New Belgium Brewing 2009 Clipbook

New Belgium Brewing Media Presence 2009

Table of ContentsJanuary 2009..............................................................................................page 3 to 21February 2009...........................................................................................page 21 to 30March 2009...............................................................................................page 31 to 42April 2009..................................................................................................page 43 to 51May 2009....................................................................................................page 51 to 60June 2009..................................................................................................page 61 to 77July 2009...................................................................................................page 78 to 87August 2009...............................................................................................page 87 to 95September 2009......................................................................................page 96 to 105October 2009..........................................................................................page 105 to 116November 2009.....................................................................................page 117 to 133December 2009.....................................................................................page 134 to 146

January 1, 2009From Basement to Brewery True Tales of Homebrewers Who Turned ProWhile many homebrewers dream of opening their own craft breweries, few are actually able to abandon theirday job to turn a basement hobby into a full-fledged career—although, according to Julia Herz of the BrewersAssociation, that’s where many craft brewers get their start. “At least half of the brewers you talk with willsay they started homebrewing first,” she says. Here are some former homebrewers who’ve made it to the bigleagues.AleSmithSan Diego, CaliforniaAll employees of this Southern Californian microbrewery are also award-winning homebrewers.Bell’s BrewingGalesburg, MichiganOriginally a homebrewing supply shop, Bell’s Brewing, formerly known as Kalamazoo Brewing Company,bottled its first beer in 1985. Owner Larry Bell has since expanded this oldest surviving microbrewery east ofColorado into production of over 90,000 barrels a year.Boulder Beer Co.Boulder, ColoradoColorado’s first microbrewery launched in 1979, when two former homebrewers moved their operation to agoat shed on a small Colorado farm. Almost 30 years later, Boulder Beer Co. has the capacity to brew up to43,000 barrels of beer annually.Brooklyn BreweryBrooklyn, New YorkSteve Hindy experimented with homebrewing while working as a journalist in the Middle East, and uponreturning to the States in 1988, he opened Brooklyn Brewery with former banker and neighbor, Tom Potter.Dogfish HeadMilton, DelawareHomebrewer Sam Calagione founded Delaware’s first brewpub in 1995, and in 2002 moved brewing operationsto a 100,000-square-foot converted cannery.New BelgiumFort Collins, ColoradoAfter touring Belgium by bike in 1989, homebrewer Jeff Lebesch returned to Colorado where, after a two yearsof experimenting, he and his wife, Kim Jordan, launched New Belgium with their flagship ale, Fat Tire.RogueNewport, OregonAccountant and homebrewer Jeff Schultz launched Rogue Ales with three friends in an Ashland, Oregonbasement in 1988. It has since found a permanent home in a multi-level warehouse on the Oregon Coast. page

Sierra NevadaChico, CaliforniaAfter studying chemistry and physics in college and opening a homebrew shop in 1976, homebrewer KenGrossman met with Paul Camusi to discuss opening Chico’s first micobrewery. Their flagship beer, SierraNevada Pale Ale, launched in 1981.Surly Brewing Co.Brooklyn Center, MinnesotaIn 2005, after 11 years of homebrewing and an apprenticeship with New Holland, owner Omar Ansari openedthe doors of Surly Brewing Co.Widmer Brothers BrewingPortland, OregonHomebrewing brothers Kurt and Rob Widmer quit their day jobs in 1984 to open Widmer Brothers Brewing.Their flagship Hefeweizen helped make Widmer the largest brewery in Oregon.For in-depth profiles of three up and coming homebrewers, check out the January/February 2009 issue ofImbibe. page

January 2009New Belgium Releases ‘rolling carbonation’ Glassware page

Big Fermentations How to Brew Strong, Belgian-style Beers | Betsy ParksJanuary-February 2009 page

New Belgium Tap Handles | Doug HoversonJanuary-February 2009January 3, 200914 People to Watch in 2009Kim Jordan: CEO, New Belgium Brewing Co.Jordan heads a company that’s winning rave reviews for its corporate culture, its “green” practices - and its beers.As a result, New Belgium is considered a role model for how to run a successful business.Jordan founded New Belgium with her husband, Jeff Lebesch, in 1991.The Fort Collins beer maker, which posted $96 million in revenue last year, is the nation’s eighth-largest brewer. page 10

In October, The Wall Street Journal cited New Belgium as one of 15 small employers “that have built exemplaryworkplaces.” The company employs 320.The Journal noted that New Belgium’s workplace is one “where employees are engaged and enthusiastic aboutsupporting the company’s environmental cause.”That’s on top of making a variety of beers that have proved extremely popular. As a result, other companies areexpected to keep a close eye on New Belgium and its CEO in the coming year to learn from their success.“Given their momentum, they’ll continue to see other organizations looking to them as models and for inspiration,”said Julia Herz, craft beer program director at the Brewers Association.And what does she think of Jordan, who is a member of the Brewers Association board? “She puts everyone at ease- just like their beers.” page 11

Responsibility’s New Role | Alex PalmerJanuary 6, 2009 page 1

A Twentysomethings Guide to Going Green | Tracy HeplerJanuary 16, 2009As twentysomethings, we have the power to influence the future of our environment. Unlike our parents andGen X, we haven’t become brand committed yet. Businesses and leaders are waiting to see what we do. Withour practices, our wallets and the Internet, we have the ability to significantly steer the course of the Greenmovement.See Your City From a Different ViewGetting out of the car completely changes your perspective. Bicycling and walking through your communityallows you to actually engage in your neighborhood rather than just being a spectator who drives by. Theenvironmental benefit is that by committing to cycle within a 2 mile radius of your home you can keep up to 20lbs of carbon out of the air (per round trip).Volunteer in Your CommunityOur soon-to-be President has asked for a renewed “Call to Service.” Most major cities and towns haveenvironmental organizations that are looking for help. Whether it’s the big guns like the NRDC or smallgrassroots organizations, you can find a cause that is happy to have you. If committing isn’t possible, look intoactions like Eco Running where you take a bag with you as you walk or run through town and pick up trash asyou go along.Kick Your To-Go HabitWe live in a to-go culture, so it’s hard to kick the habit. First thing, get rid of the plastic bottle. One plasticbottle can take up to 700 years to decompose in the landfill. Earth Lust and Sigg make functional, stylish bottlesthat are easy to carry. In 2006 Starbucks cut down over 900,000 trees to create over 2 billion paper cups. If youcan drink your coffee there, ask for a mug. If you have to take it to go, get a portable mug. I’m a big fan of thestainless steel Hybrid Mug from revengeis.com. If you’re really committed, look into To-Go Ware. To-Go Wareis individual stainless steel containers and bamboo utensil you can take with you anywhere. Many restaurantswill let you put your take out or doggie bags in these containers. All you have to do is ask.Buy Green, Fair and UsedDesigners are now using resources like bamboo, organic cotton, hemp, reclaimed wood, plastic bottles andold unwanted clothes to make innovative products. Green fashion no longer equates to hippie frocks, ratherto high fashion runway couture by designers like Linda Loudermilk. Another element that is just as importantis the who behind your product. If your new cotton tee is organic but is made in a sweatshop in Burma, you’renot doing the planet much good. Make sure the companies you support honor Fair Trade practices as well. Ecochic fashion boutiques seem to be sprouting up everywhere, but if you can’t find one near you visit two of myfavorite online eco shops: thegreenloop.com and btcelements.com.Look into vintage or recycled fashions. I’ve been able to score big designer names like Michael Kors andAlexander McQueen for $10. Visit stores like Buffalo Exchange or Crossroads if you live on the West Coast. Yourlocal vintage shop will have great finds at cheap prices too. For furniture or electronics, websites like Craigslist.com and Freecycle.org are great ways to get products that are already out there and might be destined for the page 1

landfills if no one takes them.When in doubt, it is always greener to buy used than to buy new even if the product is green.Party With the Big O: Organic Beer, Wine, & SpiritsFood is not the only thing that should be organic. Look for organic beers from local brewersor companies like New Belgium. Countries all over the world have begun growing organic andbiodynamic wines. There are a growing number of organic spirits on the markets too. A mentionmust go out to 4 Copas Organic Tequila for their smooth, white tequila that tastes better thanPatron.Educate Yourself and Spread the KnowledgeIf there is one lesson we can learn from the Obama Campaign it is the power of the Internet toorganize movements. Friends, “Facebook friends” and strangers can build support to rally aroundmutual causes. Share your favorite green sites, blogs and tips with others. Become a supporter ofgreen organizations and the individuals that bring you this information.*Remember, every step helps no matter how small.Do Consumers Care About Carbon Footprints? | Andrew MartinJanuary 22, 2009 Can companies drive sales by revealing the carbon footprint of their products? The answer to that question may become clear in coming years as more and more American businesses evaluate the carbon footprints of their products — and provide those details to consumers. The most recent example comes from PepsiCo, which says that it determined that the carbon footprint of its half-gallon carton of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice is 3.75 pounds of carbonPepsiCo measured the carbon footprint of its dioxide. The company plans to release the carbon footprints ofsignature orange juice brand, Tropicana. (Photo:Chip Litherland for The New York Times) Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Gatorade and Quaker Chewy Granola Bars in coming months.PepsiCo said it doesn’t plan to put the carbon footprint of Tropicana on its carton anytime soon, but willprovide details on its Web site for those consumers who are interested. New Belgium Brewing did the samething when it evaluated the carbon footprint of its Fat Tire Amber Ale (7 pounds of carbon dioxide are releasedinto the atmosphere for every six pack).“There’s really not a relevant reference point,” said Brian Lembke, a senior manager on the Tropicana carbonproject. “If we put 1.7 kilograms on a container, a consumer would say, ‘So what?’” page 1

“Ultimately I’ll think we’ll be there,” he added. “Now we’d be the only one with a carbon footprint.”That didn’t stop PepsiCo from trying it in England in 2007, when it listed the carbon footprint of Walkers-brandpotato chips on the label. Neil Campbell, who was in charge of Walkers at the time and is now president ofTropicana North America, said consumers in England are simply more familiar with carbon issues.“In England, they didn’t necessarily understand the number, but what they respected was the fact that wewere being transparent and committed to reduce and lead,” Mr. Campbell said. “It’s not something that drovesales particularly, but it helped with consumer perception.”But if consumers have a better perception of a company’s carbon footprint, will they buy more of its products?That remains to be seen.Healthy Snacks for Super Bowl Sunday | Frances Largeman-Roth, RDJanuary 26, 2009 Even though I was born on Super Bowl Sunday and my husband played college ball, I’m not a football fan. But I do get into watching the expensive commercials and settling in for some tasty snacks. The problem is that most of what gets served for the occasion is what I call “caveman food”—stuff that you can pick up with your hands and that has enough calories to keep you going till you kill the next saber-toothed tiger. I’m all for party food, but it doesn’t have to be laden with fat and sodium to be a good time. Here’s my menu for game day, guaranteed to allow you to get off the couch by the halftime show.BeerNo Super Bowl party would be complete without some cold brews. If you happen to live on the West Coast,pick up some of New Belgium’s Sunshine Wheat Beer. My other fave (not that I can enjoy it right now, beingeight months preggers) is Blue Moon. Try the seasonal Full Moon Winter Ale. I find that wheat beer is reallyrefreshing and goes well with a lot of different types of food.Dips and suchWhite Bean and Roasted Garlic Dip is low fat but robust enough to feel appropriate for the occasion. Serve itup with toasted pita chips and an assortment of veggies (carrots, celery, radishes, and pepper strips are nice).For something even easier, try this Creamy Salsa Dip. Just dump bottled salsa (as hot as you like) into a bowland mix with yogurt, sour cream, and a little green onion and cumin. It’s perfect for crowds that turn up theirnoses at anything that smacks of “gourmet.” Serve with baked tortilla chips and jicama sticks. page 1

Everyone loves a Warm Spinach-Artichoke Dip, but most are filled with copious amounts of artery-cloggingsaturated fat. Our version uses a secret ingredient—lima beans—to keep the dip rich and creamy, whilekeeping the fat under 5 grams per serving. Serve it hot from the oven with crusty bread, or spoon it into apumpernickel round.The hearty stuffThe game starts at dinner time (6 p.m. EST), so you’ll be able to stave off your guests’ hunger with chips anddip for only so long. Then they’ll want something more substantial, like our Stromboli and ALT sandwiches. Thestromboli is like a classic meatball sub. I recommend serving it on a baguette instead of individual French rolls.That way, you can slice a big sandwich into a bunch of minis, which is much easier for serving.The ALT (Avocado, Lettuce, and Tomato) Sandwich will make your vegetarian friends happy (yes, there are non-meat-eating football fans). I would double the recipe and put turkey bacon on half of the sandwiches for evengreater crowd appeal.A warm bowl of chili is another favorite game-day dish. Try this easy vegetarian Black Bean Chili With WinterSquash or our more stick-to-your-ribs Smoky Chipotle Chili with steak. It has a hint of unsweetened cocoa for aricher flavor. Make them the day before, and then serve in a slow cooker on low.Sweet noteWhether you’re a die-hard Steelers fan or a dedicated Cardinals supporter, wrap up the game with a treatthat’ll please both camps. These Cheesecake Brownies have a luscious swirl on top and are a lean 140 calories.If you don’t have time to make your own brownies, you can use a boxed mix and dress it up with the lightcream cheese swirl.And, not to toot my own horn, but my recipe for Oatmeal-Date-Chocolate Cookies rocks. The dates addchewiness to these delicious and heart-healthy snacks. I won’t tell anyone there are dates in the cookies if youdon’t.Super Bowl, Organic Beers a Match | Kelsey AbbottJanuary 26, 2009To make Super Bowl XLIII “green,” the National Football League’s Environmental Program will plant thousandsof trees in the Tampa Bay area, power the stadium with renewable energy and buy carbon offsets to balanceout travel by the teams and NFL officials.Making your own Super Bowl shindig green doesn’t have to be quite so complicated. In fact, simply bychanging the type of beer you quaff, you can improve your bash’s eco-friendliness. From organic craft beers toenvironmentally friendly efforts by the likes of Anheuser-Busch(BUD Quote), we’ll help you find the right greenbeer for your celebration.Start small: Full Sail Brewing Co. in Hood River, Oregon, sells seven beers, ranging from the award-winning FullSail Pale Ale to Session Premium Lager.The highly lauded beers come from a very eco-friendly company. Full Sail has reduced its energy use and waterconsumption by compressing its workweek into four 10-hour shifts, installing energy efficient lighting and aircompressors and putting in a hot water recovery system. The brewery purchases wind power each month, page 1

reducing its annual greenhouse gas emissions by 168 tons. Managers also work closely with local farmers,buying the majority of their hops and barley from Northwest farms and using the grain and yeast left over fromthe brewing process as feed for dairy cows.Employee-owned New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, Colorado, produced the first Belgian-style beersin the U.S. New Belgium makes the popular Fat Tire Ale as well as seven other brews. When the companybegan selling its wares in 1991, it vowed to “honor nature at every turn of the business.” The brewery uses anextremely efficient brew kettle and energy-efficient design throughout the building. New Belgium processesits own wastewater to produce methane, which is then used to fuel an engine that supplies up to 15% ofthe brewery’s energy needs. (They buy wind energy for the rest.) New Belgium also encourages bicyclecommuting: Every employee earns a cruiser bike after his or her first year on the job.Portland, Maine-based Peak Organic Brewing Co. has gone a step beyond using organic ingredients. Thebrewery’s Maple Oat Ale is made with local ingredients, including organic oats from Maine and organic maplesyrup from Vermont. Peak’s Espresso Amber Ale is the first Fair Trade-certified beer and is made with locallyroasted, organic Fair Trade-certified espresso from Portland’s Coffee by Design.Don’t forget the big guys: It might seem like microbreweries dominate the green beer market, but some ofthe larger companies are doing their fair share, too. In fact, Coors(TAP Quote) produced the first recyclablealuminum can in 1959 and instituted the first take-back program, offering a penny for each returned can. Fiftyyears later, Coors continues to take steps that cut costs and help the environment. Among other efforts, thecompany converts waste beer into fuel-grade ethanol that is added to gasoline and sells spent grains for cattlefeed.Anheuser-Busch, meanwhile, has been turning grain left over from the brewing process into livestockfeed since 1899. Last year, it shipped an estimated 1.74 billion tons of grain to dairy farms throughout thecountry. The company also recycles aluminum cans through its Anheuser-Busch Recycling Corp. In addition,its breweries in Jacksonville, Florida, and Fort Collins, Colorado, use wastewater from cleaning breweryequipment to provide water and nutrients to company-owned resource-recovery farms. These farms growcanola, which is used in biodiesel, and alfalfa and other hay crops, which are used for animal feed.January 30, 2009Beer Pairing for Super Bowl PartiesEfrain Madrigal from Sam’s Wines and Spirits in Chicago has made his picks of some unique craft beers to pairwith some of the most popular Super Bowl munchies.Chips & Guacamole- Surprisingly enough, more guacamole is consumed on Super Bowl than Cinco de Mayo!Pale Ale is the perfect beer to pair with guacamole. The rich, hoppy flavors of the El Chupalualo Pale Ale ($4.49per 22oz bottle) are the perfect accent to the jalapeño and cilantro in guac.Chili- A smooth dark beer is the best option to pair with a hearty bowl of Chili. The sweet malt flavors of NewBelgium Fat Tire Amber Ale ($2.99 per 22oz bottle) make it the ideal partner for a bold, spicy Chili. page 1

Buffalo Wings- A staple among many football fans, these hot, tangy wings need a beer to cool the palate. Acrisp, lighter beer like the Hoppin Frog Wild Frog Wheat Ale ($6.99 per 22oz bottle) is easy to drink but packedwith flavor to enhance the tangy punch of the wings.Pizza- Pizza is the perfect Super Bowl delight to feed the masses of hungry fans that you will be entertaining inyour home. Ommegang’s Hennepin ($5.99 per 750ml bottle) is a Belgian-style ale that matches up well withany kind of pizza, no matter how you slice it.Sausages- This finger friendly food is always served at sporting events especially here in Chicago. Whether it’sBrats, Hot Dogs or Italian Sausages, stouts like Bear Republic’s Black Stout ($4.99 per 22oz bottle) are a greatpartner. This bold beer is easy to drink and has a delicious chocolaty finish.About Sam’s Wines and Spirits: Founded in 1946, Sam’s Wines and Spirits has grown to be the nation’sleading independent wine and spirits retailer. The company’s success is due to its focus on customer service,selection, price, and knowledgeable staff. The company has been honored by both Wine Enthusiast and WineSpectator magazines as Retailer of the Year and has also earned Forbes’ Best of the Web award. Sam’s Winesand Spirits has four Chicago-area locations in Lincoln Park, Downers Grove, Highland Park, and the South Loop.Sam’s Wines and Spirits, Wine Director, Efrain Madrigal, has exceptional knowledge of wine and spirits andis bilingual in both Spanish and English. To learn more about what Sam’s Wines and Spirits has to offer visitSamsWine.comThe Super Bowl is Green - Here are 5 Ways to Celebrate Accordingly | Maura JudkisJanuary 30, 2009The NFL has been on a crusade for the past 14 years to reduce football’s impact on the environment, andhas quietly taken a lot of ecofriendly steps. Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the ArizonaCardinals will be powered by renewable energy and offset by tree planting. The venues will also recycle,donate leftover food to Tampa area food banks, and donate office supplies, decor, and construction materialsto area nonprofits. So how do you celebrate a sustainable Super Bowl? Here are five ways.1. Make your own pizza. It’s one of the busiest nights of the year for pizza delivery, and waiting for the pizzaguy is such a drag. In addition, pizza boxes can’t be recycled. It’s better to make your own pizza (which is notthat hard if you buy a kit). It will be healthier, faster, and produce much less waste.2. Try an organic brew. Planet Green offers a guide to organic beer, broken down by region so that you canbe sure your beer isn’t traveling too far to get to your party. Peak Organic and New Belgium are two popularbrands that have gotten rave reviews.3. Chicken wings are in short supply this year, so consider more vegetarian options. Have you heard aboutthe chicken wing shortage? Buffalo wings may be more expensive this year, because of high demand, and thebankruptcy of one supplier. That’s why it would be wise to include more vegetarian options on your menuthis year. You don’t even have to defy the annual Super Bowl tradition of eating greasy comfort foods to bevegetarian - frengh fries, macaroni and cheese, and potato skins are all sure to please a football-lover’s palate.A recent study from Scientific American says that beef contributes 13 times the greenhouse impact of chicken,and 57 times that of potatoes, so load up on the fries instead of the hot dogs. page 20

4. Skip the paper plates. Most of your Super Bowl fare is scooped out of communal bowls and eaten with yourhands. You probably won’t need any paper or plastic plates or disposable utensils if all you’re eating is chips,dip, and pizza anyway, and you’ll save money on your celebration by crossing these items off of your list andusing your regular dishes, instead.5. Adjust the settings on your big screen TV so that it uses less energy. If you turn down the brightness justa little and compensate with room lighting, it will save between 30 to 50 percent of the power that the TVconsumes, says CNET. Find more energy-saving TV tips here.February 1, 2009Tempe’s Tour de Fat Rides HighTour de Fat, New Belgium Brewing’s traveling celebration of all things bicycle, passed the $1 million mark inmoney raised for non-profit organizations. The 11 2008 Tour de Fat (www.tour-de-fat.com) stops raised morethan $250,000, making the grand total $1,015,196 for the nine years of the cycling circus. The City of Tempe’sOct. 11 event attracted more than 7,000 attendees and raised $53,785, just behind the brew’s hometown of Ft.Collins’ top amount of $62,586 and way ahead of big cities such as Chicago with a weenie $11,000. Tour e Fatis free to participants, but beer and merchandise proceeds go to local cycling non-profits. That’s a lot of beerTempe! Tour de Fat also includes car-for-bike swappers, who commit to live car free for a year. Roll into moredetails at www.tour-de-fat.com page 21

February 1, 2009Fat Tire Packing page 2

A Bud Guy or a Microbrew Man | Tim FoleyFebruary 2009On the campaign trail, the President tried a variety. He explained drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon at a bar inNorth Carolina this way: “When in PBR land, you drink PBR.” In Pennsylvania he had a Yuengling, in Indiana aBudweiser.His first impulse as president could be to return to what he knows best—Chicago and its own Goose Islandales. But does a world leader want to be shown with a beer named Honker’s Ale?President Obama presents himself as a man with a refined palate, so microbrews might be the way to go—although any microbrew pick comes with a geographic price. Pennsylvania is important politically, and tough-minded drinkers of Iron City in Pittsburgh could be turned off if Obama drinks Gaelic Ale from North Carolina.Mass-market Budweiser might have been a no-brainer two years ago, but given his repeated promises toprotect American jobs, it’s doubtful he’d drink Bud now that it’s part of the Belgian company InBev.Coors? Colorado voted Democratic in 2008, so it’s politically okay, but company head Pete Coors ran for theUnited States Senate in 2004 as a Republican and is a big GOP funder.The President could show fiscal leadership by drinking a cheap beer like Old Milwaukee—but is “cheap” theright world-leader image?Perhaps the Boston Beer Company is his best option. It makes Sam Adams—a historic, patriotic name—and thecompany preaches corporate responsibility. For an ecofriendly appearance, there’s always the New BelgiumBrewery in Colorado. New Belgium relies on wind energy to produce its beer. page 2

As to Obama’s preferred way of drinking beer? It’s right there in his campaign slogan: No bottles, just “yes, wecan.” This article first appeared in the February 2009 issue of The Washingtonian.Brewer Learns Lesson About Green Marketing | Ciara O’RourkeFebruary 3, 2009As businesses recalibrate their environmental impact, breweries, of all places,seem to be struggling to outdo one another with efforts to turn amber ales green.In Wisconsin, La Crosse City Brewery is recycling its waste to generate three millionkilowatt-hours of electricity a year for a local hospital. Keystone Brewery won’tdistribute farther than 35 miles from Wiltshire, England, where it only uses Britishhops. And Coors has been busy touting the 50th anniversary of the aluminum can,a more readily recyclable packaging material the company introduced in 1959.One of the more aggressively green beer makers — at least by reputation — hasbeen New Belgium Brewery, an independent craft brewer in Fort Collins, Colo.,which teamed up with the Climate Conservancy last summer to publish a life-cycleassessment of one six-pack of its Fat Tire brand beer.The company, in fact, has been chipping way at its carbon footprint since 1999,when it began taking advantage of wind power through the local utility — a moveit underscored heavily in its promotional materials. But in so doing, the brewery became the object of a harshtruth-telling campaign and repeated complaints of greenwash — an unpleasant experience, no doubt, but onethat the company has now embraced as it continues its sustainability efforts.In 2005, an ex-employee and self-appointed gadfly began calling-out New Belgium for labeling its product “100percent wind-powered.”From The Denver Post: This claim has apparently boosted sales among beer guzzlers who are deeply concerned about global warming. It’s also forced competitors to examine their own practices. But it isn’t entirely true. In addition to electricity, New Belgium burns natural gas — which is not produced in a wind turbine. The trucks that distribute its beer do not run on wind. The glass bottles — from an outside supplier — require more energy to make than the beer itself, much of it coming from page 2

fossil fuels. And most of these bottles likely end up in landfills anyway.Additionally, New Belgium doesn’t run a wind farm. It buys renewable-energy credits, paying a premium forthe right to claim that the electrons it uses come from a wind turbine instead of a power plant, even if it is nottechnically so. New Belgium initially dismissed the claims as those of a wild-eyed — and angry — ex-employee,obtaining restraining orders against the fellow and calling his complaints a matter of semantics, according toThe Post.In 2007, however, the company agreed to modify its claims of being “100 percent wind-powered” — and theexperience might have proved reason enough for the brewery to circle its wagons.Instead, New Belgium embraced the rebuke and used it as a catalyst for increased transparency in its first-eversustainability report, which it published last month. (A PDF of the report is available here.)Wrote the company’s sustainability director, Jenn Orgolini, in the publication’s preface: Omission can be a reflex when your instinct is to protect the company you love from unwarranted harsh judgments. But, we learned to flex our openness and humility more readily in 2007 when an aggrieved ex-employee rightly accused us of incorrectly using the phrase “100% wind-powered” when natural gas provides over half the energy we need to make beer. We never meant to mislead. … Please tell us if you think we’ve left anything out of this report.Looking forward from that incident, the company has laid out a number of sustainability ambitions.Among other things, New Belgium noted that packaging and transporting of raw materials, including barley,which is imported from faraway Wisconsin, account for nearly half of its overall footprint.As a result, Ms. Orgolini said the company was investing in research to harvest local barley, and that it wasopening a new packaging facility designed to reduce carbon emissions. The company also reported that it hadpartnered with the city of Fort Collins, Colorado State University and “other energy-focused companies” inapplying for a grant from the Department of Energy to fund a project aimed at reducing peak-load electricitydemand.Last Spring, the D.O.E. granted the city and its partners $6.3 million in funding toward that end, and NewBelgium said it now plans to install $4 million in energy-saving technologies — “funded 50 percent in house,25 percent by the D.O.E. and 25 percent by in-kind donations,” according to the sustainability report. Is is “ourbiggest single project,” Ms. Orgolini said.Still, some environmentalists remain unconvinced. New Belgium now distributes its beer in 18 states — a pointnot lost on Will Walters of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Sierra Club, who would prefer to see companiesworking more locally.“I have seen Fat Tire in far flung places in other states where it shouldn’t be,” Mr. Walters said.Said Ms. Orgolini: The brewery’s sustainability efforts are “a work in progress.” page 2

Green Beer, Greener Beer | Dave BurdickFebruary 3, 2009Green Inc. this morning has a piece on New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, Colo. -- unfortunatelyheadlined “Brewer Learns Lesson About Green Marketing.” The story goes like this:New Belgium started buying wind offsets in 1999, then noticed that people liked that. They continued toincrease their green efforts and, as one might suspect, ramped up their marketing of those efforts. When oneemployee left the company, it apparently became his mission to carefully critique the brewer’s green efforts.That’s important. Green marketing should be carefully watched. And the man even made good points, causingNew Belgium to make positive changes a few years ago. But I’m not sure that the negative tone in “BrewerLearns Lesson” is warranted. Maybe “Obsessed Ex-Employee Spurs Green Brewer To Aim Even Higher.”Here is one point made on Green Inc.: Among other things, New Belgium noted that packaging and transporting of raw materials, including barley, which is imported from faraway Wisconsin, account for nearly half of its overall footprint.Stuff that comes from far away causes a bigger carbon footprint. True, and I applaud Green Inc. for makingthe point, and I’d sure hope they’d make it when reporting on any other business that requires “importing”ingredients from as far away as Wisconsin is from northern Colorado. But call me skeptical.Secondly, the following sentences make these amazing announcements, very casually: As a result, Ms. Orgolini said the company was investing in research to harvest local barley, and that it was opening a new packaging facility designed to reduce carbon emissions. The company also reported that it had partnered with the City of Fort Collins, Colorado State University and “other energy-focused companies” in applying for a grant from the Department of Energy to fund a project aimed at reducing peak-load electricity demand.Catch that? This is a brewer that wants to be involved in pioneering smart-grid technologies.New Belgium is actually pretty far ahead of most brewers, and may be matched in quantity and scope ofsustainability efforts only by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in Chico, Calif. New Belgium even hosted a “greenrecovery” community meeting recently: At a community session at New Belgium Brewing Co., environmentalists promoted residents’ health and safety, environmental health and a sustainable economic stimulus plan as a part of “green recovery” for Colorado’s sagging economy. “I really do think not only do we have a crisis in our face,” said Fort Collins Democratic Rep. Randy Fischer, “but we can make this crisis an opportunity by investing in a green Colorado.” page 2

But the ex-employee’s point is a good one, if not one made in the most cordial way. Raw materials for all kindsof products can come from very far away and offset many other, more well-publicized green efforts. Organichops used in American beers bearing the USDA organic label, for example, are mostly grown in the PacificNorthwest -- or in New Zealand.(Drinking locally is one of the very best ways to drink “green beer” because of the sheer weight of transportingbeer, especially in heavy glass bottles.)In any case, cutting down on packaging is always a good idea, New Belgium has started that this year: At current production levels, the move will eliminate 150 tons of cardboard from going into New Belgium packaging, while preventing 174 metric tons of CO2 emissions each year. In addition, the transition will save New Belgium an estimated $280,000 in the coming year. “We’ve designed a new 12-pack carton that will tighten the case to prevent bottles from hitting each other during transit,” said director of operations Mark Fischer.Additionally, the brewer has started canning its flagship beer, Fat Tire. Aluminum cans, while a bit nastier toproduce, take far less energy to recycle (and less energy to distribute, too).It’s important to watch companies that aggressively market their green efforts, as New Belgium does, but it’salso important to recognize a company that’s legitimately doing the right thing of its own volition.February 9, 2009Read about six couples who turned their eco-love into an eco-ventureJeff Lebesch and Kim JordanWe love a good love story, especially when it involves beer. In the early1990s, Lebesch and Jordan turned a curiosity about amateur ale-makinginto New Belgium Brewing, the county’s fifth-largest craft brewer. Thecompany is partially wind-powered, makes organic varieties, and givesbikes to its employees. Before going commercial, the Colorado couplehiked into the Rockies to write their mission statement; one of the 10items is “honoring nature at every turn of the business.” page 2

Talk of the Ton: 100 Acre Wood Preview | Bill LockwoodFebruary 23, 2009Blockwood: If you were to describe the roads and the tone of the rally to someone who has never been whatwould you say?John Huebbe: The roads are hard packed gravel, about 1-1/2 to 2 lanes wide with minimal crown to them,with dense forest of Oak and Pine on the outside. They can be very fast and flowing and at times have sometechnical sections. Most of the roads we’ve been running in the past three years are not car breakers so youwon’t see a lot of carnage. The average stage speeds of the rally are one of the highest in the series.Blockwood: What driving skills will 100AW favor and who possesses those?John Huebbe: Someone who has a lead foot. Seriously, if you can keep your foot down while doing over115mph through a series of turns you’ll be on the top of the podium come Saturday night. Ken Block isdefinitely the favorite coming into the rally and will have a huge target on his back. These roads were almostbuilt for his driving style. The only person that can beat Ken is himself. Assuming he doesn’t have car trouble, Iexpect him to take the win and match John Buffum’s four wins in a row feat from the 1970’s.Blockwood: What would you say your favorite spot or stage of the rally is?John Huebbe: My favorite spectator spot has got to be spectator point A along the Pigeon Roost stage. You’llsee the cars exit the forest, come down a straight-away, drift through a fast sweeping turn, and power outthrough a long straight.My favorite stage though is a toss-up between Camelback and Southern Loop, but I might give the edge toCamelback because of the massive jump in front of Ollie Coleman’s farm.Blockwood: And before the interview you had mentioned the volunteers…John Huebbe: Yeah, I really want to thank the literally hundreds of volunteers that come out every year to lendtheir hands helping us run such a great rally. I also want to thank New Belgium Brewing for the beer at theawards party! My mouth is watering now just thinking of the cold Fat Tire on tap. page 2

New Belgium Brewery: Work to Bike More | Sami GroverFebruary 26, 2009Pro-bike Billboard from Green Beer CompanyGenerally speaking, we TreeHuggers are not huge fans ofbillboards - especially when billboards have more rightsthan trees. But if they do or say cool green things, theytend to get a more sympathetic reception - take Lloyd’sround up of five sort-of green billboards. I’d like to throwNew Belgium Brewery’s latest advertising into the mix too -largely because I tend to love everything New Belgium does.The billboard is just one manifestation of New Belgium’spro-bike culture - click below the fold for a fun video aboutjust how much the brewery loves its biking employees.First, here’s a little more from AdFreak about New Belgium’slatest funky advertising: Cultivator Advertising & Design crafted the pro-biking message above on behalf of New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, Colo. The headline, “Work to bike more,” sounds like the work of a tipsy copywriter, so it’s probably good that he or she doesn’t drive a car. (We’re told the billboard’s placement over PT Motors’ “Cash for cars” sign was “fortuitous.”) The New Belgium video below shows the tangible benefits of cycling to work: It’s often quicker than driving, so you can get to work earlier and enjoy more weird ball-bouncing activities with your hippie co-workers.Australian brewer Coopers did something similar a while back with their “Walk to the Pub” posters too, but I’mnot sure any other company welcomes its biking employees with an impromptu disco/celebration as they bikethrough the gate...More on New Belgium BreweryNew Belgium Brewery Turns Waste Water into CashNew Belgium Brewery’s Got a Head on a Sustainable ProductSometimes Beer and Bikes Can MixAnd let’s not forget Planet Green’s guide on Where to Buy Green Beer. page 0

Hot List | Emily FuriaMarch 1, 2009 page 2

The Dish | Juan GalvezMarch 1, 2009 page

March 8, 2009Zimo: You Can Introduce Kids to Nature Hikes with a Few Helpful TipsEighteen-month-old Cade took off down the trail, and before I could snag him, he did a face-plant in the dirt,got a mouthful of pine needles and pebbles, and had a scratch on his nose.The fall didn’t matter. He didn’t bat an eye, got up, continued to chew on the pebbles, and took off down thetrail like the Energizer Bunny.Kids love the outdoors. They love being outside. You’ve just got to give them a chance to enjoy nature, dirt andall that stuff.It’s fun to hike with your grandkids, but anything can happen, like chewing on pebbles.I’ve taken my 4-year-old grandson, Alec, on a bunch of hikes, but it was the first time the toddler hit the trailwith me.My son and grandsons and I headed out for a short hike before dinner last weekend.I started remembering a few things that I had forgotten when my kids were young. So here are some tips forhiking with youngsters: ® Keep toddlers in kids backpacks or push them in carriers built for trails. That keeps them from doing too many face plants. ® Let the toddler out of the carrier to walk the trail, feel boulders, look at bugs and explore things under close supervision. ® Keep the hike short and do more nature watching and investigation than hiking. Climbing small boulders may take up the entire hike, but it will be the most memorable part of the outing. ® Take every opportunity to teach the child something, indirectly, like the importance of wildlife after you see an animal track; why water is so important if you see a puddle in a natural bowl on a rock; why plants are important when you see bunchgrass or sagebrush; or why we shouldn’t litter when you see a plastic water bottle or plastic bag. ® Remember to smell. Smell things like sagebrush, wetlands and tree bark. ® Taking a trash bag along will make the youngsters feel helpful. ® Take plenty of water. Kids like to drink from hydration packs. ® Give the kids who can walk on their own strict orders to walk, stay on the trail and stay close. ® Let the youngsters carry their own packs with water and snacks. ® Take enough clothing for layering for both of you. Early spring can be cold. Remember mittens and a hat. ® Scratches and bruises are always a possibility. It’s easy to carry a first-aid kit. ® Hiking doesn’t have to be a major production. Kids will enjoy hiking trails in city parks, along the Greenbelt and in the lower Foothills. ® Back off on your lofty goals. A short 100-yard hike may do the trick before everyone wants to go home. ® Pick an easy trail. My favorite trail system for kids hikes includes the trails near Camel’s Back Park. They are easy to explore, and climbing to the top of the mountain is usually a hit. page

® Pick a place like Camel’s Back or the Greenbelt where you know restrooms are available. ® Don’t worry about hiking boots until they are older. Kids can get by with good-quality sneakers. ® Above all else, stress safety and staying close. Give kids a whistle on their packs with strict orders not to blow it unless they are lost or need to get your attention.COMMUTER PLEDGEI like New Belgium Brewing Company’s beers, especially 1554 Enlightened Black Ale, but I really like its passionfor bicycles.The company is pushing Team Wonderbike and is looking for members. It’s a commitment to human-poweredand carbon-free transportation.Team Wonderbike (www.teamwonderbike.com) is a pedal-powered, bike-commuter club whose memberspledge to bike, not drive, as often as possible.“We currently have more than 15,000 members who have pledged to offset 14 million driver miles in thecoming 12 months, which equals 14 million pounds of CO2,” the company says.It makes me feel good about racking up a little over 2,000 miles a year.You’ll find newsletters, interaction with other bikers online and stories and ideas.Besides, I like reading about the brews, too.March 11, 2009Drink Green Beer on St. Pat’s...and the Other 364 DaysThe Sierra Club, on its website, The Green Life, suggests that you go ahead and enjoy a dyed-green beer tocelebrate St. Patrick’s Day. But what the Club would really like you to do is consider patronizing breweries that practice green policies that reduce their carbon footprint. Those companies’ products are the real green beers, says the Sierra Club, and it offers a list of such brewers for you to choose from—just in time for St. Pat’s. Here are some of its recommended green brewers. New Belgium Makers of Fat Tire and other Belgian-style beers. The Ft. Collins, Colo., brewer was the first U.S. brewery to source its energy from wind power. The company conserves energy in a variety of ways and is an innovative recycler. Sierra Nevada Brewers of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Porter, Stout and other malt beverages. page

The company has installed 250-kilowatt co-generation fuel cell power units to supply electric power and heatto the brewery. Sierra Nevada has earned a WRAP award for waste reduction from the state of California everyyear since 2001.Great Lakes BrewingThe Cleveland, Ohio-based brewer makes Burning River Pale Ale, Eliot Ness Amber Lager and several otherbrews. Great Lakes has a beer delivery truck that runs on used restaurant vegetable oil. All its packaging—from4-packs to full cases—are made of recycled content.Brooklyn BreweryMakes of Brooklyner Weisse Beer, as well as Brooklyn Pilsner, Lager, Brown Ale and other specialties. In 2003,this company became the first brewery in New York City to switch to 100% wind-generated electricity.We hope you’re able to enjoy some green beer on St. Pat’s Day…and the rest of the year. And, as the Irish say,may the wind always be at your back…or better yet, providing the electricity for your house.Fat Tire, Companion Beers Finally Roll into NC | Michael HastingsMarch 11, 2009Beer lovers have been rejoicing across North Carolina. As of March 2, New Belgium Brewing Co. beers fromFort Collins, Colo., finally became available in the state.Three of New Belgium’s beers, including the popular Fat Tire, are now available here.“I’ve gotten more calls about this than any other beer,” said Spencer Davis of City Beverage, which held a freetasting Saturday.Davis also had to field a ton of calls March 2, when the distributor didn’t deliver the beers as promised becauseof the snow.The shipment arrived the next day, though, and Davis has been selling 10 to 15 cases a day since. “I get 20 callsa day for this beer. It’s probably one of the biggest beers to hit North Carolina,” Davis said.He acknowledged that the culture around New Belgium accounts for at least part of the buzz.A man with a planNew Belgium brewing company started after founder Jeff Lebesch rode his mountain bike -- with fat tires --through Europe on a brewery tour. He returned home determined to make his own.The Wall Street Journal named New Belgium, which has about 320 employees, one of the top 15 smallworkplaces in 2008.The brewery is wind-powered and incorporates various elements of green design in its lighting, cooling andother systems. It donates 1 percent of all its sales to promote environmental stewardship. Employees ownabout 32 percent of the company. It also encourages bike riding over car driving; every employee who hasbeen there a year gets a custom New Belgium bicycle. page

The Fat Tire is an all-around beer. It’s toasty and biscuity, but very smooth, with hints of caramel and nuts.Another New Belgium beer, Mothership Wit, is an organic wheat beer that’s low in alcohol, light-bodied withhints of orange and coriander. But it has less of these spices than many other wheat beers. As several peoplementioned at the tasting, the Mothership Wit is a warm-weather beer, good for a day like we had Saturday.The third one, 1554, is dark ale that follows the model of steam beer, using lager yeast and room-temperaturefermentation. It’s more full-bodied with distinct coffee and chocolate flavors, but it is still quite smooth.All the beers sell for $3.99 for a 22-ounce bottle at City Beverage, though you might find them for less atgrocery stores.At Saturday’s tasting, opinion was divided about how good these beers are. Fat Tire, which gets most of thehype, got most of the criticism. Some called it a “pumped-up Yuengling” or “glorified Budweiser,” a bit toomiddle-of-the-road.Chip Culbreth said he was expected to be disappointed because of the hype, but he liked Fat Tire.“One of the trends in beer is extreme beers,” Culbreth said. “People like beers with really strong flavors. Thisone is smoother; the parts all add up to the whole.”Others at the tasting tended to prefer either 1554 or Mothership Wit over Fat Tire.Ben Sharpe said: “The Fat Tire didn’t live up to the hype. The 1554 was better. I liked the wheat beer the best.”People who stopped by Saturday’s Healthy Living Expo at the Benton Convention Center got a chance to pickup a few tips on eating better.Penny Riordan, a dietitian with Forsyth Medical Center, was the first speaker to take the main stage. Sheencouraged the crowd to swear off soda and fast food to cut sugar, fat and calorie consumption and to eatmore vegetables to get more nutrients.She held up a 20-ounce bottle of Cheerwine, saying that the bottle contains 17½ teaspoons of sugar.Fruit punches and juices can be worse, Riordan said.She also picked on ranch dressing, a favorite of Americans, saying that a 3-tablespoon serving has 260 calories,250 of which come from the whopping 28 grams of fat. That’s more than half of the suggested fat daily intakefor a typical woman.She offered a couple of ideas for sneaking more nutrients into diets: -Add heart-healthy nuts, such as cashews, to breakfast cereal. -Mix spaghetti squash with spaghetti noodles for pasta dishes. -Add carrot juice to tomato sauce. “It adds tons of vitamin A,” she said.In a handout, Riordan presented some eye-opening details on how giving up some “bad” foods can have apositive influence. -Giving up a daily 12-ounce soda (and not replacing the lost calories) can take off 1⅓ pounds in a month and 16 pounds in a year. -Giving up a 3-tablespoon serving of ranch dressing four times a week can take off 1⅔ pounds in a month and almost 20 pounds in a year. -Switching from 16-ounces of 2 percent milk to 16 ounces of skim milk can take off three-quarters of a pound in a month and 6 pounds in a year.The moral of the story, as Riordan said, is that “small things do add up.” page

On Tap: Tasting an Enlightened Ale from New Belgium Brewing | Jake GroveMarch 18, 2009 The day is still fresh in my head. In fact, I had almost given up that it would happen at all. The idea that one of my favorite beers would come South with me would have been cool, but was not something I expected. Thankfully, Yuengling eventually came and I have rejoiced since, enjoying a moderately priced beer that is almost like going home from time to time. Then, about six months ago, I was introduced to a beer that would stand alongside Yuengling Lager as one of my favorites. It was called Fat Tire from New Belgium Brewing Inc. I had heard of people willing to drive hours to Tennessee just to get a taste of the brew. Even I did that this Christmas and I talked about how good Fat Tire was and is. So, this past weekend, while hanging out in Asheville, I looked over at a neighboring table and, what to my astonished eyes did I see but a 22-ounce bottle of Fat Tire on a table. Asheville had finally pulled in one of most-loved beers out there and that meant New Belgium Brewing was in town. With that, so was one of their beers I had never had before.1554.This Belgian-style black ale is easily one of the best beers I have had the chance to drink. Almost like a porter insmell and look, the 1554 drinks closer to a red or a brown ale, putting off distinct hoppiness matched with sweetmalts.The poured head is thick, frothy and a light tan in color. The lacing is excellent, but the beer at large should bepoured with care from a 22-ounce bottle into a pint glass.Aroma is of toasted malts and a hint of chocolate.As for taste, that is where things get fun. The 1554 has smooth, caramel-like tones that provide a wonderfullightness for a beer that seems destined for thickness and overwhelming notes.That, and there is very little in the way of bitter aftertaste for a beer that seems hinged on that. Like the Fat Tire,this beer can be savored and enjoyed over several minutes or several hours depending on how many you can getyour hands on.The 1554, along with Fat Tire and Mothership Wit, are now available in Asheville in 22-ouncers only. There arearound $3.50 a piece in stores and $7 to $8 in restaurants.And if we are lucky, we will see them around these parts one day very soon. page

The Beer Nut: A Film with Foam | Norman MillerMarch 18, 2009A movie theater might seem like a precarious place to enjoy a beer, but fans can soon do so without spilling adrop.“Beer Wars,” a documentary with the beer industry as its main focus, will be presented across the country in aspecial screening on April 16. But the film is about so much more than just beer, said director Anat Baron.“This movie is about entrepreneurship in America,” said Baron.And, in addition to being a big-screen movie about beer, what is even more unique is what follows: a live paneldiscussion, with many of the people featured in the film, moderated by Ben Stein.“I wanted this film to be a conversation starter,” she said. “There’s no better way to start a conversation.”Baron has some insight in the beer business another documentarian might not have: She is the former generalmanager of Mike’s Hard Lemonade.The idea for the documentary began in 2005 when she read a magazine article that declared beer was dead.That touched something in her, so she went to the annual National Beer Retailers Association meeting, broughta camera crew and started talking to a few people about the beer industry.There she met Rhonda Kallman, founder of New Century Brewing of Hingham, and co-founder of the BostonBeer Company, maker of Samuel Adams.“What was interesting to me about Rhonda’s story was she was someone at the pinnacle of success, and shechucked all of that away to go out on her own. I thought she was really interesting,” Baron said.Kallman was the first person Baron decided to feature in her documentary. The second was Sam Calagione,founder and president of Dogfish Head Craft Brewers of Delaware.She met him at the Great American Beer Fest in Colorado in 2005.“The minute I met him, I knew he was someone I wanted to spend time with and to follow,” said Baron. “He’sa no-holds-barred kind of guy, and he’s willing to say what’s on his mind. I picked these two characters, notbecause I like their beers, but they have a story.”Baron followed both of them for more than two years, beginning in September 2005.The film chronicles how two relatively little guys in the beer business battle their way in an industry dominatedby big brewers. page 0

During filming, Calagione took out a $9 million loan to expand his brewery, while Kallman worked to try tomake her brewery, which brews Edison Light - described as a premium light beer - successful.Baron said she visited many breweries, including Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Coors, New Belgium and Stone, butthe film is about more than what you see at the breweries.“For those who are expecting to see a brewery tour, it’s not that,” she said. “It’s in there, but it’s much biggerthan that. You see Sam (Calagione) at home, and the risks he takes. Sam is the embodiment of the craft beermovement. I didn’t glamorize him. He’s no different than the other 1,400 people who own breweries.Recession-Friendly Employee Perks | Carlos BergfeldMarch 23, 2009During a slow economy, most companies are looking for places to cut spending. It’s tempting to start withemployee perks and rewards — the word “perk” itself implies an unnecessary extra. But your employees areyour most important asset, and keeping them happy is never more important than when layoffs and budgetscuts have made work a challenge. Here are three creative ways to keep rewards in your budget.1. Give Gifts That Mean SomethingFor those familiar with Fat Tire, New Belgium Brewery’s flagship ale, the Fort Collins, Colorado-based brewery’smost unique benefit shouldn’t come as a surprise: Employees receive a custom bicycle for their one-yearanniversaries. Founder Jeff Lebesch started the brewery after a bicycle tour through Belgium, and the breweryhas encouraged a culture of cycling enthusiasm since. “It’s a very tactile, tangible event when you receive yourbike,” says New Belgium media director Bryan Simpson. The one-year anniversary gift of a custom 1- or 3-speed cruiser bike — from popular bike makers like Electra, Spot, and Felt — is accompanied by a celebration,which Simpson says is almost like an initiation into a tribe, as all employees also become part owners after ayear’s time. The brewery provides ample bike parking and on-site showers to encourage workers to commutewith their gifts, and many do, Simpson says, making the award a vital employee benefit. “It’s a couple hundreddollars for the bike, but it means so much more,” he says.2. When You Can’t Give Money, Give TimeRunning into an employee who called in sick — or seeing incriminating photos of them on Facebook — isn’tjust uncomfortable: it can jeopardize a career and increase office tension. To avoid forcing employees to usefake excuses to get a free day, Los Angeles-based public relations firm JS Communications recently gave itsemployees two free “I Don’t Want to Get Out of Bed” days. “You don’t have to worry about seeing your bosslater in the day,” says Alissa Pinck, general manager and vice president of JS ’s New York office. “The day isyours, and you can do whatever you want with it.” Whether it’s relationship troubles, bad weather, or a daywhere getting out of bed just isn’t happening, JS2’s employees have readily accepted their two extra days peryear, Pinck says, which can be used on any day when an employee doesn’t have a meeting or conference callscheduled. “At first people were kind of like, ‘What’s the catch?’“ she says. “But since then, people have beentaking them, and they love them.” page 1

Brewery Peddles More than Ales with Biking Billboard Ads | Steve RaabeMarch 28, 2009 page 2

American Craft Brewers Inspired by Belgian-style Sour Beers | Zak StamborApril 8, 2009Most of the time, commercial brewing is an exacting and predictable science. When Greg Hall, brewmaster atGoose Island Brewing Co., decides what day to brew Honkers Ale, the brewery’s malty English bitter, he alsocan determine the exact dates he’ll filter and bottle the finished product.But that’s not the case with the brewery’s latest creation, Juliet, a jammy and surprisingly dry American wildale aged with Michigan-grown blackberries in used cabernet sauvignon barrels.Juliet is a distant cousin of traditional Belgian sour beer styles such as Flanders red ale and Oud Bruin. It isbrewed with brettanomyces, a wild yeast strain that is unpredictable in when it will mature and in what funkyaromas (barnyard, bacon or cheese) it will impart.That unpredictability makes sour beers such as Juliet difficult to produce. They need to age in oak barrels,which makes them costly to produce. And variations in those oak barrels lead to variation between batches,so brewers often blend batches together to create a consistent product. Moreover, the typical ingredients thatmake a sour beer sour, can contaminate and ruin a brewery’s other beers.Yet despite those obstacles, Hall, along with a number of other brewers from prominent American craftbreweries such as New Belgium , Jolly Pumpkin, Lost Abbey and Flossmoor Station, are hailing sour beers asthe next big thing in craft beer.“Beer drinkers’ palates have matured and they’re looking for something different,” said Tomme Arthur,brewmaster at the San Marcos, Calif.-based Lost Abbey. He was one of the first American craft brewers toproduce the hybrid sour style.Even though Belgians have made sour beers for hundreds of years, the beers weren’t readily available in theUnited States until relatively recently. But as soon as they became more widespread, a niche of Americanbrewers, such as Arthur, found that sour beers offer a new world of multifarious flavors—often within a singlebeer.Today a number of American craft brewers are taking elements from traditional sour beers, like the sweet, yettart, lambics brewed with cherries, raspberries or peaches and slightly vinegar-like Oud Bruins, to develop theirown idiosyncratic wild ales. For example, Lost Abbey’s Cable Car features a Champagne-like mouthfeel and amelange of lemon, kumquats and “funk.”Similarly, Ft. Collins, Colo.-based New Belgium recently released Eric’s Ale, a sour hybrid with subtle peachnotes and a warm, spicy finish.“In the beer geek population, sour beers are the Holy Grail,” said Lauren Salazar, New Belgium’s sensoryspecialist. “They’re difficult to produce. They’re impossible to control. But in the end, you end up falling in lovewith them.”Sour beers can be an acquired taste, said Ron Jeffries, owner and brewmaster of Dexter, Mich.-based JollyPumpkin Artisan Ales, which ages all of its beers in oak with souring bacteria. page

“Sour beers are like artisan cheeses: There is some education of the palate that should occur,” he said. “At firstit might seem off-putting before you grow to appreciate them.”Also like artisan cheese, sour beers require a hands-on approach, which is in line with the slow foodmovement, Salazar said.“It’s about slowing down, sitting back and relaxing,” she said. “Each sour beer is a surprise. It’s almost like avarietal that reflects the experience, knowledge and creativity of the brewer.”Sour beers probably will never appeal to more than 5 percent of beer drinkers, according to Mike Miller, ownerof Delilah’s.“[They don’t] taste like Stella Artois, and they’re not beers that you can down six or seven of while watchingthe ball game,” he said.But few beers pair better with food because of their complexity and acidity, said Goose Island’s Hall.For instance, because Juliet features a flavor profile similar to a pinot noir, it complements foods such as pork,game birds and oily fish like salmon. The protein cuts down the acidity and sourness of the beer, allowing theoak and other nuances to come forward.“A number of restaurants have craft beers, but what they don’t have is the right beers to go with their foods,”Hall said. “Once chefs try drinking a sour beer with their food, you’ll start to see sour beers on their menus.”Corona Extra’s Sales are Losing Fizz | Mike HughlettApril 10, 2009Part of the problem for Corona Extra was a price increase instituted in 2007, industry analysts say. Domesticbrewers didn’t raise prices until months later, leaving a larger-than-usual price gap just as the economy soured.“The economic winds are clearly blowing right in their faces,” said John Greening, a professor at NorthwesternUniversity’s Kellogg School of Management and a beer advertising expert. As a consumer, “When I’m fearful,I’ll buy what’s good enough for right now,” he said.Indeed, although sales of craft beers like Sam Adams and Fat Tire grew a robust 8% last year, that was only halfthe rate of 2007, according to Nielsen.Sales of craft beers, meanwhile, have upped the competition for imports. “We know there is a lot of interactionbetween craft and import brands, and we believe some of the import brands are losing to craft,” said NickLake, a Nielsen vice president.Then there’s Bud Light Lime, which debuted in May and outsold Corona Light for the year, according to BeerMarketer’s Insights.The industry is known for fads -- remember “ice” beer? -- so it’s too soon to know if Bud Light Lime has stayingpower. But some analysts say the brew has hurt Corona. “Last summer, it certainly had an effect on Corona,”Beer Business Daily’s Schuhmacher said. “The drinker profile is similar to that of a Corona drinker.” page

Carlos Laboy, an analyst at Credit Suisse, indicated in a recent report that Corona may have an even biggerissue, saying the vaunted brand “really has life cycle issues.”In other words, Corona may be getting long in the tooth. Nielsen’s Lake said he’s not buying that notion.Nielsen regularly surveys consumers between ages 21 and 29, and asks them what brand first comes to mindwhen they think of imported beer.“The No. 1 import brand they still brought up was Corona,” Lake said.Top Green Spirits, Cocktails with a Green Twist | Sangwon YoonApril 10, 2009Even drinking can be considered a green activity now. Many distilleries and breweries are launching spiritsmade from organic ingredients, as well as bottled and packaged with environmentally friendly materials. LosAngeles–based Modern Spirits claims to offer “the world’s most carbon negative product” in its Tru OrganicSpirits, gin and vodka in three flavors—straight, lemon and vanilla. The makers maintain that producing eachbottle of Tru vodka absorbs 760 times more carbon than it emits.Modern Spirits plants a tree (which on average absorbs about 790 kilograms of carbon) for every bottle sold(from $28; truvodka.com).McCormick Distilling Co.’s 360 Vodka is produced at a state-of-the-art distillery, recently upgraded to reducefossil-fuel energy usage by 21 percent. It also promises to offset its emissions through services such as Closethe Loop, a postage-paid bottle-cap mail-in program developed to enable reuse. The bottles contain 85 percentrecycled glass, compared with the 35 percent most distillers use, and the labeling and packaging are madefrom 100 percent recycled paper (from $29; 360vodka.com).There are even organic mixers to combine with the vodka. Modmix offers five gourmet all-organic mixers,which include raw sugar and organic fruits and herbs. The newest, Wasabi Bloody Mary mix, is infused withginger and tamarind ($10; modmixbeverages.com).Major beer companies have yet to go green, but microbreweries tend to produce beers with smaller carbonfootprints. The employees of Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing dipped into their bonus funds to makethe brewery the first U.S. company to source its energy from wind power ($15 per pack; newbelgium.com).Drinking never felt so virtuous.1. Cucumber Vodka, SQUARE One 8. Vodka 14, Altitude Spirits Inc.2. Tru2 Gin, Tru Organic Spirits 9. London dry gin, Juniper Green3. Blue Paddle, New Belgium Brewing 10. Nut brown Ale, Peak Organic Brewing4. 360 Vodka, McCormick Distilling5. Prairie Vodka, Ed Phillips & Sons6. Purus Vodka, Purus7. 4 Copas Blanco4 Copas Tequila page

April 21, 2009Five Eco-Friendly Tips for Earth DayFort Collins, Colorado: Bike, Hike, and Try Some New BrewsAn hour from Rocky Mountain National Park and its hundreds of miles of trails and hundreds of low-impactcampsites, Colorado’s Choice City offers its own green charms. In Fort Fun, as Fort Collins is known at IgoUgo,eco-conscious member and frequent voluntourist COwanderer directs us to New Belgium Brewing Companyfor “tasty beers” from a “socially and environmentally responsible” brewery. “The nation’s first 100% wind-powered brewery also donates $1 from every barrel sold to charity,” she says, and “after one year, employeesare given ownership and an old-style Flyer bicycle.” At night, sleep green at one of the three Fort CollinsMarriotts; all boast ENERGY STAR labels from the EPA.America’s Best Airport Bars | Joshua M. BernsteinApril 22, 2009Where delays can be forgottenFor travelers, it was more bad news: According to tracking service FlightStats.com, 2008 marked the fourthconsecutive year that flight delays increased, with the average wait climbing to 57 minutes. If anything, theannouncement gives beleaguered voyagers yet another reason to have a drink.Typically, weary air travelers toss back beers in sports saloons, an experience about as relaxing as napping ona highway median. Recently, though, there’s been a groundswell of upscale airport bars offering wines withcharcuterie, microbrews and even exquisite bourbon.“We’re moving away from uncomfortable institutional lounges with very mundane offerings,” page

says Paul McGinn, president of MarketPlace Development, a Boston-based airport retail developer. “Sincepeople are arriving at airports earlier and experiencing more delays, they’re looking for distractions andentertainment.”One of McGinn’s favorite havens is Vino Volo—Italian for “wine flight”—a chain of sleek, modern loungeslocated in cities including San Antonio and Seattle. “They’re detached from the hustle and bustle of theairport,” McGinn says. “In contrast to many wine bars, the service is not intimidating and caters to people whounderstand wine.”Another favored wine way station is Cibo Bistro and Wine Bar, situated in the Philadelphia Internationalairport. The Concourse B branch is stunning, outfitted with a 45-foot-long onyx bar, 32 wines by the glass andthe convivial atmosphere of the finest Italian trattoria.Should you prefer beer, Denver’s New Belgium Hub Bar & Grill is a microbrew sanctuary. In the eclectic bardecorated with bicycle paintings, travelers sip superb brews from Colorado-based New Belgium, including theeasy-drinking Fat Tire amber ale.At the PDX airport in Portland, Oregon, local brewery Laurelwood has several laid-back branches dispensingtheir delectable organic brews, such as the caramel-nuanced Free Range Red. For bourbon with the beer,detour through Louisville, Kentucky. There, the Woodford Reserve Bar & Grill serves excellent, oak-aged spiritsto customers reclining in leather chairs.But the boldest experiment in upscale bars is underway at NYC’s JFK airport. Jet Blue’s gleaming Terminal 5 isa return to jet-set glamour, packed with steakhouses, wine-sipping bistros and luxe lounges better suited toBroadway, not the runway.“We want our restaurants and bars to rival the bars and restaurants you see on the street,” says Rick Blatstein,CEO of airport food and beverage operator OTG Management. “We want to deliver a want, not a need, to go tothe airport early.”To attract early arrivers, the soon-to-open stylish Loft Kitchen & Bar will re-create Manhattan’s SoHo cool,serving killer cocktails and comfort food. New York Sports Grill gives the tired sports bar a contemporarytweak, serving 48 beers on tap including local brews from Brooklyn outfit Kelso. And then there’s the re: vivebars, located near the gates.“You can have a nice cocktail and snack and wait for the plane,” Blatstein says. “We thought it would take sometime to take off—no pun intended—but customers took to it like fish to water.”Furthermore, Blatstein says, the new breed of airport bars and lounges remind passengers that travel shouldbe about pleasure, not hair-pulling anxiety. “People going on vacation should enjoy themselves,” Blatstein says.“If you’re going to Cancun or the Dominican Republic, why not start the trip with a mimosa or a bloody Mary?It’s a great way to start your travels.” page

Sip a Drink, Save the World: 7 Sustainable Spirits Worth Imbibing | Dan MacsalApril 24, 2009Recently, we wrote about TRU Organic Spirits, a California-based company that plants at least one seedlingfor every bottle of vodka it sells. Turns out it’s not alone. In recent years, a small but growing number ofbooze-makers--from Square One vodka to New Belgium beer--have launched eco-friendly drinks (which haveundoubtedly spawned a few eco-friendly hangovers). Bottoms up!Square One Organic VodkaGreen because: It’s made from organically grown North Dakota rye and produced in a distillery that gets 25%of its energy from a wind farm. $33+; squareonevodka.comVodka 360Green because: Bottles are made from 85% recycled glass, and labels are made from 100% recycled paper. Forevery bottle sold, its producer, Earth Friendly Distilling Co. (a division of McCormick Distilling Co.), donates $1to an environmental organization. $29+, vodka360.comPrairie Organic VodkaGreen because: It’s packaged in an unfrosted, recyclable glass bottle, and produced from organic corn grownby a Minnesota farmers’ co-op. Leftover cobs are converted on-site to biogas energy that powers distillation.$25+; prairievodka.comRhum Clement Premiere Canne White RumGreen because: After it’s made from sugarcane, the spent canes are used to fuel the production process. $30+;rhumclement.netVeev VodkaGreen because: For every bottle sold, Veev’s certified carbon-neutral producers donate $1 to rainforestpreservation and sustainable açaí farming (through Sambazon’s Sustainable Acai Project). $35; veevlife.comBruichladdich WhiskeyGreen because: Bruichladdich CEO, Mark Reynier, revealed plans to revamp its Port Charlotte Distillery tocreate a “genuinely zero carbon footprint.” Prices vary; bruichladdich.comFat TireIts brewed using wind power, and its maker, New Belgium Brewing Co., is a member of 1% For the Planet,which means that 1% of its revenue helps fund environmental non-profits. $8 (per six-pack), newbelgium.com page

America’s Best Airport Bars | Joshua M. BernsteinApril 24, 2009Where delays can be forgottenFor travelers, it was more bad news: According to tracking service FlightStats.com, 2008 marked the fourthconsecutive year that flight delays increased, with the average wait climbing to 57 minutes. If anything, theannouncement gives beleaguered voyagers yet another reason to have a drink.Typically, weary air travelers toss back beers in sports saloons, an experience about as relaxing as napping ona highway median. Recently, though, there’s been a groundswell of upscale airport bars offering wines withcharcuterie, microbrews and even exquisite bourbon.“We’re moving away from uncomfortable institutional lounges with very mundane offerings,” says PaulMcGinn, president of MarketPlace Development, a Boston-based airport retail developer. “Since people arearriving at airports earlier and experiencing more delays, they’re looking for distractions and entertainment.”One of McGinn’s favorite havens is Vino Volo—Italian for “wine flight”—a chain of sleek, modern loungeslocated in cities including San Antonio and Seattle. “They’re detached from the hustle and bustle of theairport,” McGinn says. “In contrast to many wine bars, the service is not intimidating and caters to people whounderstand wine.”Another favored wine way station is Cibo Bistro and Wine Bar, situated in the Philadelphia Internationalairport. The Concourse B branch is stunning, outfitted with a 45-foot-long onyx bar, 32 wines by the glass andthe convivial atmosphere of the finest Italian trattoria.Should you prefer beer, Denver’s New Belgium Hub Bar & Grill is a microbrew sanctuary. In the eclectic bardecorated with bicycle paintings, travelers sip superb brews from Colorado-based New Belgium, including theeasy-drinking Fat Tire amber ale.At the PDX airport in Portland, Oregon, local brewery Laurelwood has several laid-back branches dispensingtheir delectable organic brews, such as the caramel-nuanced Free Range Red. For bourbon with the beer,detour through Louisville, Kentucky. There, the Woodford Reserve Bar & Grill serves excellent, oak-aged spiritsto customers reclining in leather chairs.But the boldest experiment in upscale bars is underway at NYC’s JFK airport. Jet Blue’s gleaming Terminal 5 isa return to jet-set glamour, packed with steakhouses, wine-sipping bistros and luxe lounges better suited toBroadway, not the runway.“We want our restaurants and bars to rival the bars and restaurants you see on the street,” says Rick Blatstein, page

CEO of airport food and beverage operator OTG Management. “We want to deliver a want, not a need, to go tothe airport early.”To attract early arrivers, the soon-to-open stylish Loft Kitchen & Bar will re-create Manhattan’s SoHo cool,serving killer cocktails and comfort food. New York Sports Grill gives the tired sports bar a contemporarytweak, serving 48 beers on tap including local brews from Brooklyn outfit Kelso. And then there’s the re: vivebars, located near the gates.“You can have a nice cocktail and snack and wait for the plane,” Blatstein says. “We thought it would take sometime to take off—no pun intended—but customers took to it like fish to water.”Furthermore, Blatstein says, the new breed of airport bars and lounges remind passengers that travel shouldbe about pleasure, not hair-pulling anxiety. “People going on vacation should enjoy themselves,” Blatstein says.“If you’re going to Cancun or the Dominican Republic, why not start the trip with a mimosa or a bloody Mary?It’s a great way to start your travels.”Favorite Summer Beers | Mike PomranzApril 29, 2009 Some brews, such as Guinness, shine in colder weather while others are more suited to the beachy crowd (ever seen a Corona commercial?). As per American craft beers, plenty of breweries have a summer seasonal in their arsenals, but these eight feature a whole slew of suds to keep you refreshed despite the heat waves (we listed our faves alphabetically). 8. Abita - Maybe it’s the local swelter in which they were created, but Louisiana’s Abita brews seem well-suited to any hot day, especially Purple Haze, Restoration and Strawberry Harvest -- as fruity as it sounds.7. Bell’s - Some say that spring isn’t actually here until Bell’s Oberon is released (a notion we far prefer to aneurotic groundhog) and their Two-Hearted Ale may be the best summer IPA in the biz.6. Brooklyn - Sure, they offer a Summer Ale, but with year-rounds including a nice Weisse, a baseball-adornedPennant Ale and a refreshing Pilsner, summer in Brooklyn is secure.5. Harpoon - Harpoon has an aptly named Summer Beer made in the Kölsch style, but their UFO Hefeweizengarnished with a touch of citrus is one of the most drinkable American wheats on the market. The light, crispHarpoon IPA is only mildly hoppy and is another winner.The final four after the jump! page 0

4. Kona - Maybe Hawaii’s largest brewery took the easy way out, but by naming beers like Longboard IslandLager, Big Wave Golden Ale and Fire Rock Pale Ale, it shows it sure knows its target audience.3. Magic Hat - As always, Magic Hat offers a couple of bizarrely named summer seasonals like Wacko andSummer Odd Notion, but with its apricot-tinged flagship brew #9 and beloved year-rounds like Circus Boy, thisHat is best worn in the sunshine.2. New Belgium - A brewery from Fort Collins might seem like an unlikely summer suspect, but with twofantastic year-round wheats (Sunshine and Mothership Wit) and a couple great warm weather seasonals, theColorado brewer keeps it cool.1. Pyramid - Curve Ball is their seasonal (and in fact Pyramid just threw us one) but the newly anointedAudacious Apricot Ale is possibly the best fruit beer out there, and their Hefe ain’t too shabby either.Honorable mentions to two New York breweries: Southern Tier and Southampton (who we wish we could addto the list based on their Double White alone, but that would be bending the rules).We tried to focus on summer suds that are nationally available, but are there any breweries we neglected,especially local faves?May 1, 2009The Colorado Brewers’ FestivalJune 27–28, 2009FRIDAY P.M. The coolest hotel in Fort Collins—65 miles from Denver—is The Armstrong (259 S. College Ave.,thearmstronghotel.com; doubles from $89), which is newly renovated but still looks retro. It’s a two-blockwalk to the lively Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant (143 W. Mountain Ave., 970-224-3049; entrées from $9,margaritas $6.50) and its bracing margaritas and chiles rellenos.SATURDAY A.M. Pick up a breakfast burrito at Mugs Coffee Lounge (261 S. College Ave., 970-472-6847; entréesfrom $4.75) on your walk to the Colorado Brewers’ Festival (downtownfortcollins.com), featuring 35 localbrewers; buy a $10 two-day ticket along with $2 tokens to try samples. Lunch is a brat from a food stand. Learnmore on your free tour at New Belgium Brewing (500 Linden St., 970-221-0524). page 1

SATURDAY P.M. Now that you’re a beer snob, dine at CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing (5 Old Town Square, 970-498-0483; entrées from $8), which has 14 handcrafted brews on tap. Try the zingy, creamy Punjabi Pale Ale andhearty chicken potpie.SUNDAY A.M. Start the morning with cinnamon toast from the 75-year-old Silver Grill Cafe(218 Walnut St., 970-484-4656; entrées from $4.80). If you’re feeling the need to move your body, borrow afree bicycle from the Bike Library and take a farewell ride through the redbrick town.COST: $89.55 /PERSONTour de Rouge Proves to be Thrill Ride | Dale RobertsonMay 14, 2009What a great adventure the first Tour de Rouge proved to be. A lot can happen over six days spent on a bicycleriding nearly 600 miles from Houston to New Orleans and, to be sure, most of it did.I got a first-hand report from a friend of mine, Dr. David Chenault, who lived to speak fondly of his experiencedespite taking a nasty first-day fall on the FM 1960 Lake Houston bridge that left him bloodied but unbowed.After a trip to the hospital, where he got a CT scan (it was negative) and 15 stitches to repair three lacerationsin his scalp, he caught back up to the group in Beaumont, then rode the rest of the way into the Crescent CitySaturday afternoon.Chenault, who is 60, insisted he’d do it all over again starting today if he could.“There are times when you meet strangers on a cruise or a vacation and you really like them, but it’s on asuperficial level,” he said. “This was one of those deals where all us, the riders, the volunteers, the Red Crosspeople, the sponsors (ModSpace) bonded. We pulled ourselves through the ups and downs together. We baredour souls on personal issues that you wouldn’t normally do. Everyone made a bunch of new life-long friends.”The peloton battled the usual array of road hazards — one guy flatted 11 times — and pedaled past theoccasional dead alligator on the back roads of Louisiana. (They saw a live one, too.) But the greatest challengeproved to be surviving a night adjacent to Rutherford Beach near Creole, where the group was afforded the“experience” of sleeping in a real Red Cross shelter.As cool as the concept may have sounded before the fact, the mosquito and sand flea swarms that struck afterdark fell turned it into what Chenault described as “an Alfred Hitchcock movie.”“I bet nobody got more than 10 minutes of sleep,” he said.Well, except for one rider who popped a couple of sleeping pills, only to wake up in the wee hours coveredcompletely by bugs and the shelter deserted. Everybody else had fled to the beach, where the sea breezesomewhat kept the insects at bay. page 2

“There were a few little glitches,” Chenault said, “but everybody got over those in a hurry. For a first-timeevent, it went amazingly well. We got to visit the Tabasco factory on Avery Island, we had a Zydeco band onenight and we rode into New Orleans with a police escort, then had a great dinner on a paddlewheel under afull moon. Zach (his 30-year-old son) and I had the best bonding experience of our lives.“It was funny. I went into this thing worried about my heart, my neck and my prostate (he’d had episodesinvolving each of late), but after that fall I forgot about the other stuff. I was determined to finish.”Chenault gave major props to the accompanying Sun & Ski Sports mechanics, saying, “They saved us. Wecouldn’t have made it without them,” and said the other support people “couldn’t have been nicer.”Only two of the 60 six-day riders weren’t able to finish. One overheated the first day and gave up, while theother broke his collar bone in a fall.The Tour de Rouge, which raised more than $250,000 for Red Cross disaster relief, had been scheduled forOctober but got derailed by the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Plans are to do the ride again next May with a fewmodifications.“We will not do the beach thing ever again, not for as long as I live,” swore the Red Cross’ Dory Cayten, whosaid she’s still scratching multiple bites.Grand Crit returnsHouston’s only major city-center bike race, the Houston Grand Criterium, is back for a fourth year Sunday.Competition starts with the men’s Cat 3/4 race at 8 a.m. and continues through the Pro 1/2 race at 1:45 p.m.The latter pays 19 deep with $500 to the champion. The women’s 1/2/3 race will be at noon, paying $250 tothe winner.Mexico’s Eduardo Rodrigo has won the last two Grand Crits, last year nosing out 2006 champion Carlos Vargasof Colombia.All races, which include three for children, start and finish at Sam Houston Park. The adjacent Double TreeHotel is offering special rates for competitors and the sponsor, Bike Barn, will provide food and beverages. Formore information or to register, go tohoustongrandcriterium.com.It’s a wonderTeam Wonderbike is a pedal-powered bike commuter club some 15,000 strong whose members promise tobike rather than drive as often as is practical. Its goal is to offset 14 million driver miles — equal to 14 millionpounds of CO2 — over a 12-month period.Wonderbikers can win prizes, receive quarterly news updates and interact with others online, posting ideas,stories and images. To join or for more information, go to teamwonderbike.com. page

The USA’s Best Airport Bars | Joshua M. BernsteinMay 15, 2009For travelers, it was more bad news: According to tracking service FlightStats.com, 2008 marked the fourthconsecutive year that flight delays increased, with the average wait climbing to 57 minutes. If anything, theannouncement gives beleaguered voyagers yet another reason to have a drink.Typically, weary air travelers toss back beers in sports saloons, an experience about as relaxing as napping ona highway median. Recently, though, there’s been a groundswell of upscale airport bars offering wines withcharcuterie, microbrews and even exquisite bourbon.SLIDESHOW: Best airport bars“We’re moving away from uncomfortable institutional lounges with very mundane offerings,” says PaulMcGinn, president of MarketPlace Development, a Boston-based airport retail developer. “Since people arearriving at airports earlier and experiencing more delays, they’re looking for distractions and entertainment.”One of McGinn’s favorite havens is Vino Volo—Italian for “wine flight”—a chain of sleek, modern loungeslocated in cities including San Antonio and Seattle. “They’re detached from the hustle and bustle of theairport,” McGinn says. “In contrast to many wine bars, the service is not intimidating and caters to people whounderstand wine.”Another favored wine way station is Cibo Bistro and Wine Bar, situated in the Philadelphia Internationalairport. The Concourse B branch is stunning, outfitted with a 45-foot-long onyx bar, 32 wines by the glass andthe convivial atmosphere of the finest Italian trattoria.Should you prefer beer, Denver’s New Belgium Hub Bar & Grill is a microbrew sanctuary. In the eclectic bardecorated with bicycle paintings, travelers sip superb brews from Colorado-based New Belgium, including theeasy-drinking Fat Tire amber ale.At the PDX airport in Portland, Oregon, local brewery Laurelwood has several laid-back branches dispensingtheir delectable organic brews, such as the caramel-nuanced Free Range Red. For bourbon with the beer,detour through Louisville, Kentucky. There, the Woodford Reserve Bar & Grill serves excellent, oak-aged spiritsto customers reclining in leather chairs.But the boldest experiment in upscale bars is underway at NYC’s JFK airport. Jet Blue’s gleaming Terminal 5 isa return to jet-set glamour, packed with steakhouses, wine-sipping bistros and luxe lounges better suited toBroadway, not the runway.“We want our restaurants and bars to rival the bars and restaurants you see on the street,” says Rick Blatstein,CEO of airport food and beverage operator OTG Management. “We want to deliver a want, not a need, to go tothe airport early.” page

To attract early arrivers, the soon-to-open stylish Loft Kitchen & Bar will re-create Manhattan’s SoHo cool,serving killer cocktails and comfort food. New York Sports Grill gives the tired sports bar a contemporarytweak, serving 48 beers on tap including local brews from Brooklyn outfit Kelso. And then there’s the re: vivebars, located near the gates.“You can have a nice cocktail and snack and wait for the plane,” Blatstein says. “We thought it would take sometime to take off—no pun intended—but customers took to it like fish to water.”Furthermore, Blatstein says, the new breed of airport bars and lounges remind passengers that travel shouldbe about pleasure, not hair-pulling anxiety. “People going on vacation should enjoy themselves,” Blatstein says.“If you’re going to Cancun or the Dominican Republic, why not start the trip with a mimosa or a bloody Mary?It’s a great way to start your travels.”Savoring Summer One Pint at a Time | Deborah PankeyMay 20, 2009Whether you’re kicking back after mowing the lawn for the second time in a week or celebrating an extra-innings win, there’s a good chance there’s a beer in your hand.And it’s most likely not a stout or porter.Those heavier brews hit the spot during football season, but summer calls for beers lighter in flavor and lighteron the alcohol, says Becky Nischik of Town & Country Distributors in Itasca.Some of her favorite seasonal beers for sipping at the racetrack or Ravinia include:Samuel Adams Summer Ale. This smooth American wheat ale uses malted wheat, lemon zest and grains ofparadise. The ale fermentation imparts a background tropical fruit note reminiscent of mangos and peaches.All of these come together to create a quenching, clean finishing beer perfect for those warm summer days.Blue Moon Honey Moon Summer Ale. Brewmasters add clover honey for hint of sweetness and a touch oforange zest for light spice notes at the finish. The perfect blend of pale malts and white wheat malts. HarpoonSummer Beer. This light, refreshing, crisp Kolsch-style ale goes well with steaks and chops, salads and seafood. page

New Belgium Skinny Dip. Brewed in Ft. Collins, Colo., Skinny Dip’s Cascade hops frolic with Kaffir lime andample malt to create a bright, citrusy nose that’s as crisp as a dunk in a mountain pond.Dozens of new seasonal beers hit the shelves each year eager to be opened, sipped and shared. Wander intoyour local bottle shop to pick up an old favorite or discover your new summer quencher. Mine’s Grassroots Alefrom Great Lakes Brewing Co. Thanks for sharing, Matt.Continuing education: If you want to one-up your neighbor at your next patio party, or need to brush up yourtechniques before barbecue season, GillU.com can be your guide.The site, sponsored by Bush’s Beans, is a go-to guide for grilling, offering mouthwatering recipes and expertadvice from the likes of “Barbecue America” host Rick Browne. You can even hang with country superstar CraigMorgan and explore Duke’s Doghouse, a fun little world that’s kind of like Webkinz World, but with recipes andprizes.Vintage Fox: Try more than 150 wines from around the world without leaving the suburbs during Elgin’sinaugural Wine Festival from 1 to 8 p.m. Saturday, May 23, at Festival Park, 132 S. Grove Ave., along the FoxRiver.Set under one enormous tent, the festival offers guests an opportunity to chat with winemakers and expertswhile sampling an array of international and domestic wines and noshing on food from Biaggi’s RestauranteItaliano, Red Bar Winery and Bistro, Mandile’s Restaurant, Casa Lara Restaurant, Buckingham’s Grand VictoriaCasino and Old Town Pizza Company and other restaurants.There’s also a beer garden featuring Stella, Leffe and Hoegaarden beers, musical entertainment, wine seminarsand cooking demonstrations from Meijer’s Healthy Living Advisor Maribel Cabrales.Tickets cost $20 in advance (includes a souvenir glass and 10 tasting tickets) and can be purchased throughFriday, May 22, at elginwinefestival.com. Tickets cost $30 on-site. Additional tasting coupons may be purchasedat the festival ($5 for 10 additional tastings). Designated driver tickets are $10. Attendees younger than 21 areadmitted for free when accompanied by a paid adult.For groups of 15 or more, tickets are $17.50 each. To reserve group tickets, call Scott at (847) 382-1480or GroupTix at (877) 447-7849. A portion of the proceeds benefit the Northern Illinois Special RecreationAssociation Special Olympics training and cultural arts programs.Find details and a schedule at elginwinefestival.com. page

5 Beers for the Long Weekend, and the Future | Ariel SchwartzMay 22, 2009It’s a good year for environmentally-conscious beer lovers; manufacturers have become increasingly responsive toconsumer demands for sustainable alcohol, and that means it’s easier than ever to impress your Memorial Day BBQguests with guilt-free beer. Some of the best are highlighted below.Cascade GreenThe brewery associated with this Australian lager offsets 100% of its carbon emissions with carbon credits, rightdown to the energy associated with transporting ingredients. Cascade Green is made with all local ingredients andthe labels are printed with biodegradable, vegetable-oil based inks.Sierra Nevada Pale AleSierra Nevada’s Chico, California brewery gets most of its energy from a combination of fuel cells and solar panels.But the brewery accomplished an even bigger feat recently: it became the first corporation to install networkedcharging stations for electric vehicles. Only two stations are installed now, but Sierra Nevada will likely install morein the future.Grassroots AleGrassroots Ale, produced by the Great Lakes Brewing Company, is made from sustainably-grown coriander, lemonbalm, chamomile and lemon basil from the brewery’s farm. The Great Lakes Brewing Company’s beer delivery truckruns on vegetable oil, and brewery also contains a natural cooling system that brings in cold air during winter tocool the beer.Fat TireThis popular beer is made by Colorado’s New Belgium, which has been using wind energy since 1999. New Belgiumrecycles waste products into grain and cattle feed and uses evaporative cooling in its packaging hall. The packaginghall itself is constructed from beetle kill pine wood. Mountain pine beetles destroy 98% of lodgepole pines inSummit County, Colorado--this gives the fallen trees a second chance.Brooklyn Sustainable PorterTrue to its name, Brooklyn Sustainable Porter is produced by the ultra-green Brooklyn Brewery. The brewery is100% powered by wind energy, saving 335,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. Brooklyn Brewery also paysfarmers to take grains and husks left over from beer production. page

America’s Best Parties | Michelle Deal-ZimmermanMay 24, 2009FROM PAGE ONE 5 PARTIES TOAmerica’s best parties GO TO BEFORE YOU DIE We asked Party Across America! author Michael Guerriero to chose fivePARTY, From page 1 celebrations that travelers absolutelyparties to be included in the book. The first have to experience. Here’s his list:was that the party had to be an annualevent, happening in the same place every TOUR DE FAT. “It’s a carnival onyear. The second was that it had to have agood vibe. 1 wheels. Tour De Fat [in Fort Collins, Colo.] is the nation’s largest Those two factors led to a book that bike parade and the goal is to dressincludes everything from sporting events your bike and yourself up in theto food festivals to weird and wacky strangest costume imaginable. Lastcelebrations. The book organizes the year I saw a couch being pedaledparties and festivals by region and includes down the street. The after-party feelsa monthly calendar of events and suggested like you’re in Alice’s Wonderland.” Info:summer road trips. newbelgium.com “What really makes a great party is it hasto have an energy level that is through the NEW ORLEANS JAZZ FEST.roof and something that the entire city orcounty rallies around,” he said. 2 “You cannot die without having gone to Jazz Fest. It’s the greatest Both Honfest and Preakness fit the bill time to travel to New Orleans, thefor Guerriero, who frequented the horserace when he was a student at Gettysburg music and food are top notch, andCollege. there’s something fun happening “The Preakness, I’m kind of partial to be- 24/7.” Info: nojazzfest.comcause it has such an appeal to the every- PHOTO: AP CINCINNATI’S OKTOBERFEST.man,” he said. “It has that blue-collar feel.” When Guerriero was researching the Buckwheat Zydeco performs before a large crowd at this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival May 2. 3 “The greatest Oktoberfest in thebook, some friends in Baltimore turned United States and one of the besthim on to Honfest, which he went to in 2007. food festivals I’ve ever attended. Lots “It’s a wonderful family event. Com- of guys in wooden shoes andpletely unique,” he said. “And the energy Michael Guerriero’s suspenders dancing on tables.” Info:level was there. I had never heard of a www.oktoberfestzinzinnati.combeehive party before.” party by the numbers THE WORLD’S LARGEST But some of those beehives have heard ofhim. The book originally was aimed at 4 DISCO. (Buffalo, N.Y., theyoung professionals in their 20s and 30s, but Saturday after Thanksgiving) “This isit’s been getting strong support from babyboomers and retirees. 11,951 Miles driven the only reason to ever plan a trip to Buffalo — and nobody outside of that “People who have always wanted to go to area has ever heard of this party. Eventhese events [are buying] the book,” Guer-riero said, adding that he’s in talks with the 546 Beers consumed if you hate disco, you’ll be blown away by this 8,000 person hoopla that sellsTravel Channel to create a TV show based out every year in 72 hours.” Info:on the book. Not bad for a laid-off worker who likes to 318 Songs heard at music festivals www.worldslargestdisco.comparty And by the way Guerriero says the . , ST. PATRICK’S DAY IN BUTTE,economy doesn’t have to put too much of a 86 Subway sandwiches eaten 5 MONT. “Butte was a hugedamper on our fun. copper mining boomtown in the 1870s. “What I noticed is that when you’re at To this day they have more Irish perthese celebrations, nobody is thinkingabout the economy he said. “Everybody is ,” 7 Nights spent sleeping in car because PHOTO COURTESY OF ADAMS MEDIA capita than Boston or Chicago. Their St. Patty’s Day is a complete spectacle hotel rooms were sold outjust having fun in the present and living for Author Michael Guerriero — you’ve gotta see it to believe it!”the day .” 1. TOUR DE FAT. “It’s a carnival on wheels. Tour De Fat [in Fort Collins, Colo.] is the nation’s largest bike parade and the goal is to dress your bike and yourself up in the strangest costume imaginable. Last year I saw a couch being pedaled down the street. The after-party feels like you’re in Alice’s Wonderland.” Info: newbelgium.com page

Cause Marketing Forum Honors Good Works | Karen EgolfMay 28, 2009Seventh-Annual Halo Awards Recognize Companies’ EffortsFrom funding children’s hospitals to inspiring people to walk every day, cause marketing efforts are beinghonored today at the Cause Marketing Forum’s annual conference in Chicago.The Cause Marketing Forum’s seventh-annual Cause Marketing Halo Awards recognize companies that teamup with nonprofit organizations to help a variety of causes. “The Cause Marketing Halo Awards demonstratethe good that can be done when businesses and nonprofits team up,” says David Hessekiel, president of theCause Marketing Forum, an organization he founded in 2002. “It’s a competition in which we all win.”According to Mr. Hessekiel, cause-marketing spending is projected to reach $1.57 billion this year.Topping this year’s winners are Timberland and Share Our Strength, which won the Cause Marketing GoldenHalo Awards for their long records of innovation and achievement in cause marketing.In addition, 18 category awards are being presented:Best Use of Social Media:Gold: More Than Footprints: TripAdvisor and Conservation International, Doctors Without Borders, NationalGeographic Society, Save the Children and the Nature ConservancySilver: Best Buy@15 Challenge: Best Buy and Ashoka Youth VentureBest Environmental/Wildlife Campaign:Gold: Tour de Fat: New Belgium Brewing Co. and multiple local cycling groupsSilver: Jetting to Green: JetBlue Airways and the Carbon FundBest Health Campaign:Gold: Start! Partnership: Subway and the American Heart AssociationSilver: Jiffy Lube Maintenance Partners for Life: Jiffy Lube International and the American Heart AssociationBest Social Service/Education Campaign:Gold: Protecting Futures: Procter & Gamble Co. and United Nations AssociationSilver: Toys “R” Us Guide for Differently-Abled Kids: Toys “R” Us and the National Lekotek CenterBest Message Campaign:Gold: The Pedigree Adoption Drive: Pedigree and numerous animal sheltersSilver: L’Oreal Paris Ovarian Cancer Awareness Campaign: L’Oréal Paris and the Ovarian Cancer Research FundBest Print Creative:Gold: Believe: Macy’s and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of AmericaSilver: Subaru Share the Love: Subaru of America and the ASPCA, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Habitat forHumanity, Meals on Wheels Association of America and National Wildlife Federation page

Best Transactional Campaign:Gold: IHOP National Pancake Day: IHOP and Children’s Miracle NetworkSilver: Believe: Macy’s and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of AmericaBest Cause Marketing Event:Gold: Read for the Record: Pearson Foundation and JumpstartSilver: Miracle Treat Day: American Dairy Queen Corp. and Children’s Miracle NetworkBest National/Local Integration:Gold: Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities: KPMG and Major League BaseballSilver: Trees for Troops: FedEx and the Christmas Spirit FoundationThe Cause Marketing Forum produces an annual conference, workshops, teleclasses andcausemarketingforum.com, a website offering free resources to businesses and nonprofits interested indeveloping such programs. page 0

June 2009New Belgium Brewing Launches Brands in the Georgia Market page 2

Strange Brew | Joseph V. TirellaJune 1, 2009 page

Meet the New Boss | Joseph V. TirellaJune 5, 2009The Great Recession won’t last forever, but no matter what comes next, business as usual is clearly over.Wall Street and Detroit are melting before our eyes. Trade barriers are rising globally, while the federalgovernment moves into corporate boardrooms here at home. Meanwhile, in offices and garages all acrossAmerica, entrepreneurs are looking past the recession and inventing the great companies of the future, justas William Procter and James Gamble, Thomas Edison and Fred Smith looked past the Panic of 1837, the LongDepression of the late 19th century and the Oil Crisis of 1973, respectively, when they launched Procter &Gamble (PG, Fortune 500), General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) and Federal Express (FDX, Fortune 500).Innovation isn’t always about inventing a new gadget or service. Sometimes it’s about maximizing the mostobvious asset a business has -- its employees. Nowadays almost nobody expects to work at the same companyuntil retirement.“The old employee contract was, ‘I devote myself to you, the employer, for the long haul, and in return Iget job security and a chance to grow within the company,” says Batia Mishan Wiesenfeld, a professor ofmanagement at New York University’s Stern School of Business.This paternalistic worker-boss relationship prevailed in corporate America from the end of World War II rightup until the early 1990s, when globalization forced most Fortune 500 companies to protect profit margins viaautomation, offshoring and downsizing.Corporate America still has its advantages, namely health care and pension plans. However, most bigcompanies can’t provide what modern workers want most: intimate workplaces, cutting-edge benefits andcreative input. But that’s exactly what the companies profiled here offer.At Daxko, an Alabama software firm, employees keep stress levels down by playing Rock Band on a 52-inchoffice television. Maya Design, a creative consulting agency in Pittsburgh, blurs the line between work andlife by allowing staffers to bring their babies to the office. After one year at Colorado’s New Belgium Brewing,employees receive a free bike to lower their carbon footprint. They also get shares in the company, giving thema voice -- and a stake -- in its future. And all of these businesses offer generous health benefits to boot.These strategies won’t all work in every firm: There are probably as many ways to be a great boss as thereare small businesses in America. But these companies, some of which we found with the help of the GreatPlace to Work Institute, a research and management consultancy based in San Francisco, provide glimpses ofa 21st-century employer-employee contract, one that keeps employees engaged and gives entrepreneurs theproductivity they seek. page

Answer Man: Paul Konerko talks beverages, metal and the Series | David BrownJune 5, 2009Paul Konerko broke into pro ball as a catcher in the Dodgers organization15 years ago, though it must seem like another lifetime for him. As oneof the World Series heroes from the White Sox’s 2005 championshipseason, Konerko, now 33, remains a powerfully dependable veteran onthe South Side.He’s not single-minded (Konerko is married and has a little boy) but hisactivities don’t extend too far beyond the diamond. Exceptions: rock ‘n’roll (the headbanging kind) and hockey.Before a recent game at U.S. Cellular Field, Answer Man caught up withPaulie (it wasn’t too tough — he’s kind of slow-footed) and examinedKonerko’s inner concert promoter.David Brown: First topic: Postgame beverages. I’ve seen you drinkorange soda pop after a game ... and I’ve seen you with beer. Please rankyour favorite orange pops for me.Paul Konerko: Orange pop. Orange pop? I’m... a little confused. What’smy favorite what?DB: Orange soda pop? You know, like, Crush?PK: OK, um... I don’t think I have one. I mean, I’ve had it but there’s none in this clubhouse right now. I didn’tknow there were any choices when it came to that. What would some of your choices be?DB: Nehi, Crush, Sunkist, Fanta. ... Maybe I just imagined you with the orange soda pop.PK: I think you did imagine it, because I don’t think I’ve ever drank one here, in this clubhouse. Beer? Now thatI’ve had.DB: All right, please rank those.PK: Beer? I like Coors Light over, say, Bud Light or Miller Lite. But I like, if I had my choice, I’d buy something likea Sierra Nevada. Fat Tire’s good, too. page

Strange brew: Beer and office democracy | David KoeppelJune 9, 2009A Colorado brewery views perks like free bikes as a core part of thecompany ethos.New Belgium Brewing Co. likes to do things differently.After one year of work, each employee receives an ownership stake in thecompany and a free custom bicycle. After five years every employee enjoysan all-expenses-paid trip to Belgium -- the country whose centuries-old beertradition serves as a model for the Fort Collins, Colo., brewery. Oh yeah, andemployees get two free six-packs of beer a week.“There’s something wrong if making beer can’t be fun,” says CEO Kim Jordan,who co-founded the company with her husband, Jeff Lebesch, in 1991 (heretired a decade later).The perks aren’t just for fun, though. Each one is an expression of thecompany’s ethos. The free bikes help the environment. The trips to Belgiumcommemorate Lebesch’s bicycle tour of that country’s breweries in 1989-- the original inspiration for the company, now the third largest craft brewery and the eighth largest overall inthe U.S.“Operating a business in a way that is consistent with your values is particularly pleasing,” says Jordan, 50.Those values include employee ownership. Workers own 33% of New Belgium, which has 320 employees andposted $93 million in revenue last year. A large proportion of the staff participates in strategic planning andbudgeting. “People are engaged and committed,” Jordan adds.But that kind of team decision-making is difficult for some. “Managers here need to inform people aboutdecisions before making them,” says Jennifer Orgolini, 40, New Belgium’s sustainability director. “That’s thehardest part of adjusting to the culture.”There are other downsides. Some workers “get sucked into an entitlement mentality,” Jordan says, citing astaffer who asked to borrow a company car to go on vacation. (The employee was politely told no.)“Ownership investment gives the company a sense of cohesion, but giving everyone ownership can underminethe hierarchy,” says Ben Dattner, an organizational psychologist and principal of Dattner Consulting in New YorkCity. “It can get chaotic.” page

The recession has led New Belgium to cut back on some benefits. Annual raises have shrunk from between 7%and 8% to 4%, and limits have been imposed on expensable lunches. And until recently workers were allowedto take a full case of beer home each week. That last cutback was hard to take.“It was a bit of an adjustment,” says Orgolini. “It’s hard to change what people have gotten used to.”June 15, 2009Duzer bikes (a cruiser) across AmericaUpdate: Where is Duzer now? In the middle of f**king nowhere! Look at the map!Ryan Van Duzer is The Daily Camera’s “Out There Guy,” a rising star on The Travel Channel, is biking (a three-speed cruiser) across America—from sea to shining sea. He’ll film his adventures—biking from San Diegoto our nation’s capitol—with his usual combination of daring, fun and giving a care about our world—andelephantjournal.com, a media sponsor, will show his videos every step of the way. It’ll likely take him twomonths! page

I interviewed him a few days after he got a big wood chip in his mouth from The Kitchen’s wood-fired ovenpizza.Waylon Lewis, for elephantjournal.com: First question, buddy: good god, why?Ryan Van Duzer: I love riding my bike and I figure that it will be an amazing way to experience my country, atroughly 15mph. I’ve actually never driven a car or had a driver’s license, I’m a biker boy 100% and I’ve alwayswanted to go coast to coast. This is a dream come true, many years in the making.Why San Diego? Why Washington DC? What are you doing there?I picked San Diego because it’ll set me off on a nice southern route across the west. I’m going to avoid crossingthe Colorado mountains since I’m on a three speed cruiser, this bike is not really made for mountain passes.It’s actually not made for anything but cruising, but I have faith in my bike! In DC I’ll be meeting with sometransportation folks and the American League of Bicyclists…maybe I can get Obama out on a bike, or at thevery least I can throw his dog in my trailer and take em for a spin.Where else along the way? What adventures you got planned?Everyday will be an adventure, a totally scary, exciting, exhilarating adventure into the unknown. I’ll wake up,put on my clothes and start riding, not knowing where I’ll end up, who I’ll meet or what I’ll find to eat, fun!I’ll also be stopping along the way in BFCs, which stands for Bike Friendly Cities. I’ll be doing presentations andhoping to inspire people to ride a few miles with me.Why the cruiser, Duzer?New Belgium gave me a cruiser last year and I jokingly said that I’ll ride it across America, and they took meseriously. They are an amazing company and are all about getting people to leave their cars behind. This ridefits in perfectly with their eco-minded mission. Oh, and they make good beer.What’s your overall mission?Overall mission is to raise money for Community Cycles, the coolest bike co-op this side of the Mississippi.I’m personally looking to have the experience of a lifetime, I know I’ll meet awesome people, see amazinglandscapes and return with an amazingly sore ass!Where will you sleep? What all are you bringing on your bike? Will yougo on big highways, or side roads, or what? How will you bike up theRockies? How fun will it be biking down the Rockies?I’ll sleep wherever I get tired, I’ll pull over, take out my tent or hammock and rest my legs. I’m bringing a trailerwhich will hold all my goodies like peanut butter, tortillas and water. Oh yeah, I’ll have a couple changes ofclothes as well. I’ll be trying to stay on side roads as much as possible but sometimes I won’t be able to avoidthe highways. The Rockies? No way Jose! I’m going south of the Rockies, but I think I’ll find plenty of hills inArizona and New Mexico.Who are your amazing, generous, eco-minded, good-looking, charming sponsors?New Belgium is making all this happen, they are the main sponsor and I love em! Golite, Cateye, Horny Toad,Uni Bikes and the Gear Movement are all helping out with gear. Oh and my mom bought me a helmet so she isa sponsor too..! page

And elephantjournal.com, don’t you forget, will be blogging your trip and tweeting it up, Facebooking it.Will you have a keg in your B.O.B?Yes, I’ll be pulling a pony keg of Mothership Wit, a nice wheaty organic beer that has been proven to be moreeffective than any other energy drink on the market!You’re raising money for Community Cycles? Good man. What do they do?Community Cycles is a bunch of super awesome people whose mission is to educate and advocate for the safeuse of bicycles as an affordable, viable and sustainable means of transportation and personal enjoymentwithin our community.I’ve volunteered with them in the past, teaching bike clinics at the Family Learning Center, it’s so fun to see kidsget excited about biking.How will you be returning to Boulder, your hometown? In a kayak? A China-owned Hummer?Well I’m not riding back that’s for sure! I’ll probably jump on a gas guzzlin’ jet…and buy some carbon offsets.Where can we learn more, and keep up to date with your adventures? I hear elephantjournal.com is goingto track your progress? Also some site called ryanvanduzer.com?I’ll be filming, tweeting, writing and photographing the entire way, so it should be pretty darn interactive. It’slike you’ll be able to be ride right alongside me, but you get to avoid the sore ass and stinky clothes. I’ll bewriting weekly articles for the Daily Camera and you can find me on newbelgium.com/duzer.Where will your adventures be televised?Yes, I’ll have a satellite truck following me the entire way, broadcasting the fun on all the major channels….ohwait, that was in my dream. For now you’ll have to watch the fun on the internet.June 16, 2009Ryan van Duzer Ride Across AmericaPlease see the DVD at the back of the clipbook for this video clip. page 0

‘Out There Guy’ sets out to ride 3,000 miles — on a three-speed | Heather HansmanJune 17, 2009It started out as a joke. Last year, New Belgium Brewing Co. gave Ryan VanDuzer a 30-pound cruiser in thanks for some videos he had made for thecompany.“I jokingly said, ‘I’m going to ride this across America,’” said Van Duzer, ofBoulder.New Belgium took him seriously. Now, with some help from the brewingcompany and the League of American Bicyclists, he’s riding his “Duzer Cruzer,”with a 50-pound trailer in tow, across the country.When he sets out from San Diego on Saturday, headed for Washington, D.C.— nearly 3,000 miles away — it’ll be his first time on the bike for a trip longerthan 5 miles. He’s expecting the expedition to take two months.The 1995 Boulder High graduate rode a road bike 4,000 miles from Honduras to Boulder a few years ago afterserving with the Peace Corps in the Central American country, and he has been a regular contributor to theCamera as the “Out There Guy.” In 2006, he worked as the city of Boulder’s “Bicycle Ambassador,” promotingbiking and teaching safety clinics.He’s also ridden from Maine to Key West along the entire Eastern Seaboard.This time, Van Duzer, who has never had a car or even a driver’s license, is raising money for Boulder nonprofitCommunity Cycles through sponsors who contribute online at www.communitycycles.org. Along the wayto Washington, he’s stopping in bike-friendly cities, such as Flagstaff, Ariz., and Columbus, Ohio, to givepresentations about biking.“If I can ride a three-speed cruiser from San Diego to D.C., more people can leave their car behind to go to thegrocery store,” he said.The money he raises will go to Community Cycles’ After School Bike program, which gives kids bikes andteaches them bike safety and maintenance.“We really appreciate Ryan doing this, and we need it; that’s for sure,” said Rich Points, the organization’sdirector.Brian Simpson, New Belgium’s spokesman, said he hopes Van Duzer’s ride, because it is so remarkable, willhelp get people excited about riding bikes.“If you can show something grandiose, people rally around it,” he said. “We wanted to highlight his efforts.” page 1

As he slowly pedals his way across the country, Van Duzer said, he’s excited to see as much as he can and toinspire people to get on their bikes.“My main goal is to have fun. My second main goal is to raise money for Community Cycles,” Van Duzer said.“I’m trying to create a Forrest Gump kind of thing.”Small Brewers Test Their Metal | Greg KitsockJune 17, 2009Next month, the Blue Mountain Brewery in rural Nelson County will become the first Virginia microbrewery tocan its beer. Using a hand-operated filler and seamer, owner Taylor Smack will package his Full Nelson Pale Alein 12-ounce aluminum cylinders -- at a laborious 20 cases per hour -- and ship it to better beer outlets aroundthe commonwealth.Smack says he hopes Virginians will give it the same rousing reception they gave Krueger’s Cream Ale back inJanuary 1935.The beer can is nearing its 75th birthday. It all started in Richmond, where the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co.of Newark, N.J., test-marketed the first commercially available canned beer to jump-start sales after the end ofProhibition.The early, bulky, stainless-steel cans had to be punched open with a heavy-duty utensil, yet the publicembraced them eagerly; the use of a tab top and lighter-weight aluminum lay decades in the future. Kruegerdisappeared into history, but American beer drinkers adopted the can as their favorite container, last yearpopping open more than 30 billion cold ones, most of them filled with pale light lagers from the large nationalbrewers.Now, smaller brewers such as Smack are dramatically increasing the range of styles available in aluminum,challenging the stigma of canned beer.“People say, ‘What about the metallic taste?’ But that problem was solved years ago,” Smack says, notingthat cans are lined with an epoxy-based resin. He enumerates the advantages: Cans are opaque, so there’s noneed to worry about skunky, light-struck beer. They’re lighter and more compact than bottles, making them aconvenient tote for bikers, backpackers and the beach crowd. They ice down faster than glass. And consumersare more likely to recycle cans.“I’m a huge believer that this will be a big medium for craft brewing,” he says.But better beer in cans is still relatively rare. Of the 446 microbreweries and 990 brew pubs known to beoperating in the United States, only about 40 can their beer. Most use equipment from Cask Brewing Systems,a Canadian company that leveled the playing field by offering portable canning lines at prices even the smallestbrewery could afford.The best local venue for sampling microbrews in cans is the Red Derby, a comfortable neighborhood dive inColumbia Heights. The chalkboard lists 29 brands, all in cans. (The bar doesn’t stock bottles or kegs.) page 2

You can play it safe with a $2 Natty Boh, or fork over twice that amount for any of four brands from ButternutsBeer & Ale of Garrattsville, N.Y. The four-year-old microbrewery, housed in an abandoned dairy 25 miles westof Cooperstown, sidestepped bottling entirely to go directly to cans. “We wanted to offer something differentfrom the competition,” says owner-brewer Charles Williamson.His lineup of “farmhouse ales” includes Heinnieweisse, a German-style wheat beer with a light clove/bubble-gum favor, and the roasty, ebony-colored Moo Thunder Stout.The Red Derby also serves Mama’s Little Yella Pils, the latest offering from Oskar Blues, a Colorado brew pubthat in 2002 became the first U.S. microbrewery to invest in a canning line. The pils is a quaffable summertimethirst quencher with a peppery hop character.Its release was delayed, confides brewery spokesman Marty Jones, because federal regulators insisted thatthe brewery remove the slogan “Take two and call us in the morning” from the original label design. (Thegovernment frowns on health claims on alcoholic beverage containers, even those made in jest.)Microbreweries that produce canned beer would love to emulate the success of Oskar Blues (best knownfor its Dale’s Pale Ale), which has seen output soar from a paltry 700 barrels in 2002 to an estimated 30,000barrels this year, thanks to its canning line. For the time being, most are quite tiny. The 21st AmendmentBrewery, a San Francisco brew pub whose cans recently popped up in the Northern Virginia market, expectsto brew about 1,900 barrels. Its Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer has a sugary melon taste that gives wayto a crisp, mildly hoppy finish. Also available from 21st Amendment is the oddly punctuated Brew Free! or DieIPA, an immensely resiny West Coast India pale ale with notes of grapefruit and peach. It probably has helpedmicro-canners that most of the larger craft breweries have no plans for cans.Sierra Nevada’s Ken Grossman says he has considered the advantages of aluminum but has shied away becauseof concerns over bisphenol A, a chemical found in nearly all beverage can linings that, in animal studies, hasbeen associated with health problems such as obesity, cancer and neural damage.The Web site for the North American Metal Packaging Alliance claims “an average adult would have to ingestmore than 500 pounds of canned food and beverages every day for an entire lifetime to exceed the safe levelof BPA set by EPA.” There is some evidence that heat can cause BPA to leach out in greater amounts: A 2008University of Cincinnati study revealed that heating plastic bottles of water to the boiling point caused themto release 55 times as much of the chemical as was released when the bottles were at room temperature. Butsmall breweries rarely pasteurize, and their beer is unlikely to approach the boiling point, short of popping acan on the grill to make beer-can chicken.BPA does not appear to be a major concern for beer drinkers: “Over the past seven years, I’ve heard from twocustomers with concerns about BPA,” Jones says.Boston Beer Co. founder and chairman Jim Koch, who sticks with bottles and kegs, has said that evensmall perforations in the can lining could put the beer in contact with the aluminum, marring the flavor. Iencountered no metallic off-flavors in any of the beers I sampled, but I did pour the contents into a glass ratherthan drink straight from the can.New Belgium Brewing Co., the nation’s third-largest craft brewer, introduced its Fat Tire Amber Ale in cans lastyear. That might be good news for the brand’s cult following. (The Brickskeller’s Dave Alexander says Fat Tire isthe most-oft-requested beer he can’t get.) Cans are much more fuel-efficient for shipping long-distance.But although the Colorado brewery has established East Coast beachheads in North Carolina and Georgia,there is no ETA for Fat Tire’s arrival in Washington. page

Modern Brewery Age Weekly E-Newsletter •Volume 60, No. 22• June 19, 2009June 19, 2009 No vote likely onBest Summer Beers (so far)Please see next page. page

Brew Notes: Picks of the week Notes from the tasting panel for Modern Brewery Age, by Pete Reid, editor of Modern Brewery Age; with regulars GreggGlaser, editor of Yankee Brew News, and Tom Conti and Robert Lachman of the YBN tasting panel. Joining us each weekis a rotating cast of tasters, to include Dr. Steve Victor, formerly of Yale University; Lt. Commander Von Bair, USN, ret.;expat-Briton Gerry Nicholls, graphic designer Phil Simpson, videographer Paul Lin; Greg Zannella, field sales director forNortheast Beverage of Orange, CT; Michael Anstendig, a writer for New York Magazine on-line; Marty Juliano, Northeastrep for the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and Frank Fermino, brewer at the John Harvard’s Brewhouse in Manchester, CTSamples for tasting should be sent to Modern Brewery Age LLC, 44 Indian Valley Road, Weston, CT 06883. Lagunitas Undercover said Dr. Steve Victor. “It’s a won- Full Sail LTD 03 derfully malty beer, and very Shutdown Ale Full Sail Brewing Co. enjoyable to drink, and that’s coming from a guy who doesn’t like Hood River, OR strong ales.” A lovely pils from Full Sail, hopped “Reminds me of [Sierra Nevada] with Sterling, a Saaz hybrid. A Lagunitas Brewing Co. Bigfoot, but not as big,” said Phil beautiful beer in the glass, medi- Petaluma, CA Simpson. “Great beer.” um gold with a frothy head that Undercover Shutdown Ale from “It’s like an old ale that’s not old dissipates fast. Hops in the nose,Lagunitas Brewing Co. memorial- yet,” said Tom Conti. “Very full fla- with a touch of spice and floralizes an event from 2005, when the vored, and very good. I love it.” sweetness as they blend with thePetaluma brewery was briefly shut malt.down. People in the trade tell We’d tasted a couple of light-bod-exaggerated and dramatic stories Best Summer Beers ied lagers before we had this one,about undercover officers swarm- (so far) and appreciated LTD’s more gutsying the brewery, but Lagunitas just character.lets the beer tell the tale. Sunshine Wheat “More like a German pils, thereLagunitas calls this ale an “imperi- New Belgium Brewing is real hop quality and charac-al mild” and for Lagunitas, 9% abv Ft. Collins, CO ter,” said Gregg Glaser.and 72 IBUs is indeed on the mildside. For our tasters, though, this A tasty, clean little number in a “More of a beer,” said Greggbeer is pushing into barleywine can. It’s very light-bodied, and Zannella.territory. very refreshing. “More body, and all-around“It’s like a light barley wine,” said “Nose very clean, faint yeast lager qualities,” said Tom Conti.Marty Juliano. “This is right up note,” said Gregg Zannella. “A very classy American pils.”there, alcohol-wise with a barley “Nice light refreshing beer,” saidwine, but the alcohol is masked.” Marty Juliano. “The filtering proba- Twilight Ale“Hops and alcohol in the nose,” bly pulls some of that flavor away,Gregg Glaser said. “Great aroma, It’s something you can just drink.” Deschutes Brewing Co.very interesting. That higher alco- “A little sweetness from the Bend, ORhol balances out all those IBUs.” orange,” said Robert Lachman, A very light ale, made with tradi- “Some sugary sweet notes at “and you get a touch of the corian- tional Deschutes quality.first, but it balances out,” said der as well.” Everything in just the right meas-Gregg Zannella. “Great stuff,” said Gregg Glaser. ure—hop spice and bitterness,“I like this,” said Von Bair. “The “It’s like a lighter Hoegaarden. I smoothed out with sweet malt.hops are not assertive, it’s very think this will appeal to a lot of “Nice fruity hop aroma, faintbalanced, a good, strong, bal- people.” grapefruit nose,” said Gregganced ale.” “Very nice,” said Von Bair. “Tastes Glaser. “The flavor builds on that“Classic Lagunitas,” said Pete great and less filling, as someone initial aroma.”Reid. “Their beers are almost dan- used to say. I could imagine taking “Extremely tasty,” said Philgerous, because they are so this hiking up into the Rockies.” Simpson. “So fresh, which is nice.strong, yet so well balanced.” “Thirst quenching and clean, Every note is young and fresh.”“There is a resemblance to a bar- leaves absolutely nothing behind,” “Great balance, everything theyley wine, but this is more lively,” said Tom Conti. make is good,” said Von Bair.7 MODERN BREWERY AGE WEEKLY, JUNE 19, 2009 page

Bike More Billboard | Jennifer ZeppelinJune 27, 2009Please see the DVD at the back of the clipbook for this video clip.New Belgium Brewing Co. – promoting low-carbon beer and biking | Michele Chan SantosJune 30, 2009Green-minded visitors to northern Colorado should consider a tour of the New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins. New Belgium, best known for its Fat Tire Amber Ale brand, is one of the most environmentally progressive breweries in the world. The brewery has used wind-powered electricity since 1999, and green- design methods have been incorporated throughout the company. I visited the headquarters on a recent trip and discovered that many aspects of company life are dedicated to sustainability. New Belgium sponsors a charity bike-and-music event called “Tour de Fat” in eleven cities in the United States, including Austin, Chicago, Minneapolis and Portland, that encourages people to trade their car for a bike, at least for a day. At Tour de Fat events, beer is served in compostable cups, and performers take to a solar-powered stage. (A Tour de Fat schedule is online.) Cycling has long been part of New Belgium’s corporate culture. Before he founded the company, Jeff Lebesch went on a tour of Belgian breweries, traveling through Europe in 1989 on a mountain bike, a rarity at the time. Many people commented on the “fat tires” he used, which inspired the name of Fat Tire Amber Ale. Today,employees of New Belgium each receive a mountain bike on the one-year anniversary of their hire date. Theyare encouraged to use the bikes to commute to work, thus reducing their carbon footprints. Outside theheadquarters, dozens of bikes are lined up, looking well-used.Tours of the brewery are free, and they are offered several days per week. One of the first things page

visitors notice is the beautiful pine wood used throughout the building, on ceilings, walls and floors. The woodhas a bluish tint, meaning it’s “beetlekill” wood. Throughout Colorado, thousands of acres of lodgepole pineshave been lost to a pine bark beetle infestation. The beetle injects a fungus into the trees, which tints thewood blue. Using the wood is a way to utilize these dead trees, the tour guide explained.The most impressive sight on the tour is the gigantic “Merlin” brewing kettle, the size of a school bus.Traditional brew kettles heat the wort (unfermented beer, the liquid that comes from mashing grains) in a giantkettle that heats from the bottom, similar to how you heat a pan of water on the kitchen stove.The Merlin, made by the Germany company Steinecker, has a huge cone-shaped heating element standinginside the vast cylindrical kettle. The liquid heats more quickly than in a traditional kettle because the heatingsurface is much larger, and the wort heats from the center out. Since the wort heats faster, the brew kettleuses less energy than traditional methods.Every brewery produces a large amount of wastewater as a result of the brewing process. New Belgium builtits own water-treatment plant, which includes anaerobic digestion. The company also uses the methaneproduced by the plant to generate electricity and heat. As it continues to work on new ways to save energy,New Belgium plans to install a solar photovoltaic array.Best of all for visitors, each brewery guest 21 and up can sample four types of beer for free, in the first-floorbar called the “Liquid Center.” Most visitors start with the Fat Tire, and then move on to try other flavors, likeSunshine Wheat, Skinny Dip and Blue Paddle. page

Fat Tire On A Roll In 25 States | Jay DedrickJuly 1, 2009 page

Where To Go When You’re In A Sour Mood | Joshua LurieJuly 1, 2009When you’re in a sour mood here are some local places to drink domestic sours, subject to availability:BARS AND RESTAURANTSBeachwood BBQ: Owner Gabriel Gordon has spent two years hoarding kegs and bottles, which he’ll unleash inAugust for his week-long sour festival.131 1/2 Main St., Seal Beach, (562) 493-4500, www.beachwoodbbq.comBlue Palms Brewhouse: Proprietor Brian Lenzo regularly stocks domestic sours, including rare bottles ofIsabelle Proximus, a sour collaboration between Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur, Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione,Allagash’s Rob Tod, Russian River’s Vinnie Cilurzo and Avery’s Adam Avery that sprang from a trip to Belgium.6124 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 464-2337, www.bluepalmsbrewhouse.comBoHo: Verdugo co-owner Ryan Sweeney consults on BoHo’s beer selection. He recently tapped TelegraphReserve Wheat and carries bottles of Lost Abbey’s Cuvée de Tomme, brewed by Tomme Arthur.6372 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 465-8500, www.bohorestaurant.comBoneyard Bistro: Chef-owner Aaron Robins features domestic bottles such as Russian River’s Temptation,Supplication and Consecration, plus Avery Brabant, a Colorado sour aged in Zinfandel barrels.13539 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 906-7427, www.boneyardbistro.comBottleRock: Resident beer expert Alex Macy recently carried Allagash Confluence on draft. He also stocksbottles of Allagash Confluence, Telegraph Reserve Wheat and Cuvée de Tomme.1050 S. Flower St., downtown L.A., (213) 747-1100, www.bottlerock.netFather’s Office: Sang Yoon acquired prized kegs of Russian River Consecration and the rarely seen Dogfish HeadFestina Pêche.1018 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 736-2224, www.fathersoffice.comFather’s Office II: Yoon recently tapped two sours from New Belgium: Eric’s Ale (a peach lambic) and La Folie (aFlanders-style red). Also featured is Telegraph Reserve Wheat on draft.3229 Helms Ave., Los Angeles, (310) 736-2224, www.fathersoffice.comThe Golden State: Stone just started redistributing Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, and the Golden State scoredbottles of La Roja, Oro de Calabaza and Madrugada Obscura from brew master Ron Jeffries.426 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 782-8331, www.thegoldenstatecafe.comNaja’s Place: Manager Martin Svab regularly orders domestic sours for the longtime boardwalk beer bar,including New Belgium’s Eric’s Ale and blackberry-flavored Sour Wench from Ballast Point.154 International Boardwalk, Redondo Beach, (310) 376-9951, www.najasplace.com page 0

Pure Luck: Proprietor Ben Ling recently carried Russian River Consecration on draft and stocks 750-milliliterbottles of Telegraph Reserve Wheat.707 N. Heliotrope Drive, Los Angeles, (323) 660-5993, www.pureluckrestaurant.comStuffed Sandwich: Sam Samaniego and wife Marlene specialize in Belgian sours but still pour Consecration ondraft.1145 E. Las Tunas Drive, San Gabriel, (626) 285-9161, www.stuffedsandwich.comVerdugo Bar: Proprietor and resident beer maven Ryan Sweeney carries Consecration and Festina Pêche ondraft and has bottles of Lost Abbey’s Cuvée de Tomme.3408 Verdugo Road, Glassell Park, (323) 257 3408, www.verdugobar.comUPCOMING SOUR BEER FESTIVALSOn July 19, Stone World Bistro & Gardens is hosting its third Sour Fest in Escondido. Newly installed beveragecoordinator Bill Sysak plans to tap 45 kegs and open 36 bottles.Aug. 25-31, Beachwood BBQ proprietor Gabriel Gordon is hosting a week-long festival in Seal Beach, featuring18 sours on tap at any given time and nightly brewery events. page 1

New Belgium Brewing Company Bikes for the Environment | Melissa FulmerJuly 1, 2009 page 2

Brewer Pushes Bicycling to Help the Planet | Karen EgolfJuly 2, 2009The New Belgium Brewing Co., sponsor of bicycling’s annual Tour de Fat, is giving away more than 1,500cruiser bikes to encourage Americans to cut down their carbon footprints. The campaign, “The Beer, the Bikeand the Tour de Fat,” is awarding a bike a day online through Labor Day. It is also holding bike drawings in thecompany’s distribution area. The exclusive bikes are normally given only to New Belgium employees on theirfirst anniversaries. At the same time, the Fort Collins, Colo.-based company is preparing for its annual Tour de Fat, an 11-city traveling bike festival that works with local charities and encourages bicycling to help the environment. The tour, which will kick off July 11 in Chicago, raises money through volunteer entry fees and sales of merchandise and beer. The events include parades, contests and food, and 92% of the waste created is diverted from landfills, according to the company. The Tour de Fat has raised more than $1 million for bicycle nonprofits since it began in 2000. It was honored this year at the Cause Marketing Forum’s Cause Marketing Halo Awards, winningthe gold award for best environmental/wildlife campaign.As part of its efforts, the company has also established Team Wonderbike, a commuter-advocacy program thatso far has 16,000 cyclists pledged to offset more than 15 million driver miles in coming months.“While we have the Tour de Fat and Team Wonderbike to help people celebrate bikes they already have, thisprogram actually provides the tool to change habits,” New Belgium spokesman Bryan Simpson said of the bikegiveaway. page

Top 5 Canned Beers | Stephen BeaumontJuly 3, 2009Canned beers have come a long way in the last half-decade or so, with many award-winning microbreweriesnow proudly packaging their brew in aluminum. And while the jury is still out on whether or not cans are trulymore environmentally friendly than bottles, there’s no denying that the two containers play on equal ground interms of flavor. Fuller’s London Pride (England; $7.99 per four-pack of 16.9 oz. cans) You might not expect to find one of the most awarded and acclaimed ales in the U.K. in a can, but voilà! This is a classic “best bitter,” a brew style completely unlike pale ale, porter, or stout. It is dry rather than aggressively bitter, lightly fruity, and, to borrow a British phrase, immensely quaffable. With more than a century and a half of experience behind it, the Fuller’s brewery is the last remaining family brewery in London. Sly Fox Pikeland Pils (Pennsylvania; $8.49 per six-pack) While boring, weak, mainstream American lagers are often deemed “lawnmower beers,” I’ve always thought the quenching, refreshing character of a good German-style pilsner like this was more deserving of the term. Aromatic, crisply flavorful, pleasingly bitter, and dry enough to slake the greatest thirst, this is simply an outstanding hot weather brew from a well-respected and family-owned brewery located not far from Philadelphia. Young’s Double Chocolate Stout (England; $8.99 per four-pack of 16.9 oz. cans) For those who swear they taste chocolaty notes in black beers, here’s a stout that ups the ante by introducing actual chocolate into the mix. It is, not surprisingly, quite chocolaty in taste, but also mellow in character, with roasty, coffee, and faint spice notes and none of the cloying sweetness found in some chocolate ales. A lovely after-dinner treat. page

Oskar Blues Gordon (Colorado; $9.99 per four-pack) From the pioneering brewery that helped rehabilitate the sorry image of canned beer in 2002, when it became the first craft brewer to can its ales, comes this heavyweight brew of the style sometimes referred to as “double” or “Imperial” IPA, thanks to its high 8.7-percent alcohol content and robust hoppiness. Expect chocolate, hazelnut, and raisin notes on the nose and a big body of toffee and berry flavors mixed with citrusy bitterness. Not for the faint of heart. New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale (Colorado; $16 per 12-pack) What started as a cult canned ale among mountain bikers in Colorado in the early 1990s is now available for the rest of us. This isn’t an intimidating beer in any way; just a slightly biscuity, somewhat toasty, and well-balanced amber ale with an abundance of the quality some critics refer to as “more-ish,” meaning that one sip has you wanting more.July 4, 2009Segment on Fat TirePlease see the DVD at the back of the clipbook for this complete video clip. page

These 10 Budget-Friendly Summer Sporting Events Ruled by Oddity | Michael GuerrieroJuly 4, 20091. Tour De Fat (Labor Day Weekend, Fort Collins, Colo.)The world’s most insane biking event is pedaling pandemonium, a rolling rock n’ roll carnival and 100-percentchaotic originality. In 2007, the Tour De Fat smashed the previously held Taiwanese world record for the largestbike parade, as more than 4,000 costume-clad participants hit the road for this two-wheeled circus.New Belgium Brewery is responsible for the Tour De Fat, an event that makes you feel as though you’ve juststepped into Alice’s Wonderland. The event starts at 9:00 a.m., as thousands of people wearing combinationsof their past five Halloween costumes congregate at the brewery’s starting line with bicycles in tow. Thesedecked-out cyclists have spent weeks outfitting their bikes, so don’t be surprised to see couches pedaled downthe street or an electronic piano (with someone playing it) pulled behind a BMX.When the gun sounds, it’s a quick two or three mile jaunt around town, as onlookers line the streets to pickout this year’s craziest contraption. The route circles back to the brewery for seven hours of Tour De Fatmadness -- including fire breathers on stilts, unicycle jousters punishing each other, pancake juggling and livemusic. The Tour is spreading its wings to various U.S. cities -- check the Web site to find out of there’s one inyour area.Admission: $5 suggested donation for bike rideJuly 17, 2009New Belgium’s Tour de Fat in MinneapolisNew Belgium Brewing Company is on tour again this summer with Tour de Fat coming through 11 cities,including Minneapolis.The event is a celebration of bicycling, in which participants are asked to trade-in their car for a bike.Here’s the rules, outlined as The Ten Commandments of the Tour de Fat:1. Put no means of transport before thy bike: Come by bike because not only are bikes fun, but they help staveoff some of our most wicked ills: Traffic, obesity, and pollution. Tour de Fat has a solution: ride this day, everyday, and definitely when Tour de Fat heads your way. page

2. Honor all other bikes: All bikes are good bikes, and all those who ride them are good people. This is the oneBike Festival that cherishes bicycle diversity on our Cruise-ade through town.3. May every generation come forth: This is a family friendly event. Costumes, bikes and a parade? We werethinking like kids when we created Tour de Fat.4. Thou shall come as a participant not a spectator: It’s a costumed celebration of human-poweredtransportation. Muscles not motors, coasters, v-brakes and rotors. Come in your favorite alter ego, becausewhen everybody’s weird, no one is.5. Thou shalt not bring booze; But enjoy the supplied malted adult refreshments responsibly: Please do notbring any outside alcohol on the ride or into the park. It could result in getting the event shut down...don’t bethat guy. And when you imbibe in our tasty brews, remember this is a Bicycle Festival with beer, not the otherway around.6. New Belgium shalt not profit: Our goal is to raise money for bicycle and environmental charities. NewBelgium Brewing Company does NOT retain any of the events’ proceeds. Please think of your $5 beer tokens asdonations to a worthy cause. All sales are final; beer tokens do not expire and will be accepted next year.7. Remember the purpose, and bring not your pooches: No canine friends allowed this year. We’re a dog-lovingBrewery, but sadly not all municipalities and parks are. Please leave your best friends at home for their safetyand the safety of others. Besides, it’s not much fun for dogs with all the noise and crazy people around.8. Keep the day true with thy good juju: The ride is free, but we suggest a $5 donation to the good bikeadvocates who are putting it on for you. If you give more, you will not incur flats, mechanical troubles, or dryskin for a while…maybe. This is a celebration of the bike, not an anti-car rally. All tools have their place.9. Thou shall rise early: Since Tour de Fat is a free show, we sometimes get more folks than we canaccommodate. Once we’re full, we will handle overflow like a restaurant or bar: one in, one out. We reservethe right to determine the appropriate crowd size in the name of safety and enjoyment for those inside.10. Thou shalt not steal thy neighbors’ bike: Don’t even think of leaving with a bike that doesn’t belong to you.Modern-day horse thieves will be dealt with by angry mob, pitchforks, and torches.Car Be Gone with Tour de Fat | Deanna DarrAugust 5, 2009OK, Boise bike commuters, it’s time to put your bike where ... well, where your car is.Are you publicly willing to show your allegiance to the almighty bike by handing over the pink slip to your four-wheeled ride in exchange for one sweet commuter bike? page

Well, then step up. The crew at New Belgium Brewing--the people who put on the annual Tour de Fat--arelooking for a Boise volunteer to swap his or her car for a bike as part of this year’s event.This is the eighth year the Tour de Fat will roll into Boise (on Saturday, Aug. 22, in Ann Morrison Park), and thebike-for-car swap is always a major highlight. And sure, while you may no longer have your trusty old Pinto, thechosen swapper will get a hand-built Black Sheep commuter bike, which--take it from us or check it out onlineyourself--is one seriously gorgeous and not-cheap bike.So, how do you get the chance to swap your car? Anyone interested must submit a video or essay about theirdeep and overwhelming desire to live car-free for one year. That’s right, a whole year.Even if you’re not quite ready to make that jump, everyone is still invited out to join in the bike-centric fun atthe event. And while participants celebrate the bike, local biking organizations are the ones that will benefitthe most. Proceeds from the sale of beer (from New Belgium Brewing, of course) and merchandise will goto the Southwest Idaho Mountain Bike Association and the Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance, both of whichsupport numerous other bike organizations and trail projects throughout the valley.Boise Bicycle Project will also be on hand throughout the day collecting bike parts to rebuild used bikes, whichare donated to children of low-income families and refugees.Boise is the fifth stop along a tour that will take organizers through 11 cities, including Chicago, Minneapolis,Seattle, Portland, Ore., Fort Collins, Colo., Denver, San Francisco, San Diego, Tempe, Ariz., and Austin.The Boise event will kick off with the traditional bike parade at 10 a.m., which sends costumed riders cruisingthrough the streets of downtown before ending up at the park, where the day will be filled with all sorts ofBacchanalian celebrations--that is, if Bacchus had been the god of beer and bikes instead of wine. The park willbe filled with live entertainment and booths sporting info and items from event supporters.Whomever is selected to sacrifice his or her car will witness the Carpocalypse Now (a funeral procession forthe soon to be discarded car) and join in the swap celebration later in the afternoon.If you think you’re ready to leave half of your wheels and an engine behind, check out details on the bike-for-car swap at newbelgium.com/tour-de-fat.August 8, 2009Segment on Tour de Fat in SeattlePlease see the DVD at the back of the clipbook for this complete video clip. page

August 11, 2009Making Sustainability SustainableWhen you think of socially responsible, sustainable food companies, which come to mind? Ben & Jerry’s?Stonyfield Farm? New Belgium?How about Mars?Mars? You mean the company that makes Milky Way, Starburst, and 3 Musketeers, among others? Not likelytop of mind for you. Yet. And I’d wager it just may be in the coming years. Why? Mars recently made twomonumental commitments, with action and money to back it up. They encompass both what’s in and outsidethe wrapper. And they could even serve as an example and even a resource to you. Yes, you, the perhaps-already-sustainable-in-many-ways company. Read on...Mars recently committed to purchasing 100 million tons of sustainably sourced cocoa beans, certified by UTZCertified. While not as well known by you and I as, say, TransfairUSA, UTZ’s work is of no less substance. Alongwith source sustainability certification and verification of supportive workplace practices, they actively reachout to farmers and those in the surrounding communities to educate them on the viability of and market forsustainably grown cocoa.What impact could this have on you?If a major player like Mars is committing to have all of its chocolate sustainably sourced, this both sets aprecedent for others to follow suit, and it will have ripple effects of an increasing supply, as more farmers seethe long term viability of choosing to grow in a planet friendly way. Which means more room for new greenchocolate companies. Question is, will it remain a niche, or become the norm?Mars is taking their commitment beyond the bar, to include the wrapper. Not yet going the Sun Chipscompostable route, they’ve made an agreement with us, the largest such for upcycling of post consumerwaste. Translation -- 3,000 tons of packaging that would have otherwise been burnt for power will now beturned into new products. Nineteen candy brands, three cat and dog food brands, plus Uncle Ben’s, Seeds ofChange, and Flavia to be precise.If a mammoth company like this can make such a huge commitment to repurposing its waste, what’s stoppingyou? Ideas? Money? Creativity? Figure out how you can do it as easily as possible, while profiting at it. Canyou do it? How would you do it? We started with a composter and plastic bottles out of our people’s curbsiderecycling bin (unbeknownst to them). You can do it too, in a way fitting for your industry. We’d love to hearyour ideas, stories, and successes. Drop me a comment here. page

New Belgium’s Tour de Fat comes to Waterfront Park Saturday | John FoystonAugust 13, 2009 10 a.m. Saturday, Tom McCall Waterfront Park New Belgium Brewing’s traveling circus of bikes and beer lands in Portland once again, spreading the good word about the positive societal effects of the bicycle, so show up on your bike -- preferably decorated -- bring the family (but not the dog) and do wear a costume. As they say on the Web site, when everybody is weird, nobody is...( And this is a pro-bike celebration, not an anti-car rally...non-cyclists are more than welcome...)Schedule:10:00 a.m. - Bike Parade Registration11:00 a.m. - Bike Parade12:00 p.m. - Performances Begin1:30 p.m. - “Carpocalypse Now” - Funeral procession for the car belonging to the Car-for-Bike Trade volunteer3:30 p.m. - Car-for-Bike Trade Celebration5:00 p.m. - Curtain ClosesPerformances By:Sean HayesThe Pimps of JoytimeThe Squirm Burpee CircusNandaThe SprockettesLoyd Family Players Salsa Drum CorpsHighlights of Tour De Fat:A volunteer will trade in their car for a custom commuter bike, as part of the Car-for-Bike Trade Program. Tosee a compilation video from past swappers, visit www.newbelgium.com.As part of the Car-for-Bike Trade Program, each Tour de Fat stop will have a funeral for the departed carcomplete with a Mardi Gras-esque funeral procession. This funeral will be followed, later in the day, by acelebration of the arrival of the swapper’s custom commuter bike.At the Team Wonderlounge, participants can join Team Wonderbike, New Belgium’s bicycling commuter page 0

advocacy program. Team Wonderbikers pledge to commute by bike, not car, as often as possible. Currently,16,000 people have pledged not to drive 15 million miles in the next twelve months.All musical acts will perform on a solar-powered stage with decorations made from recycled materials, trucksand transport use biofuel sourced from recycled waste oils, and all vendors operate off the grid.Festival-goers can participate in the pre-event bicycle parade.August 14, 2009Simple Luxuries Thrive in Depressed EconomyThey wander in on their lunch breaks and after work, looking for a treat to lift their spirits and elevate theirdays.Customers may only buy a single truffle when they visit Davidson Chocolate, which sells handmade confectionsmade on-site in Davidson, N.C. Still, that’s led to a steady increase in sales for Sue Elliott, her husband and herson since they opened the shop a year ago.“People will come in and say, ‘Our office really needs some chocolate today,’” Elliott says. “Or people will comein and buy just a couple pieces, and that really lifts their day up. It has that sense of luxury about it, like they’retreating themselves.”Chocolate is one of several affordable luxuries--non-necessities consumers continue to buy as they trimtheir budget elsewhere--that are thriving despite the economic downturn, according to market analysts andentrepreneurs.For consumers, affordable luxuries represent a way to live the good life on a shoestring. For entrepreneurs,they represent an opportunity to profit, even as other industries falter. Below are just a few examples.Craft beerAs many businesses downsize, New Belgium Brewing Co. is on a nationwide tear. The Fort Collins, Colo.,microbrewery has expanded to several new states in the past year, and is forecasting 10 percent growth thisyear thanks to growth in those new markets. Craft beer is the fastest-growing sector of the beer industry,according to the Brewers Association, a nonprofit organization which tabulates industry growth data for U.S.breweries. But since craft beer accounts for only 4 percent of the total beer market, there’s plenty of room forgrowth, says New Belgium spokesman Bryan Simpson.“Beer is a great social and cultural connector,” Simpson says. “It provides an opportunity for people to still treatthemselves well when they’re cutting back in other areas.”Harry Balzer, vice president of the NPD group, says microbreweries offer “new versions of things we alreadybuy,” the key to profiting in a down economy, when consumers are less likely to shell out cash for items they’venever bought before. page 1

