Tony Kiss

tkiss@gannett.com

Don't make plans for that first cold beer or a tour of West Asheville's New Belgium brewery just yet.

New Belgium has pushed back the opening of its Liquid Center tasting room until March and brewery tours until April, company spokeswoman Susanne Hackett said. The Liquid Center was originally announced to open this month, with tours beginning in March.

The delays come as New Belgium continues to test brew at its massive brewery on the French Broad River near downtown, Hackett said, "We have finished some batches of beer," she said. "We want to get the beer out the door as soon as possible, but we want to get the right beer," she said. "We are taking our time with that."

New Belgium is testing its brewing system with batches of Fat Tire Amber Ale, 1554 Black Lager and Ranger IPA. Those beers were chosen for testing because of their different profiles and processes for brewing.

Construction is down to "the last 15 percent" at the brewery, which will be Asheville's largest, and one of the biggest in Western North Carolina, along with Sierra Nevada in Mills River and Oskar Blues in Brevard. The New Belgium brewery will be 127,000 square feet and the Liquid Center tasting room will be 6,000 square feet and include indoor and outdoor seating. The brewery will open with 80 employees and the number of workers will grow to 150. New Belgium has invested $140 million in the project.

At full build-out, the brewery could produce up to 500,000 barrels of beer for sale in the eastern United States. The original New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, will continue to serve the western half of the country.

The brewing scene in Asheville and Western North Carolina continues to grow, with 22 breweries in Buncombe County and another 24 open around the mountains. Other breweries are under construction or are in planning stages.

Potential New Belgium sale worth fretting over?