Thanks to New Belgium for sponsoring our visit to your Asheville Brewery! All thoughts are my own. |
Asheville's popularity for rising breweries has quickly been noticed in recent years as it's been named Beer City USA four times in the annual Beer City Poll. A unique and exciting history of craft beer has prompted various breweries to establish east coast locations in Asheville for various reasons. Whether it's the fresh mountain air and water or a revitalization and growth of certain areas around Asheville, many breweries now call this wonderful city home.
New Belgium Brewery is no different, calling Asheville home since 2016. This unique craft beer has existed since its inception in 1988, when its co-founders traveled to Belgium on a bike tour, and decided they wanted to bring craft beer back to their home in Fort Collins, CO.
I've traveled to the Fort Collins site, and it's very cool to tour, but I have to say, that I absolutely LOVED visiting New Belgium in Asheville. The entire grounds are amazing and it's obvious that the company has taken a lot of care in creating a special place along the French Broad River.
As many times as I've been to Asheville and have visited other breweries and craft beer locations, New Belgium was never on the list. When I had the opportunity during this trip, I took it!
My sister and I hopped onto the New Belgium 90 minute Classic Brewery Tour and were not disappointed.
This $20.00 tour highlights the unique and exciting history of New Belgium in general combined with the Asheville location history. Sitting on 18 acres of unique Asheville History, New Belgium made sure to work with the local community AND be environmentally conscious as much as possible.
Located right off the French Broad river, the site was once home to a circus performance, an auto salvage shop, and even once a stockyard. Using as many of the wood and steel tresses as much as possible and using brownfield remediation techniques, New Belgium was and still is committed to giving back to the community and being great stewards as much as possible.
The Classic tour highlights this history along with the inception and creation of New Belgium Brewery from the very start, with its original owners Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch. I have to say that our tour took way longer than 90 minutes on our Monday afternoon visit, but with such a small group of participants, we had loads of fun, asked questions, and were able to see some areas that larger groups are unable too because of sizing and accommodations.
It was quite fascinating to see a brewery in progress- and of course, having some fun tasting along the way! The tour's tasting selections highlight specific New Belgium classics along with some fun seasonal rotations, and we got to learn about the history of each type!
New Belgium has had IPA's, or India Pale Ale's, since its start but also has gained traction in recent years with a different Voodoo Ranger Line and most recently, Hard Juices & Seltzers. From discussing the concept of Sour IPA's to the more traditional Fat Tire, this unique tour takes your taste buds on a journey as you get to see production in process!
One of the very cool things about this tour was learning about New Belgium's methods to test all beer before and after it goes out to the public. This means that they are committed to quality control even after it's been out on shelves for several months! If something goes wrong, they have a cold storage container filled to return to and retest based on production date. For me, that is a plus, because that means they are committed to quality and committed to their customer loyalty. They take ownership if something goes wrong or isn't right, and will pull their beer off of consumer shelves rather than selling it knowing something is wrong.
Another wonderful thing we learned on this tour is the way the company takes care of its employees. As I stated above, New Belgium is committed to environmentally protective actions, but they are also committed to caring for those who work for them. Whether it's providing beer for them to take home or providing a 5-year anniversary trip to Belgium (to relive the experiences of the original founders), New Belgium is committed to helping and educating their employees so that they can grow and be passionate about New Belgium products!
Ok, so back to our 90-minute turned 2 hour tour highlights. The tour included:
- Overview of the Asheville location and how New Belgium developed relationships with the community
- Overview of New Belgium Asheville Production, including the way the grain is mixed with water to eventually create beer
- The history of New Belgium, complete with how the founders developed craft beer
- The testing line of New Belgium products, complete with taste tests, science, and other methods to make sure each production is on point!
- Tasting 3 or 4 different kinds of beers along the way
- Learning how the company takes care of their employees
- Learning how New Belgium loves its customers too!
- A fun slide to get from the upper to lower level that adds a bit of mysterious comedy to the tour!
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