatical after 10 years and 20 years and the list goes on.

New Belgium has traveled a winding road since producing the first bottles off Fat Tire Amber Ale and Abbey Ale June 1, 1991.

Originally, they were just sold in Fort Collins, then the brewery branched out through Colorado, Wyoming and other Western states.

There were personnel changes too — Lebesch left New Belgium in 2000 and the couple divorced in 2009. Jordan is still with New Belgium, though in 2015, Christine Perich became New Belgium's chief executive officer and Jordan became executive chairwoman of the board of the directors. Many of the company's key players will be in Asheville for the company's 25th anniversary celebration at the brewery.

The earliest days

Other than Jordan, no one has been at New Belgium longer than Brian Callahan, now the company's "director of fun," charged with building the brewery's internal employee community. But in 1992, he became the company's second employee, joining less than a year after New Belgium began selling beer. A home brewer, Callahan was first a volunteer who helped fill bottles. "Kim and Jeff built an addition to their house," he said. "They took out a second mortgage on their home for seed money." Fort Collins already had two breweries and a brewpub, and craft beer was growing.

The New Belgium brewing and packaging system was small-time, cobbled together by Lebesch, Callahan said. "He even built a homemade bottle filler," he said. "It was a bootstrap operation." But Lebesch was a well known home brewer in Fort Collins and was determined to make it work.  At the start, he was the company's only brewer.

"He was happier behind the scenes," Callahan said.

New Belgium sold its first beers on June 28, 199 at the Colorado Brewers Festival.

"The average American thought of beer as Bud, Miller and Coors," Callahan said.

But drinkers in Colorado were thirsty for a new type of beer and New Belgium began building steam, first in Fort Collins then across Colorado, Callahan said.

Boosting the brand

"We were able to get our beers to people by sampling," Callahan said. Western states were "progressive in acceptance of craft beer. We were at the right place at the right time.

"You used to drink the beer your father drank. A younger generation wanted to try new things. We knew that we wanted to grow, but we never thought we would grow this much."

New Belgium sold 221 barrels of beer in 1991, but in 1994, production had increased to 18,929 barrels and New Belgium was selling in Wyoming. In 1992, it had moved out of the basement and into a turn of the century train depot, Callahan said.

In 1995, it moved again, into its current home in Fort Collins. In 1996, Lebesch and Jordan gave ten percent of the company to its employees and started a stock ownership program. Today, the company is 100 percent employee owned and Jordan holds only her shares through the employee stock ownership program. Lebesch earlier sold his shares back to the company.

Crunching the numbers

With a background in accounting, Christine Perich joined New Belgium 16 years ago, working her way through the ranks. At that point, the brewery was selling in just seven states. By 2004 she was chief financial officer, and in 2008, was named chief operating officer. Then came the title of company president, and finally last year, she was promoted to chief executive officer.

"In a lot of ways, (New Belgium )was similar then to what it is today, with a passion for beer and to run the company in a certain way," Perich said. "What is different is the scale of what we do. And we are more organized and how we work together."

The company has 790 employees, with 120 of them at the new West Asheville brewery.

The expansion brewery, which serves the eastern United States, was built at 21 Craven St. in West Asheville.

The site had been the old Asheville Stockyard, a historic property that was once used as circus fairground and auto salvage business, but more recently had been a brownfield requiring extensive cleanup.

The project began in 2012 as the Asheville area was emerging as a major beer producer. Sierra Nevada also announced its Mills River brewery that year, as did Oskar Blues which opened in Brevard.

After a delay of about eight months, groundbreaking was May 1, 2014 for the $140 million New Belgium project which includes a separate distribution center in Enka.

The first bottles of beer were filled here this April after a period of test brewing.

"We had moments of stress" in building the new brewery, Perich said. "We had moments where we ran into bumps, where things ran late, or didn't come up as we had planned. Everyone did a great job in pushing forward."

The Asheville crew

As the West Asheville brewery came together, New Belgium began assembling its local crew.

Among the hires was Valerie Patenotte of Asheville, who joined in January 2015 and was recently made an employee owner. She works as executive assistant to brewery manager Jay Richardson and lives only about a mile from New Belgium, allowing her to ride her brewery bicycle to work.

"The culture here is like water cooler culture," Patenotte said. "I have always longed for deeper relationships with the people I (work with). You get to know the people here. There are opportunities here to come together. And it doesn't hurt that there is beer."

The employee ownership program "is one of the greatest things that has happened to me, right in there after creating my family and marriage," she said. "I think about the generosity of Kim in creating a path for successful retirement. It's hard to believe that it is actually real."

That employee ownership program was "one of the first" in the craft brewing industry, said Herz of the Brewers Association. "I think because of the quality of their beers, and their community philanthropy, it's a company inspiring other craft brewers and small business owners on how to make the world a better place."

New Belgium timeline

Oct. 1, 1990 - Kim Joran and Jeff Lebesch expand their Fort Collins, Colorado house and add basement to start New Belgium Brewing.

June 1 1991 – First batches of Fat Tire and Abbey produced.

June 28 1991 – 1st Beer sold at Colorado Brewers Festival.

Dec. 31 1991 – New Belgium sells 220 barrels in its first year.

Dec. 31 1994  –  Brewery sells 18,929 barrels with 224 percent growth).

Oct. 1 1995 – Brewery has relocated to its current western home at 500 Linden St. in Fort Collins

Jan. 1 1996 – Ten percent of company is given to co-workers.

Sept. 26, 1996 – Brewmaster Peter Bouckaerth hired.

June 1 1999 – Employee stock ownership program created for 90 New Belgium co-workers.

July 15 2000 – Tour De Fat bicycle tour begins.

March 2 2009 – First beer sold in North Carolina, carried locally by Skyland Distributing.

Dec. 1 2012 – New Belgium is 100 percent employee owned.

April 2, 2012 - Company purchases former Asheville Stockyard for eastern U.S. brewery.

May 2, 2014 – Groundbreaking for West Asheville brewery at 21 Craven St.

Nov. 11 2014 – First Asheville coworker gets bike.

April 2, 2016 -  Fat Tire is brewed in West Asheville.

May 2, 2016 – Liquid Center tasting room opens in West Asheville.

WANT TO GO?

New Belgium will celebrate the company's 25th anniversary with a 3-11 p.m,. Saturday party at the West Asheville brewery.  Former "Saturday Night Live" star  Nasim Pedrad will host, with music by The Naked and Famous, Mucca Pazza and Dark Water Rising. $50 ticket includes three beverages. Order at www.newbelgium.com/birthday-bash. Parking is at Asheville Buncombe Technical College, 41 Fernihurst Drive, with shuttles back to the brewery. First brewery tours are  .Aug.  29-Sept. 1, come to brewery after  11 a.m. to sign up for a day-of tour. For tours beginning Sept.2, register online at www.NewBelgium.com/AshevilleBrewery