Industry-wide, craft-beer sales were up 5.8 percent by volume and 10.5 percent in dollars between November2007 and November 2008, according to the Brewers Association.ChocolateDavidson Chocolate isn’t the only chocolate company to enjoy a recent boom in business. Industry giants likeHershey’s and Cadbury’s have also reported increased profits.Elliott says Davidson’s success stems from keeping the focus on quality, and by creating an atmosphere ofluxury at an affordable price point.“If people come to really appreciate the quality of your product, they will see paying $1.35 for a truffle as agood value rather than a splurge,” she says.As soon as customers walk into Davidson Chocolate, they are greeted by a staff member--and by the aroma ofthe on-site chocolate production.“People just stand there and smell for a few minutes,” Elliott says.Then, whether the customer is buying three pounds of chocolate or three pieces, Elliott says owners and staffstrive to create “the feeling of, ‘Oh, can we wrap your gift, or get you a gift card, or do anything else to makeyou feel special?’”“People have to go grocery shopping,” Elliott says. “They don’t have to come into the store. We want them tofeel like they’re being treated.”Video gamesBlizzard Entertainment launched its newest expansion of World of Warcraft in November, when Americanswere reeling from news about job losses and plummeting 401Ks. Still, customers flocked to stores the day of itsrelease, buying 2.8 million copies in 24 hours to make it the fastest-selling PC game ever, says Mike Morhaime,president and founder of Blizzard Entertainment.That success reflects an industry-wide trend, according to the market research group DFC Intelligence, which isforecasting video game revenue to reach $57 billion this year.Mark Cottam, CEO of MumboJumbo, which publishes, develops and markets “casual games,” says his companyhas enjoyed increases in sales and profits recently. He says casual games, or simple games marketed to thegeneral population, have reached consumers who don’t play traditional video games, but are looking for aninexpensive way to unwind.“People may hold off on a new bicycle or motorcycle or car, but regardless of what’s going on, they still want tofind a way to turn off their brain and relax,” Cottam says. “Games provide that at an affordable price point.”Morhaime says new applications for the iPhone and other advances in online gaming make the industry ripefor startups who can find a new niche to fill.“Online gaming is still young, so there really are a lot of opportunities right now,” Morhaime says.High-end jeansOverall, apparel sales have plummeted recently, with a decline of 6.3 percent for the three months ending page 2

with February 2009, according to the NPD group, which defines that time slot as “a key period of the economicdownturn.” Jeans, however, saw a 2.3 percent increase for the period, with “premium jeans” costing morethan $100 per pair seeing a 17 percent increase for 2008, according to the NPD group.True Religion CEO Jeffrey Lubell says that trend has played out for his company, which reported a 15.4 increasein net sales for the first six months of 2009, plus increased profits for the same period of time. Lubell says thespike in sales came even as the company hiked up its prices for women’s and men’s jeans to $258 and $284respectively--a $17 increase for women and $12 for men.Consumers see jeans as “a value purchase in a tough economy,” Lubell says. “Jeans are not the kind of thingyou wear once, like a formal dress. They never go out of style and only get better with time, so consumers willcontinue to pay top dollar for them.”NASCAR’s Smith Doesn’t Crash the Party | Nick GrokeAugust 20, 2009Numbers abound in Regan Smith’s NASCAR season thisyear. For a simple stock car race on four tires with fourturns, something more mathematical is slinging himalong.Smith, who races for Denver’s Furniture Row Racingteam, holds NASCAR’s current longest active streakof not crashing. Through his entire three-year career,Smith’s engine was still running when he crossed thefinish line in all 51 races he started.Smith’s streak is a considerable feat in a series that sooften sees cars trading paint and busting bumpers.He’ll seek to extend that streak Sunday in the Brickyard400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Smith will have toqualify during races Saturday morning. The Sunday race starts at noon, airing on ESPN.Smith, in the No. 78 car, is maximizing his ride. His team entered the Sprint Cup season planning on a part-timeschedule of 12 races, just one-third of the full 36-race slate. But he has exceeded expectations, so the page

team bumped up his entries to 16, including the Aug. 22 race at Bristol.At 38th in the season points standings, Smith is the highest-ranked driver with fewer than 17 starts. Just four ofthe 37 drivers ahead of him have started in fewer than the full 19 races.In his 10 races this season, Smith’s average starting position is 29.8. But he has finished at an average of 22.9,attesting to his ability to keep off the wall and away from the wrecker.“Our finishes haven’t been that bad, but we know they could have been better,” Smith said in a team-releasedstatement.At Indy, Smith would likely go against last year’s winner Jimmie Johnson, who has two wins at the Brickyard inthe past three years.Indiana native Tony Stewart, who leads the season standings, won at Indy in 2005 and 2007, and a return tothe winner’s circle this weekend would put him in a prime position with six races to go before the Chase.AROUND TOWNBig Apple invasion.Denver will be in a New York state of mind this weekend when two Empire State teams travel to the CentennialState for games.The Rapids host the New York Red Bulls on Saturday at DSG Park for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. Colorado will belooking to gain ground against the East’s last-place team, which is led by Mike Petke and Juan Pablo Angel. Thegame will be followed by a fireworks display rescheduled from July 4.Across town on Saturday, the Denver Outlaws of Major League Lacrosse host the Long Island Lizards in theirfinal home game of the season. Faceoff is at 7 p.m. The teams played a fight-filled game in their previousmatchup last month, won by the Outlaws.STAY ON THE COUCHChampagne on Champs-Elysees.The final three stages of the Tour de France will decide the winner by Sunday’s finish line. But between nowand then, things could get wild.Greg LeMond erased a 50-second deficit on the final stage in 1989 to win the Tour. So Alberto Contador’s 4-minute, 11-second lead with three stages left isn’t a lock for the title.Lance Armstrong is 5:25 behind in third place and Christian Vande Velde, of Boulder-based team Garmin-Slipstream, is 10:08 back heading into today.The great race will conclude Sunday in a stage from Montereau- Fault-Yonne to Paris’ finish line at the Champs-Elysees. The final stage airs live on Versus from 5:30-10 a.m. and will replay the rest of the day. page

GET OFF THE COUCHWatch for human wheelbarrows.A kind of circus carnival on wheels, the New Belgium Urban Assault Ride on Sunday will careen racers throughDenver in an obstacle course of rarely seen trouble.The ride, starting at 9 a.m., will take two-person teams to Elitch Gardens, out to Wheat Ridge and back to LoDoto compete in jousting and human wheelbarrow competitions.And to the winner goes the spoils: two new cruiser bikes.Check urbanassaultride.com to register. Today is the deadline.Runners will toil in the Classic 10K Race in Colorado Springs on Saturday. The 7 a.m. start time will lead to oneof the fastest 10K’s in the state, according to organizers. The course will follow the Pikes Peak Greenway.Check csgrandprix.com for info.WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEEDivision doldrums for Rocks.A by-product of the Rockies’ midseason resurgence as the wild-card leaders in the National League is thesuddenly high-stakes nature of their divisional series.When the Rockies, in second place in the NL West, host third-place San Francisco for a three-game seriesstarting tonight, Colorado will bring with it the worst divisional record in the West.The Rockies (18-23) are tied in intra-division games with sad-sack Arizona. The Giants (18-17) and Dodgers (30-12) are the only teams with winning records in NL West games.The Rockies-Giants weekend series concludes Sunday at 1:10 p.m., with San Francisco’s Ryan Sadowski goingagainst Aaron Cook.August 20, 2009Segment on Tour de Fat in BoisePlease see the DVD at the back of the clipbook for this complete video clip. page

New Belgium Celebrates Bikes and Brews at Fest | Scott WilloughbySeptember 1, 2009 page

Today Show: End of Summer Drinks | Ray IsleSeptember 1, 2009I was on the Today show this morning (check out the clip here), recommending a few summer’s-almost-over-don’t-miss-them beers and wines to Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. It was, as usual, a slightly crazy affair,but a lot of fun.Beer-wise, I suggested people track down New Belgium’s Skinny Dip, a light beer (114 calories) that doesn’ttaste like a light beer—i.e., doesn’t taste like watery dreck. I’m not quite sure how the New Belgiumbrewers manage that, but if you’re inclined toward light beers, you could do far, far worse. I also mentionedHoegaarden, a classic Belgian witbier, faintly flavored with coriander and orange peel. The cloudiness (which isnatural) seemed to worry KLG and Hoda, but in the end they seemed to like it; personally, I think the stuff’s ano-brainer on a hot summer day.In terms of wine, my recommendations included the 2008 Foxglove Chardonnay ($13, find this wine), anunoaked Central Coast Chardonnay with crisp tree-fruit notes and impressive intensity; the 2008 Crios deSusanna Balbo Malbec ($15, find this wine), which for the price provides a lot of smoky blackberry fruit andworks well as either a summer-grilling or winter-warming wine; and 2008 Saracco Moscato d’Asti ($15, find thiswine), which is perfect for summer desserts—lightly sparkling, low in alcohol, with pretty tangerine and floralnotes.I also got to walk down a set of stairs next to George Foreman, who was on the show, too, and looking mightydapper in a striped, off-white suit. I have to say he drew more attention than I did.September 1, 2009Segment on Skinny DipPlease see the DVD at the back of the clipbook for this complete video clip. page

Four Party Beers - featuring Blue Paddle | Scott GornallSeptember 1, 2009 page

Beer and Wine for Labor Day Barbecue | Mark TarbellSeptember 2, 2009It’s that time again: another weekend of smoky grills and chopsslathered with sweet and tangy sauces. It’s Labor Day. Aside from theobvious origins of the day honoring organized labor, we look forwardto laboring over a hot grill to delight and entertain our friends andrelatives. Big slabs of meat, tossed onto a hot barbie; long, flexiblecooking times; an indiscriminate amount of basting juice. What’s notto love? It’s a national pastime, a toll of summer’s end (well, outsidethe Valley), a celebration of the sanctuary that is our back patio.First whip up a delicious and simple homemade BBQ sauce (seeaccompanying recipe). This sauce is bold in flavor, with a hint of heatand a generous amount of sweetness that will be caramelized to a deep, dark color on the grill. It takes aspecial wine to git ‘er done, to not fight the mojo it’s putting out.But first, beer!Skinny Dip, by New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, Colo. ($2-$4) - A delightful expression of summer, thisone has all the flavor balance and light crispness that hot weather screams for. It’s not a classic barbecue beer,but it has enough lime and citrus to stand up to bold and spicy flavors. 95 pointsEasy Street Wheat Beer, by Odell Brewing Co., Fort Collins, Colo. ($2-$4) - A classic American wheat. This beeris unfiltered, so it has that lovely cloudy tone and increased depth and complexity. The finish has a hint ofcitrus. This has the brightness to bounce off bold barbecue and the weight and texture that lighter beers don’thave. 95 pointsThese wines also work:2008 Snoqualmie Winery “Winemaker’s Select” Riesling, Columbia Valley, Wash. ($7-$9) - This wine is verylight and refreshing, with low alcohol (10.5 percent). It has a nice balance of sweet and tart. It works well withbold, hot climates and bold flavors. It may not make a big food-and-wine impression, but it will never fight yourfood. 84 points2006 House Wine, Columbia Valley, Washington ($9-$11) - I recommend serving this wine slightly chilledduring warm weather. It has bold flavors, with layers of deep currant and cedar. It’s big enough to stand up tobarbecue, but be ready for a lot of dynamics going on in the mouth. 89 points page 100

Five Great Colorado Beers | Marcus ChamberlandSeptember 16, 2009 page 101

Drink Responsibly | Nina Shen RastogiSeptember 22, 2009 I’m hosting a dinner party next week, and I’ll be serving both beer and wine alongside the meal. But it got me wondering: Which has the lower carbon footprint? Beer has to be kept refrigerated, which requires energy, but shipping wine in those heavy bottles can’t be good for the planet, either. It’s hard to come up with a simple answer for this one, because so many factors affect the calculation: Where was your beverage made? What’s it packaged in, and how did that package get to you? How was it stored at the point of sale? Accounting for all these variables can make your head spin, but the best available researchsuggests that parsing out the difference might not be worth the headache.In 2007, an analyst for the U.K.-based Food Climate Research Network attempted to tally up the nation’salcohol consumption-related emissions. Across the three categories considered—beer, wine, and spirits—theresearch didn’t find any significant differences in greenhouse gas intensity. Wine came out with “marginallylower” greenhouse gas output than beer, though the author stressed that the tiny differences calculated—about 10 grams of carbon-dioxide equivalent per unit of alcohol—were well within the margin of error for thedata. (One unit of alcohol represents about a half-pint of ordinary strength beer or half a glass of white wine.)American drinking habits differ in some key ways from those of our friends across the pond, though. Forexample, Brits drink most of their beer in public establishments, whereas we tend to indulge at home. Andwhile virtually all their wine is imported—roughly half of it traveling long distances by sea—about two-thirdsof the wine we drink is produced domestically, mostly in California. Still, until someone undertakes a similarlycomprehensive study on booze and the environment in the United States, the British data may be the bestwe’re going to find. So you might as well stick with your preferred tipple and then strive to make the greenestchoices in that category. page 102

When it comes to beer, the Lantern has already weighed in on bottles versus cans: If your beer is brewedclose to home and your town has a good recycling program, choose glass; if it comes from far away, stick withaluminum. A pulled pint of draught beer will always be the greenest choice.A recent carbon footprint analysis of Fat Tire Amber Ale highlights a few other areas that deserve attention.Producing and assembling the ingredients—malt, hops, water, and fizzy CO2 bubbles—created 678 gramsof carbon dioxide equivalent, or about 21 percent of the total footprint for a bottled six-pack. A significantchunk of that—244 grams—comes from the production of synthetic fertilizers for the barley and related soilemissions, so the authors suggest that switching to organic barley could make a considerable impact. (Keep inmind, though, that making a special car trip to purchase hard-to-find, earth-friendly brews might negate anyupstream CO2 savings.) In Denmark, one company now brews with unmalted barley, which they claim reducesits beer’s emissions by 8 percent.Tour de Fat: Fun on 2 wheels in the park | Monica NolanSeptember 23, 2009 Long before the Cash for Clunkers program had Americans swarming car dealerships, New Belgium Brewing Co. was offering incentives to drivers thinking about giving up the old gas guzzler. And though it’s true that the Colorado brewing company’s program is more limited - only one car owner per city in the eleven cities it will tour this year - it’s also more radical. You don’t exchange one car for another; you give up your car completely, in exchange for a new bicycle. Plus, New Belgium throws a party - complete with live music, beer and aNew Orleans-style funeral for the sacrificed vehicle - for each trade it makes.Tour de Fat, the annual part-circus, part-carnival celebration of bicycles and beer, rolls into town Saturday, andaficionados of both will gather at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park for an afternoon of performance,games and socializing.It’s a party with a purpose: All sales of beer will benefit two nonprofit organizations, the San Francisco BicycleCoalition and the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council.The lineup of performers includes singer-songwriter Sean Hayes, the March Fourth Marching Band and theHandsome Little Devils presenting the Squirm Burpee Circus. “I have no idea what (the Squirm Burpee Circus)is,” said Kate McCarthy, membership and volunteer director at the SFBC, “but the Handsome Little Devils havealways put on a fabulous show in past years. They shoot people out of cannons.”Of course, one of the big draws of Tour de Fat is that the audience becomes part of the show. The bike parade page 10

that kicks off the party is an opportunity to dress up, check out your neighbor’s bicycle, and make new friends.“You know San Francisco,” said Meli Burgueño, a Tour de Fat regular. “Any excuse to dress up and wearsomething crazy.”And then there’s the bike pit - a corral of wild and wacky bicycles attendees attempt to ride. JeffersonMcCarley, who attended his first Tour de Fat last year, describes a few: “A bike with a periscope as the onlyway to see, bikes that pedaled backward, and tall bikes, and three-wheelers, and all kinds of crazy homemadebikes.”“There’s the shoe bicycle, where the wheel instead of being a tire is all shoes,” Burgueño remembered. “It’sjust fun to try these bicycles. It’s just that exchange, watching and then trying yourself - you get to make fun ofpeople and then it’s your turn.”Zaniness rules the day. McCarley describes the Slow Race event, a crowd favorite: “The idea is that the lastperson to cross the finish line wins. The rules are that you can’t stop, you have to be in motion, you can’t takeyour feet off the pedals. I remember the band was playing and there was a gospel choir singing ‘Time Is onYour Side.’ And everybody’s cheering and screaming for these cyclists moving in slow motion.”Even garbage production becomes interactive entertainment. The brewery, which prides itself on itssustainability, updates a chart throughout the afternoon showing how many pounds of recycling, compost andtrash the event has created.Last year, according to the SFBC, the 6,500 attendees generated 300 pounds of compost, 70 pounds ofrecycling and 12 pounds of trash. Who knew tracking trash could be so much fun?The main event and what most participants remember vividly is the funeral for the car - a toy car is carried bypallbearers through the crowd, while the marching band plays New Orleans-style jazz. The driver-turned cyclistturns over title and keys to New Belgium (the car donation benefits the nonprofits) and receives his or her newcommuter bicycle.Meredith Giske, marketing manager at New Belgium, said: “The reason that we’re doing it is to be able tohighlight one individual’s choice and then hopefully let people see the spectacle of what that person doesand make some changes in their own lives, as a result of that example.” She adds that last year the companypassed the million-dollar mark in the money it has raised for nonprofits across the country. “We feel like we’redoing something 11 days out of the year that actually lives on in all these communities.”It’s an appealing mix to many: the opportunity to hang out with friends old and new, listen to music andimmerse oneself in bike culture, with the knowledge that every drop of beer you consume is funding cyclingadvocacy.“We’re attempting to make change, and it’s going slow, but it’s happening,” Burgueño said. “Everyone’s gettinginvolved and having fun and it doesn’t have to be so serious. Have a beer.”Registration for bike parade: 10 a.m., festival: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. Speedway Meadow, Golden Gate Park. sfbike.org/fat.Bike About Town is presented by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, a 10,000-member nonprofit dedicated tocreating safer streets and more livable communities by promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation. Formore biking resources, go to sfbike.org. page 10

Bike About Town is presented by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, a 10,000-member nonprofit dedicated tocreating safer streets and more livable communities by promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation. Formore biking resources, go to sfbike.org.October 1, 2009New Belgium to add year-round IPA, introduce new label artworkBryan Simpson, New Belgium Brewing Media Relations Director, confirmed on Wednesday that the thirdlargest craft brewery in the U.S. will begin to roll out new labels for several beers in the first quarter of nextyear. The brewery will also add a new year-round beer to its lineup at that time.The neighbor of New Belgium Founders, Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan, when the brewery first wentcommercial, Anne Fitch has been responsible for much of the label artwork for nearly two decades. Theyhave undergone changes over the years with the current look for the flagships and seasonals having been firstadopted during the ‘05-’06 winter. According to Simpson, “Abbey, Trippel, Mothership Wit and a few others aregetting new packaging but are the same recipe. We feel that this level of beer encompasses some of the moreunexpected offerings (from a flavor profile) in our portfolio and we wanted to call attention to that.” A beerlike Fat Tire should continue on with the same label considering that the ‘famous’ bike is at the center of thebrewery’s history, its community, and its logo. page 10

Perhaps the bigger announcement is that New Belgium Ranger IPA will make its bottled debut in Q1. The beermade an appearance on draft at the Boise Beer Fest this past August but will now be available in 6-packs year-round. This appears to be the brewery’s first-ever IPA to appear in bottles, a feat considering the brewery hasmaintained several flagship beers for many years. Simcoe, Cascade and Chinook make up the hop profile in this7% ABV beer (hop level is 60 IBUs). Simpson notes, “Beer Rangers are our beer sales folks and they had longwanted an IPA – something with a lot of hops. This beer was created for them and as a tribute to all they doout in the market.”October 2, 2009Get moving: Fall walks, runs and moreHere’s a sample of walks and runs scheduled during the next few weeks. Find more at thingstodo.azcentral.com.Tour de Fat: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 10. Features New Belgium beer, parade, costumes, live entertainment, bikeshowcases and vendors. Beer tokens are $5. Proceeds benefit bicycle and environmental charities. TempeTown Lake, 80 W. Rio Salado Parkway. FREE. 480-350-8625, newbelgium.com.Beer’s Level Playing Field | Jim ClarkeOctober 2, 2009 The spit buckets are missing. Attendees are dressed up, after a fashion: a hat that looks like a hop cone, an inexplicable cow costume or, for the conservative, a string of pretzels round the neck. De rigueur as a portable snack/palate cleanser. This is not a wine tasting; it’s the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, which I attended last week. And sartorial differences aside, there are more important distinctions between wine and beer to contemplate (many to beer’s advantage).On Saturday afternoon, the winners of the competition portion of the event were announced. Consider the page 10

top brews in the Brown Porter category: St Charles Porter from the Blackstone Brewing Co., Nashville, Tenn.;Lazy Jack Porter from Long Valley Pub and Brewery, Long Valley, N.J.; and Black Butte Porter from DeschutesBrewery in Bend, Ore. Can you imagine a wine category in which all three of those states could win awards?Did you even know there were breweries and wineries in Tennessee?In Depth: Jim Clarke’s American Craft Beer PicksDisregarding whatever assumptions you’re making about quality, wines from Tennessee will be different instyle than those of New Jersey or of Oregon. Even within Oregon, wines made from the same grape varietygrown in Umpqua Valley taste different from those of the Willamette Valley. Winemakers do have many toolsto work with, certainly--barrels, different yeasts and so forth--but the basic character of a wine is determinedby where the grapes are grown.But barley and hops travel a lot better. A brewer anywhere in the U.S. can work with malt or hops fromWashington or New York, or even Belgium, Germany or the Czech Republic, without trouble. Unlikewinemakers, who depend on local ingredients and growing conditions, brewers have options--and that’s partof what makes beer so much of a joy.Even the most basic ingredient, malted barley, is identified not by its variety or its place of origin, but by howmuch it’s been kilned, from light malts like pilsner to the darkest, chocolate malts. There are about 75 varietiesof hops as well (some adding bitterness, some adding aroma), and they affect the beer differently dependingon when in the process they’re added.A beer like New Belgium Brewing’s Hoptober Golden Ale uses five different kinds of hops: Centennial, Cascade,Sterling, Willamette and Glacier. Germany’s five-century-old Reinheitsgebot, or Beer Purity Law, restrictedbrewers to four ingredients: malt, hops, water and yeast; even working within those limits (never strictlyobeyed anyhow, since German nobles reserved for themselves the right to use wheat in their beers), a brewerworks more like a chef than like a winemaker.We should be thankful that’s the case. If a porter like Deschutes could only be made in Oregon, those on theEast Coast would be missing out, since no distributors east of the Mississippi carry that brand. As a formerPacific Northwest resident, I spent my first day at the Festival catching up with old friends: Deschutes, Hales,Bridgeport. But on the East Coast, we have our own local brews; Duck-Rabbit, Mercury Brewing and CaptainLawrence can keep me company until my next trip.Beer lovers across the rest of the country have as many good options; there are more than 1,500 breweriesin the U.S.--even Utah has 14 of them--to explore. Chances are, you’re bound to find some great ones right inyour own backyard. And for wine drinkers: Please, try wearing a baguette and a wedge of cheese round yourneck at the next big tasting; if that doesn’t knock the remains of snobbery out of wine, I don’t know what will. page 10

Seasonal Draft: New Belgium’s Hoptober | Jennie DorrisOctober 7, 2009I typically recommend seasonal six-packs in this blog, but New Belgium Brewing’sHoptober has burst onto the scene with such popularity, I’m already seeing it on taphandles all over town.I don’t usually choose New Belgium’s beers. They tend to have a malty, sticky finishthat my palate doesn’t prefer. But when I recently visited one of my neighborhoodbars, the bartender was intent to sell me on it.“Even people who like Coors or Bud are ordering this instead,” she said emphatically.That made me want it even less. Did I look like a woman who regularly chuggeddown the Silver Bullet?But I acquiesced. After all, the beer has the word “hop” in its name, and as acertified hop-head that means I’ll give it a try.Alas, New Belgium has made me drink my words. Hoptober is fantastic—a rich, golden ale that is clean, cleanthrough each drink. Rather than making it a bitter beer, the hops give it a nice crisp finish—giving me a newlevel of respect for New Belgium.October 8, 2009New Belgium Brings Beers, Bikes, Baby Ruths and Bottle Rockets to The TriangleThere seems to be some sort of movement going on lately, a movement that we support in theory if not inaction (we’re lazy), but all of our friends can’t stop talking about riding bikes. Thursday Night Social Rides,Monday Night Ladiez Rides, Lance Armstrong Surprise Rides, and on and on. We even had a coworker who isa serious cyclist ask us (the non-serious cyclist) what we call riding around on two wheels and a metal frame,as she wants to start a class for people who just want to tool around town. We told her, “We just call it ridingbikes, as in ‘Let’s go ride bikes.’ “ We don’t need fancy names to know that it is fun and good not only for us, page 10

but for our community and our environment.With that in mind, we are very excited about the prospect of riding a fairlyflat route from our house to the Triangle for New Belgium Brewery’s Bikein Cinema. Tonight’s feature is The Goonies, which has several of its owncycling scenes—most notably the one where Josh Brolin bikejacks Data’slittle sister and then, when forced to ride alongside the cheesedick drivinga convertible Chrysler LeBaron, burns off the training wheels and is pitchedover a cliff— is such a great film for them to hitch their wagon to, as it startsoff with kids setting out on an adventure on, what else, their bikes.There is a $2 suggested donation for admission, and $3 New Belgium Beers,with all proceeds going towards the League of Bicycling Voters, a nonprofitadvocacy organization promoting better transportation policy decisions,justice for bicyclists, and more resources to increase the number of bicyclistsin the Austin area. There will also be food available from the Flying Saucerand, if we’re lucky, a nice breeze.New Belgium’s Tour De Fat rolls through Austin in a couple of weeks, so if you haven’t been out on two wheelslately, this will be a nice primer to get you ready for that event. In between, there will be another Bike InCinema event at the Triangle, with a screening of Bottle Rocket. While we can’t remember if they ride bikes inthat film or not, we do know that it has one of the best lines in cinema history: “How did an asshole like Bobget such a great kitchen.” Won’t you come ride bikes with us?Making the most of methane | Angela LauOctober 18, 2009In an inland city not known for cutting-edge technology, Escondido residents might someday lead the state inheating their homes and cooking their food using natural gas delivered from a wastewater treatment plant.A pilot project is under way at the city’s sewage plant, where San Diego Gas & Electric Co. is designing a facilityto purify biomethane, a byproduct of sewage treatment, so that it is clean enough for home use.The harnessing of biomethane is not new. Industrial operations, such as the Point Loma Wastewater TreatmentPlant, use the gas to generate electricity to power equipment, but it hasn’t been tried yet for heating andcooking.Biomethane, chemically the same as methane, is called such because it is derived from the breakdown ofbiomass. Methane is a greenhouse gas and is the primary component of natural gas.The project at Escondido’s Hale Avenue Resource Recovery Facility is expected to begin early next year. Itwould collect biogas produced during sewage treatment, and remove carbon dioxide and other gases from itto extract biomethane for purification. page 10

The goal is twofold: to determine whether SDG&E can produce human-grade biomethane, and whether it canproduce it cheaply enough to compete with conventional gas, which is getting more and more expensive.Those answers will help the utility determine whether it should spend $3 million to $4 million to build a full-scale biomethane production facility inside Escondido’s sewage plant. If it does, the gas could power 1,200homes.Jeff Reed, SDG&E’s director of market development and emerging technology, said he expects thedemonstration gas to cost more than conventional gas. But once the utility has the technology down pat andbegins mass production, it very likely will undersell conventional gas, Reed said.“Costs come down simply from experience,” Reed said. “(The gas) can create renewable electricity at costslower than many other renewable resources.”Furthermore, there is an endless supply of biomethane in sewage treatment plants, landfills, dairies and farms,Reed said.The experiment is a part of growing trend of recycling gaseous waste in the nation’s quest for renewableenergy sources.“A big focus of the governor’s office is organic waste,” Reed said.Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month signed an executive order requiring utilities to derive one-third of theirenergy from renewable sources by 2020. It’s the most stringent requirement of its type in the nation.The use of biomethane is actually an old technology, used by large wastewater treatment facilities in Californiain the past few decades. But it was unpopular because the technology was too expensive for smaller facilities,which stayed with conventional gas, said Ken Koyama, a manager for the California Energy Commission.Now, the economics have changed. Natural gas prices have increased dramatically over the past two decades,and the nation is searching for renewable energy sources. Suddenly, newcomers to the biomethane scenebegan popping up.In Fort Collins, Colo., the New Belgium Brewery installed a biomethane production system in 2002 to generateelectricity during peak demand, saving $72,000 a year, said Jenn Orgolini, the brewery’s sustainability director.In Oxnard, the Gills Onions farm spent $9.5 million last year to build a system that processes 300,000 poundsof onion waste a day to produce biomethane, which is used to generate electricity for the plant’s refrigeratorsand lights.The system saves $450,000 in yearly waste-hauling fees and $700,000 in annual electricity bills, said Steve Gill,one of the farm’s owners.The businesses have taken a page from the pioneers in San Jose, San Diego and Oakland.San Jose’s wastewater treatment plant has been using biomethane to produce electricity for four decades.Today, it combines that gas with biomethane piped from a nearby landfill to supply two-thirds of the plant’senergy, spokeswoman Jennifer Garnett said. page 110

San Diego’s Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant began using biomethane in 1983 and produces 4.5megawatts of electricity today, enough to power 4,500 homes, said Chris McKinney, the city’s deputy directorof wastewater treatment and disposal.The plant uses 2 megawatts and sells the rest to SDG&E.San Diego also produces biomethane at the Miramar landfill, generating enough electricity to fuel landfillequipment, and the North City Water Reclamation Plant, which reclaims treated wastewater in San Diego. Thepractice saves $1.5 million and $2 million, respectively, in energy bills every year, a city official said.In Oakland, the East Bay Municipal Utility District began using biomethane 25 years ago. It produces enoughelectricity to power the entire plant, saving $10 million in electricity bills every year, said spokesman CharlesHardy.“It’s an investment. It makes business sense,” said Andrew McAllister, director of programs for the CaliforniaCenter for Sustainable Energy.“This is very exciting,” said Koyama, of the California Energy Commission. “Every kilowatt we can get to meetthe governor’s order helps.”To encourage more widespread use of biomethane, the Energy Commission is studying ways to reduce thecost of production, Koyama said. It could come from mass production, or from more efficient ways of cleaningbiomethane.“This is green technology,” said Lori Vereker, Escondido’s utilities director. “Right now, methane is burned upand flared into the atmosphere.It’s just a good idea to test and see if we can use it.”Costumed cyclists congregate for charitable cause | Audrey CampbellOctober 18, 2009Light glistened on endless racks of chrome bicycles as a nun quietly chained her bike under the bright Saturdaysun.The nun was one of many costumed patrons — Abe Lincoln and Lance Armstrong were also in attendance— who participated in the Tour de Fat at Fiesta Gardens, a festival sponsored by the New Belgium BrewingCompany that pays homage to everything bike-friendly.The festival, named after the brewing company’s trademark Fat Tire ale, has traveled throughout the country,hosting performances in Denver and San Francisco before venturing to Austin.The festival is well-known for encouraging environmental consciousness through various carnival acts,including band performances and acrobats. page 111

Dallas native Kari Kessler attended the festival with her friends after designing costumes for each of them.“Our friends went to [the festival] in Colorado and they did an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme, so I madeeveryone’s costumes for today,” Kessler explained as she sat watching a performance, dressed as the WhiteRabbit in satin bunny ears, a red bow tie, lensless glasses and a giant wooden pocket watch hanging from herbelt loop.The event welcomed young and old to support the local bicyclingcommunity and promote eco-friendly alternatives.As a band sang about the virtues of recycling and composting, FoxLuu, a friend of Kessler, said he had been looking forward to theevent for a long time.“We came down specifically for this,” he said. “It’s my first time inAustin and it’s great, even though we’re sharing a house with 18other people.”Festivalgoers sipped New Belgium beers and munched on funnel cake and popcorn as they watched“Carpocalypse Now,” a funeral procession for the car of a volunteer who had traded it for a bike.“I just love it,” said Susie Truxillo, membership chairwoman of the Austin Cycling Association. “I love thecostumes. It’s just so Austin.”Truxillo and her husband have been members of the Austin Cycling Association since 1996. The groupadvocates bike-friendly additions to the Austin community.Proceeds from the festival benefitted a few of Austin’s cycling groups, including the Austin Yellow Bike Project,Austin Cycling Association and Austin Ridge Riders Mountain Bike Club.Truxillo said this was her third year attending the festival, explaining that she was just in it for the fun.“I don’t actually drink beer, but if I drank anything, it would be Fat Tire because of what they do for the bikingcommunity,” she said. “I’m a big fan of Belgium Brewing.” page 112

Tour de Fat: A Celebration of the Bicycle, Sustainability and Beer | Sebastien BaugeOctober 20, 2009“Shake the petroleum from his marrow!” shouted Matt Kowal, Creative Director for New Belgium BrewingCompany, at a man announced only as “Mike from Tempe,” as he gave up his car for a year in exchange for abike. This was the Tour de Fat, a philanthropic festival celebrating bikes and sustainability through costumes,music, and Fat Tire beer.Hundreds convened on Tempe Beach Park Saturday Oct. 11 to celebrate the bicycle along with New BelgiumBrewing Company. The crowd brought all kinds of bikes, including one with tank treads for tires. Somestrapped boom boxes to bike trailers. One man, dressed in 1920s garb, rode in on the original model bicycle(the kind with one ridiculously massive tire followed by a small one). Bicyclists from every discipline were therefrom the Sunday cruiser to the flatland BMX rider.“We wanted to try and break down all the cliques that separate us as bicycle riders,” said Kowal, “It’s kinda likethe Christmas of bicycles.”A Masquerading Guest ListIf Tour de Fat is the Christmas of bicycles, it could also be the Halloween of attendees. Almost everyonedressed in costume for the event — in wigs, capes, top-hats and makeup.“The fun thing about the day is to make the squares look like the freaks,” said Kowal.Riding a bicycle does seem like a “square” thing to do. But riding a bicycle dressed like Elvis, that’s another page 11

story. The festival adds a new level of creativity to what could be considered a dull practice. In the center of the grounds was a giant circle reserved for riding bicycles. Since attendees had to lock their bikes on the outskirts of the festival, this area was reserved for bikes created by New Belgium (who rolled out a bike with eight tires, a leather chair mounted on wheels, a bike whose sole purpose was to spin in circles, and a backwards mounted tricycle). Other than the curious onlooker, many local bike organizations were also participants. The proceeds of the event went to non-profit organizations that encourage bike activism. The proceeds of the Tempe event went to the Tempe Bicycle Action Group and The MountainBike Association of Arizona.Green BeerSustainability at the Tour de Fat goes far beyond bicycles. The stageand sound system are powered completely by solar panels. Mostof the official trucks for the event are running on biodiesel madefrom converted restaurant oil, Kowal said. Even the cups that thebeer is served in are all compost-friendly.The festival reflects the larger sustainable efforts of New BelgiumBrewery. In 1999, according to the company website, New Belgiumbecame the first wind-powered brewery. Since then it has continued to implement sustainable practices suchas wastewater treatment, on-site electricity production, and HVAC evaporative coolers.The brewery also has big plans for the future. The company has set goals for reducing their carbon footprintby 25 percent, reducing their water usage by 10 percent, and increasing their landfill diversion rate from 89.5percent to 95 percent.Car-for-Bike TradeThe highlight of the festival is the Car-for-Bike Trade, where one individual gives up the title to their car for oneyear in exchange for a bicycle. “Not just any bike, a New Belgium, fully-loaded, hand-crafted, Fort Collins-builtcommuter bike and trailer,” states the company website. The bike is kept hanging above the stage until it islowered to the Car-for-Bike Trade volunteer.The chosen one, was carried around on the backs of supporters in a faux car constructed out of what appearedto be the shell of a VW Bug covered by a patchwork umbrella up to the stage. When the time for the exchangecame, Mike handed over the title to his 1994 Mazda and mounted his new commuter bike. He then rodethrough the “Transportation Transformation Tunnel,” which was a very long piece of red cloth held up over thecrowd, and onward to a hopefully greener future. page 11

October 29, 2009New Belgium Brewery: Wind Powered & Employee OwnedNow this is a true example of what a sustainable business should (and can) be. The New Belgium Brewingcompany in Fort Collins, CO is powered by wind energy and is employee-owned, meaning the employeeshave a say in the decisions that the company makes. The company has even had a hand in building windturbines for neighbors and friends in the area. Talk about commitment! In reading through their website andsustainability reports, I am amazed that they haven’t (maybe they have and I haven’t seen it?) become a modelfor companies everywhere who want to do their best to be good stewards for the environment. A few notablepieces of info about the brewery: -Using evaporative coolers, they can condition their 55,000 square foot packaging hall with no compressors, using much less energy. -The Clean Water Act of 1973 requires business to clean their water to domestic treatment standards before discharging, but we go above and beyond to reduce the load on our municipal plant. And we get two valuable by-products from this treatment—methane and nutrient-rich sludge. -The methane produced by process water treatment is used to fuel a combined heat and power engine—or co-gen—which creates electricity and heat for the brewery -To encourage sustainable transportation, every employee gets a custom cruiser bike after one- year of employment. -In our new packaging hall, the interior wood is beetle kill pine. Summit County, CO, anticipates that mountain pine beetles will kill 98% of their lodgepole pines. So, we’re giving these fallen trees another life.Amazing, right? Well, get this – their purpose statement is even more incredible: -To operate a profitable brewery which makes our love and talent manifest. -Company Core Values and Beliefs -Remembering that we are incredibly lucky to create something fine that enhances people’s lives while surpassing our consumers’ expectations. -Producing world-class beers. -Promoting beer culture and the responsible enjoyment of beer. -Kindling social, environmental and cultural change as a business role model. page 11

-Environmental stewardship: Honoring nature at every turn of the business. -Cultivating potential through learning, high involvement culture, and the pursuit of opportunities. -Balancing the myriad needs of the company, our coworkers and their families. -Trusting each other and committing to authentic relationships and communications. -Continuous, innovative quality and efficiency improvements.They say that we can judge our intentions and concerns by where we spend our money, and if you drink beer,you probably should be buying from a company like this. No, they didn’t pay me to write this nor do they evenknow who I am – I came across an ad in a magazine and started doing some research. And what I found gaveme hope that just because a company is successful doesn’t mean they have to trash the earth or not careabout their employees. Like another company I buy products from, Patagonia, these guys have their prioritiesright in line with my own. Kudos, New Belgium. And since I will be residing in Denver in just a few weeks, I willdefinitely have to make a trip up to see the place! page 11

Brewing Big [with a Micro Soul] | Jennifer WangNovember 1, 2009 page 11

Working at a Brewery Is Not as Boozy as It Once Was | David KoeppelNovember 4, 2009 During an economic recession, one of the first things to be downsized is company perks. At New Belgium Brewery, a craft brewer in Ft. Collins, Colo., one of the biggest perks is free beer. Employees used to be able to take home 24 bottles of beer every week, but in February take-home brew was reduced to a mere 12 bottles. Not many employees are complaining. When keeping a job is probably today’s biggest perk, losing a six-pack per week probably isn’t such a bad deal. Melyssa Glassman, the company’s creative director, says that the only downside to free beer was carrying it home on her bicycle during the summer. New Belgium is the third largest craft brewer in the United States and has been hailed for its employee-friendly policies thatinclude free beer, a new bicycle after one year of employment and an all-expense paid trip to Belgium (wherethe idea for the company was created.) The 320 employees own a 33-percent stake in the brewery, and whileit’s not mandatory, it helps if you like drinking beer. A lot.Glassman admits she was “terrified” that she didn’t know enough about beer when she joined the companytwo years ago. “I used to be a wine drinker and now I drink beer every night -- my eyes have been opened,”she says. “I had a narrow focus when it came to beer, but the array of choices is amazing.”New Belgium currently offers a variety of 24 different beers sold in 25 states. Employees can participate indaily tastings and attend monthly “sensory workshops” to improve their beer palates. Bryan Simpson, thecompany’s media relations director, estimates that about 98 percent of the employees drink. “They’re fullyinvested” and “passionate” about beer.Glassman’s favorite NBB beer is La Folie Wood-Aged Biere, a sour green-apple tasting brew that is fermentedfrom one to three years before being bottled. A 22-ounce bottle retails for $17. Glassman likes to mix La Foliewith other NBB beers to create an even greater taste sensation. “It’s like being a junior in high school at 7-Eleven, it’s like my Coke machine suicide,” she says about mixing several beers at the NBB tap.Simpson is partial to Biere de Mars, a dry orange-y brew which he says was inspired by the architecture ofBelgian designer Victor Horta. In February, New Belgium will launch a new IPA called Ranger, an extra heavyhop-filled beer that has gone through three iterations on its way to the marketplace. “I loved the first one,”says Simpson about the first Ranger brew. “But I was told this isn’t going to stand up. I was told what waswrong and I deferred to their expertise.” page 12

DIA pub crawl! | Aubrey LaurenceNovember 5, 2009“We should do a pub crawl,” my wife suggested -- after we learned thatour flight from Denver International Airport was delayed two hours.My wife has come up with some great ideas over the years, but this wasone of her best.Before heading through security we made our first stop at the BoulderTaphouse (southwest portion of Jeppesen Terminal, level 5), which hasonly been in the airport for a little more than a year, even though theBoulder Beer Company is Colorado’s oldest craft brewery.In this quaint pub, most of Boulder Beer brews are available on draft,including a rotating seasonal. I enjoyed a Mojo IPA, which has a citrusy hopblast with aromatic plumes of grapefruit.I wanted to stay for another beer but we were on a time-sensitive mission,and we needed to get through security, onto a train, and on to our nextstop.On the far-east end of Concourse B, on the bridge to the regional jet facility, you’ll find the New Belgium Hub.This artsy and funky pub is tucked away in a remote part of the airport -- so far away you’ll feel like you’vewalked to the Kansas border. But it’s worth the effort.The New Belgium Hub is a pretty cool place to hang out. It has a great atmosphere and a slew of New Belgiumbrews from which to choose, as well as some quick and tasty food from an interesting menu. I had a bowl ofchili made with 1554 Enlightened Black Ale (probably not the best food option before getting on a packedairplane) and a “true” pint of New Belgium’s Mothership Wit, which is a pleasant and refreshing Belgian-stylewheat beer spiced with coriander and orange peel. My wife had the seasonal winter ale called 2 Below, whichis an easy-to-drink, spicy-peppery ale with lightly toasted malts and flowery hop aromas.The Louisville-based Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc., has a couple places at DIA -- Denver ChopHouse & Brewery(Concourse A) and Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery (Concourse C). We decided to hit Rock Bottom, whichhas a pretty cozy bar coated in dark wood. After quaffing a couple pale ales, we pushed on in search of anothergood beer spot before our flight’s departure.Timberline Steaks & Grille (Concourse C) -- yes, a steakhouse in an airport -- looked like it had a decentselection of tap handles, like Avery Brewing’s Ellie’s Brown Ale and Stone IPA, so we bellied up to the bar as ifwe were being pulled by a tractor beam. To my surprise, the bar also had a great selection of bottled beers,which is especially impressive for an airport bar. page 12

The beer menu was highlighted by a wide selection of Stone Brewing Co. beers, such as Levitation Ale,Arrogant Bastard Ale and Ruination IPA. After downing a few of these badboys, you might even get the courageto sample some of Timberline’s Rocky Mountain Oysters.DIA may not be the first place you think of for a pub crawl, but if you find yourself with extra hours to kill whilewaiting for a delayed flight, it’s definitely one of the best airports in the nation for craft beer. I for one won’t beso upset the next time I have a delayed flight.Beer Week comes to San Diego: More than 200 events planned | Lindsey BeseckerNovember 5, 2009 As craft beer becomes more popular, San Diego has risen as one of the top craft beer cities ---- it was even named the top beer city by Men’s Journal magazine in October. And now, the county’s 33 breweries are coming together for San Diego Beer Week, a showcase taking place Friday through Nov. 15. More than 200 events are planned over the 10-day “week,” and Melody Daversa, who works for Karl Strauss but is representing Beer Week, said more are being added throughout the week. “The cool thing about Beer Week is it’s not just for beer geeks,” she said. “We’re trying to get lots of people into craft beer.”San Diego is one of the first cities to hold a Beer Week featuring craft beer, or beer made by smaller,independent breweries. Daversa said a couple of breweries in the San Diego Brewers Guild brought up the ideaof doing a Beer Week earlier this year, and the guild, which is sponsoring Beer Week, eventually picked earlyNovember to tie in with the sixth annual San Diego Brewers Guild Festival, which was planned to begin Friday.The rest of Beer Week will be full of all things hoppy ---- from discounts on local brews to beer dinners toclasses on brewing. And though all the San Diego-area breweries are participating, there will be a few specialout-of-town guests, such as New Belgium Brewing Co., which brews the popular Fat Tire Amber Ale.The week will kick off with the Brewers Guild Festival, which will host a VIP session on Friday and two generaladmission sessions on Saturday (1-4 p.m. and 5-9 p.m.). All the guild breweries will get together for thefestival, which will feature 80 beers on tap, food pairings from bars and restaurants that are Allied GuildMembers, live music and more.“This is kind of like a one-stop shop for getting all the breweries together,” Daversa said.The week will end with a Chef’s Celebration of San Diego Beer on Nov. 15. Eight local breweries will team with16 local chefs, who will create a food item that pairs with the beer. The more intimate event is $65. page 12

In between, Beer Week events can be found all over the county. There will be a Disc Golf Tournament withlocal brewers at Morley Field Disc Golf Course, a home brewing class with Ballast Point Brewery, a seventhanniversary party for Vista’s Green Flash Brewing Co., dessert pairings, beer and chocolate pairings, a hop-on/hop-off brewery tour bus, and more.“There’s everything, from if you just want to have a beer to a dinner,” Daversa said. “All over town, there’s apretty good spread of events.”Locally, Stone Brewing Co. is hosting events at its World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido and is also pairing withseveral restaurants for beer dinners and specials; JJ Landers Irish Pub in Fallbrook is offering $1 off PALM aleall week; Round Table Pizza restaurants are offering $1 off Stone Pale Ale and Stone IPA all week; Holiday WineCellar in Escondido is hosting several breweries for tastings; Port Brewing and Lost Abbey in San Marcos areholding a Barrel Tasting Night on Saturday; The Lodge at Torrey Pines is hosting a beer dinner on Nov. 12; andmuch more.“When you say ‘Beer Week,’ it just sounds like a fun time,” Daversa said.The Brewers Guild is looking to make Beer Week an annual event, and based on the interest this year, it couldbecome one of San Diego’s most popular annual events.“We really just want to raise awareness about craft beer in San Diego and let people know about all the goodbeer in our backyard,” Daversa said.Settle in for a session with these beers | Evan S. BennNovember 6, 2009I’m four beers into a six-pack I started drinking four hours ago.I’m not drunk, and I’m not bored with this beer, either.It’s what you call a session beer — something that’s not so high in alcohol or so intense in flavor that it picklesyour liver or exhausts your taste buds.What’s a good session beer? Depends on whom you ask.For the casual drinker who just wants to have something cold in hand throughout a tailgate party, somethinglike Bud Light very well may be ideal.It’s not going to fill you up, it’s certainly not going to overwhelm you with hops and, at 4.2 percent alcohol byvolume, it’s not going to inebriate you unless you’re chugging beer after beer.I spent my formative drinking years thinking Pennsylvania’s Yuengling Lager was the best session beer around. page 12

It’s cheap, it’s 4.4 percent ABV, and it goes down cold and smooth. But moving to St. