New Belgium Is Turning Japanese
- November 20, 2019 -
Breckenridge, Coors, and now New Belgium - three iconic Colorado beer companies that attracted overseas attention, not from beer lovers, but bean counters looking to buy brewing operations in the US.
Breck was sold to AB-Inbev, Coors is reorganizing again after a few different partner arrangements, and New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins announced its sale to Australian-based Lion Little World Beverages, a subsidiary of Japanese company Kirin Holdings Company Limited.
G'day mate, welcome to Oz, and sayonara to the old New Belgium.
We direct you to some fantastic reportage about this news, as it would take us weeks to research and write this ourselves, and by then there will be another industry-shaking event that makes you glad that a beer is handy to salve the soul ... Please Support A Free Press!
First is this Most Excellent story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan by Erin Udell, with great visuals.
Here’s a Press Release from New Belgium about things.
And this story in The Gazette is credited to the Associated Press. We have excerpted that outstanding story here:
By The Associated Press:
In another major blow to the Colorado beer industry in the last two months, New Belgium Brewing on Tuesday announced that after nearly 30 years in the craft beer business, the employee-owned company is selling to Australian-based Lion Little World Beverages, a subsidiary of Japanese company Kirin Holdings Company Limited.
New Belgium is currently the largest craft brewery in Colorado and the fourth-largest in the U.S., behind Yuengling, Boston Beer and Sierra Nevada, according to the Brewers Association. The Fort Collins-based brewery’s cash sale, for an undisclosed amount, is expected to finalize by the end of the year, pending approval by employee stock owners.
More than 300 of New Belgium’s employee-owners will receive more than $100,000 in retirement money through the deal, “with some receiving significantly greater amounts,” New Belgium founder Kim Jordan wrote in a letter on Tuesday.
According to New Belgium CEO Steve Fechheimer, the brewery employs nearly 700 people between Fort Collins, Denver and Asheville, N.C. " where a second New Belgium brewery opened in 2016 " and across the country on its sales team. None of those employees " nor any of the company’s taprooms or breweries in Fort Collins, Denver and Asheville " will be affected by the sale, Fechheimer said. He and his “leadership team” will stay in their positions as well.
“We will no longer be employee owned and it would be easy to see that as a drawback,” Jordan wrote in her letter. “But here’s another way to look at it... Over the life of our (employee stock ownership plan), including this transaction, the total amount paid to current and former employees will be nearly $190 million. We will have helped a significant number of people realize the upside of having equity in something, being a part of the American Dream!”
Matt Tapper, managing director of Lion World Beverages, told The Denver Post that New Belgium’s “ethos to be a force for good” is something his company wants to continue moving forward.
In nearly 30 years in business in Fort Collins, New Belgium has grown to be one of the country’s largest craft beer businesses while also becoming 100% employee-owned and receiving B-Corporation status, which means the business “meet(s) the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose,” according to the B Corps website.
Tapper said his company will uphold that mission while growing the New Belgium brand.
“This investment in New Belgium... is a pretty significant stake in the ground in terms of the U.S.,” Tapper said. “We sort of aspire to, over time, work with the New Belgium team to establish a pretty significant craft beverage business.”
Lion Little World is now the largest brewer in Australia and the largest alcoholic beverage company in New Zealand, with big beer and smaller brands from XXXX to Boag’s, Malt Shovel and its original Little Creatures microbrewery, which also has outposts in Hong Kong, Singapore, London and San Francisco, according to its website.
In 2012, Kirin Holdings-owned Lion bought Little World Beverages, which became the first craft brewer listed on the Australian stock exchange. “Imagine a world where publicly traded companies are dedicated to business as a force for good, taking into account an array of stakeholders " their workers, their shareholders, and the environment,” Jordan wrote in her letter. “This is a model for a big, compelling future and is in line with the needs of our rapidly changing world.”
Jordan says that after 29 years in the beer business, she’ll continue to be active in the company under its new ownership. In her letter to customers, she discussed the hardships of “balanc(ing) the cash demands of our ESOP (Employee stock ownership plan) and selling shareholders” with the need to grow in both beer-making capacity and beer-drinking audience.
See the rest of the story here.
Hick Nixes Prez Race, Plans To Kick Cory's Ass Instead
- August 22, 2019 -
Let's be very clear about this: John Hickenlooper did not actually say those words. He did not say "I'm going to kick Cory Gardner's ass", but he may have thought it today when he announced (after much speculation and anticipation) that he would run for US Senate against the incumbent from Yuma, Colorado. In this story from the New York Times, Casey Contres (Gardner’s campaign manager) welcomed Hick to the fray: "Another liberal in the clown car."
Hickenlooper is well-known in Colorado, as a geologist, brewer, mayor, and governor and tried to use his recognition and popularity here as a big step in the 2020 Presidential campaign. But in a field of two dozen contenders, he never gained much traction amongst other contenders, and has now decided to put his efforts into defeating Gardner.
US Senate races in Colorado have been wild in past years, and the Cory/Hick matchup promises more of the same. Gardner, reliably Republican, is seen by some as being very vulnerable to defeat during this election cycle. Another "D" in the Senate - and Gardner's defeat - could possibly change the direction of Congress.
Hickenlooper, who is not averse to competition, faces eleven other Democrats (so far), also vying for the party nomination against Gardner. We'll keep you posted as this election contest ramps up. It's time for a drink...
GABF Tickets Still Available
- August 20, 2019 -
Fifteen years ago, you could buy a ticket to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver at the door and walk right in. Here you go, have a tasting cup. Ten years later, with ticket sales online only, they sold out in less than twenty minutes. The Brewers Association puts on the event every year, and has responded to the growing craft beer fever through the years by increasing the number of brewers, floor space and tickets available for purchase. Last year, over 60,000 beer fans came to GABF.
It seems that festival frenzy has died down a bit - as of August 20, you can still buy tickets online for three of the four GABF sessions for 2019, October 3 to 5. It's still the biggest, busiest, beeriest festival event in the US, and this year promises to serve more beer on-tap than ever. And it's still the only place to sample the most award-winning beers from 107 different style categories at one time, one ounce at a time.
Tickets aren't cheap, but if you haven't been, then this year might the best opportunity yet. Here's a list of the breweries that you're likely to find at the Denver Convention Center.We might even see you there...
Boulder Beer, Colorado's First Micro, Turns 40
- June 27, 2019 -
The Big Bang along the craft beer timeline happened 40 years ago. July 20, 1979 was Day One. It was bright. And as the story goes, it all started at a goat farm north of Boulder.
Next month, on July 20, 2019, the good folks at Boulder Beer Company are celebrating four decades of good fortune with a bash at their 2880 Wilderness Place brewery and pub in Boulder.
Tess McFadden from Boulder Beer fills in a few details:
To commemorate and celebrate their history of innovation, the brewers at Boulder Beer Company have concocted a slew of experimental pilot brews to tap in the Rare Beer Garden which will be flowing from Noon to 6pm. Offerings include a wide variety of beer styles including a Pecan Nut Brown, a Key Lime Gose and a Honey Blossom Wheat to name a few, plus two hard seltzers and two beer slushies. Guests can enjoy live music during that time from Timber at Noon and the Matt Flaherty Band at 3pm, followed by festive outdoor karaoke after 6pm.
The event is open to the public (no entry fee) but tasting ticket packages with a commemorative glass can be purchased to imbibe in the Rare Beer Garden. The brewery is also selling a very limited number of tickets to a Killer Penguin Barleywine Vertical Tasting with Brewmaster Rob Black happening at 3pm in the brewhouse. The tasting will include six different vintages of Killer Penguin, and ticket holders will have exclusive access to buying bottles of these vintages after the tasting. Tickets for the vertical can be found here https://boulderbeer.com/shop/killer-penguin-vertical-tasting.
40th Anniversary event details can also be found at https://boulderbeer.com/pub-events/40th-anniversary-celebration.
Marijuana Infused Beverages Gaining Buzz
- June 04, 2019 -
Our friends over at Craft Beer & Brewing have a great article about Colorado-based Ceria Brewing Company, headed by former Blue Moon brewer Keith Villa.
The magazine's cofounder, Jamie Bogner, writes in the story "The New Frontier: Cannabis in Beer":
"The idea is simple enough"brew a beer, remove the alcohol (because even though cannabis is legal at the state level, alcoholic beverage production in the United States is still governed by the federal TTB, and mixing the alcohol and cannabis streams is strictly forbidden), and infuse with THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana.
Easy, right? Not so fast. The logistics of doing this at a commercial level are absurd. While homebrewers can simply heat their buds, then dry hop with their cannabis to infuse homemade beer with THC and terpenes, at the commercial level, a brewer must first de-alcoholize their beer. Once that is done, the under 0.05 percent ABV beer must be transported to a cannabis co-packer where the THC is infused, and once that’s completed, the beer must be carbonated and packaged. When you consider that even the most advanced and aggressive co-packer deals in batch sizes under 10 hectoliters (roughly 8.5 bbl), you can see how the economies of scale don’t benefit small producers such as Ceria trying to build a brand in this very young space. The resulting retail price of a THC-infused bottle from Ceria would make brewers of the most expensive New England IPA blush.
Nonetheless, Keith Villa is committed. “We launched Ceria because it gives people an alternative to alcoholic beer,” he says.
Check out the Ceria website for MJ retail locations (not liquor stores) where you can find their beverages. Cheers!
History Colorado Center's long awaited "Beer Here!" Exhibit Coming Soon!
- March 28, 2019 -
A new exhibit at History Colorado Center is focusing on how brewing has affected the state of Colorado. The opening is set for May 18th. Mark your calendars to visit this exhibit featuring artifacts including:
~A Denver brewer's union card from 1888 (written in German, since that's who was making beer at the time)
~Adolph Coors' original hand-drawn sketch of his first beer label, on loan from the Coors archive
~A massive wooden bottle smasher used by the Denver Police Department during Prohibition
~Beer-brewing equipment from then to now
~The nation's first recyclable aluminum beer cans, pioneered by Coors
~The flyer for the very first Great American Beer Festival in 1982
~Some of New Belgium's original brewing equipment
The museum said the exhibit will be divided into five sections examining:
1)The role of immigrants in mining towns
2)Colorado's industrial-hub status in the Rocky Mountain West
3)Why Colorado went dry four years before national Prohibition
4)The role of Coors and the 139-year-old, Broomfield-based Ball Corporation in the state's economy
5)How outdoor recreation and brewing are such cozy bedfellows.
Following your museum visit the cafe will offer a beer flight which is subject to change but the flight will start with a porter or stout that is reflective of the colonial period, then move to a pre-prohibition style beer, a Coors Banquet beer and a craft IPA, according to an exhibit spokeswoman.
The exhibit is scheduled to remain at 1200 Broadway Denver, CO 80203 through August 2020.
The exhibit will be included in the cost of general admission, which runs $14 for adults, $12 for seniors, $10 for students (with ID), $8 for children aged 5-15; and free for children 4 and under.
For the Denver Post's full article click here
Cannabis Company to become the next Major Craft Brewery Acquirer
- February 28, 2019 -
From an article in Brewbound by Chris Furnari:
Cannabiniers, the company behind the Two Roots line of CBD- and THC-infused non-alcoholic craft beers, is on the verge of becoming the next major craft brewery acquirer.
On its quest to own 500,000 barrels of brewing capacity, the San Diego-based beverage, technology and brand management company has signed letters of intent to acquire four craft breweries, including a "top-20 privately held brewery based in California"
"It's 99 percent of the way there," said Kevin Love, Cannabiniers' vice president of market activations.
That deal could be formally announced in the coming weeks, Love added.
Love also confirmed that Cannabiniers had signed letters of intent (LOIs) to purchase three other U.S. craft breweries, including a "top-40 privately held brewery on the East Coast" and a brewery in the Midwest.
In the meantime, Love said Cannabiniers had struck a deal to acquire Colorado's Dad & Dudes Breweria. Terms were not disclosed, and the transaction is expected to close on February 12.
The Denver-area brewery only produced 827 barrels of beer in 2017, according to the Brewers Association, but it gained national attention in 2016 when it became the first U.S. brewery to gain approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) for a CBD-infused beer.
"They were temporarily barred from manufacturing it, after the TTB awarded them they opportunity to create a CBD-infused beer," Love said. "We have an opportunity to leverage what they have, and bring it to a scalable environment."
Cannabiniers makes five styles of beer using traditional methods and then strips alcohol from the product using European manufactured dealcoholization equipment. The liquid is then shipped to a secondary facility, also owned by Cannabiniers, where it is infused with THC.
Those 10 oz. products, which contain between 2.5 mg and 5 mg of THC, are sold for a suggested retail price $8 at about 25 dispensaries in Nevada.
He added that Cannabiniers plans to compete in three verticals - traditional beer, CBD-infused beer and non-alcoholic THC-infused beer and beverages (the company also the "Just Society" coffee and tea products).
"People may think we are a little crazy, but it is the crazy ones that change the world," Love said. "We have a first mover advantage that we have to capitalize on."
Click here for the full article
