New Belgium Brewing, located in Fort Collins, Colorado, has established itself as one of the best craft breweries in the country. This is evidenced by this year's "Best Beers in America" beer and brewery rankings done by Zymurgy Magazine. This year, New Belgium had 3 beers in the top 50 (#20 Fat Tire Amber Ale, #25 Ranger IPA, #25 La Folie Wood-Aged Biere) and was ranked as the #6 best brewery behind only Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head, Stone, Russian River, and Bell's.



New Belgium's first ever employee, Brian Callahan, was nice enough to take some time to answer some questions on New Belgium and the craft beer world for us. More information on New Belgium can be found here, and more information on Brian's role within New Belgium can be found here.

Chris: What was your story before joining New Belgium? How did you get involved in brewing? What brought you to New Belgium?

Brian: I was living in Laramie, 65 miles north of Fort Collins, and had become an avid homebrewer. I was painting homes full time and teaching at the county jail part time and knew I didn't want to do either of these for the rest of my life. The craft beer movement had begun and I realized I could make a living with beer. Visiting New Belgium's tiny basement operation inspired me and showed that I could do this on a small scale, and so I wanted to open a brewpub. I was expecting to be laid off for several weeks from painting so I contacted New Belgium. As a start-up, I thought they could use some free labor. I told them I wanted to open a brewpub someday but knew I needed some commercial experience and was willing to work for free. They said they could use some help bottling so I started doing that a couple days/week and they would send me home with beer to thank me for my help. This went on for 4-6 weeks until one day they said I was a big help and they wanted to start paying me!

Chris: New Belgium prides itself on its business practices (being eco-friendly, employee ownership, etc). As the business' first ever employee-owner, how would you say these values affect the business and its employees?

Brian: New Belgium has 10 core values and beliefs, found here. These are alive and well, continuously guiding our decision-making and shaping our business practices and strategic priorities. Along with these, we adhere to the triple bottom line concept of people/planet/profits, along with the practice of "take care of your people and they will take care of you", so employees are treated well. We know that it's a different company that really cares about it's employees; add in employee ownership and you've got people who really care about each other and the company, so everybody is working toward shared goals. We're continuously raising the bar and doing the right thing. All this makes it a great place to work so we're able to attract incredibly talented people who make this place even better.

Chris: What's special about New Belgium beers?

Brian: The diverse portfolio is amazing, from sessionable beers to big bold ones in the Lips of Faith series. I'm continuously impressed with the stuff our crew is putting out. Producing world class beer in a sustainable manner with a strong philanthropy program makes us pretty special.



Chris: New Belgium recently got some great ratings in Zymgurgy Magazine's

50 Best Beers in America, and those rankings are made by polling members of the American Homebrewers Association, people who really know their beer. Fat Tire was ranked the #20 Best Beer in America, Ranger was tied at #25, La Folie tied at #35. That's three New Belgium beers in the top 50. You were also ranked as the #6 best brewery in America, and you were tied for #6 in the Best Portfolio category with 26 beers. These are pretty incredible numbers. What does this mean for New Belgium? What does it mean going forward?

Brian: It's interesting that our most award winning beers (at the [Great American Beer Festival]) are our least sold beers. So I don't know that awards drive sales but it is great positive feedback to be recognized by the AHA members who are really passionate about beer.

Chris: Do you feel any pressure to follow beer trends and brew what's popular?

Brian: Typically not, because we want to be on the front side of trends not following. But I must admit that our sales staff (beer rangers) were pushing for an IPA for years. So we finally made one and named it in honor of them.

Chris: How would you define craft beer? Is it about the number of barrels produced, the quality of the ingredients, or is it something else?

Brian: I'm OK with the Brewer's Association's definition [small, independent, traditional], but personally I don't want an us/them division. We're all brewers. As long as is it's good, clean, & consistent, then we should all be proud to pour it.

Chris: What's your favorite trend in the craft beer world right now?

Brian: Wood-aged beers - the balance of art & science, the complexity of beer coming out of wood, and the time involved is pretty amazing.

Chris: What's your favorite style of beer? What's your favorite New Belgium beer? What's your go-to non-New Belgium beer?

Brian: Wood-aged beers, then probably pale ales; I like some hop character but many IPAs are all hops and nothing more. I don't think heavily hopped beers are thirst quenching enough but the pale ales usually have a nice balance. From NBB I love Tarte Lychee & Eric's Ale and I love the seasonal beer program - I'm really impressed with the selection we've been putting out. Somersault is great this time of year. I really like to drink local beers when travelling and try stuff not available in Colorado. Sierra Nevada pale ale is tried & true, I also like many offerings from Odell's, our neighbor.

Chris: Do you ever drink cheap commercial beer like Bud or Coors?

Brian: Yes. While they lack flavor they have their place for drinkability. Many beer snobs put these down but it's an impressive technical challenge to produce clean consistent bland beers with long shelf life.

Chris: What's in the future for New Belgium?

Brian: Our goal is to become a national brewer, so look for more markets to be rolled out in the coming years. After Michigan this year, the rollout pace will slow down until our Asheville brewery comes on line in 2015. So that's definitely in our future - very exciting to be planning a $100 million brewery on the east coast. And look for plenty of new beer offerings; the consumer is driving the demand for variety so we'll continue to come up with new stuff.

Chris: What do you think is in the future for craft beer?

Brian: More breweries, more beers, more collaborations, more market share. The slow food/ buy local movement will continue to grow and this plays well for craft beer. The mega breweries will continue to struggle holding onto market share. Most would agree the wood aged beer family will continue to grow. It takes a long time and investment in wood storage, but many breweries are putting up the investment now.



Again, a special thanks to Brian for taking the time to share some thoughts on craft beer with us. With the Asheville brewery planned to come on-line in 2015 to bring New Belgium to the East Coast, hopefully New Belgium will start to have a presence in New Jersey soon enough. Until then, keep an eye out for it when you're in one of the states it currently distributes to (currently 28 states with Maryland the closest), it's worth it.

Chris Morris runs his own beer website Black Dog Brewhouse where he discusses everything beer. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisMorrisBeer

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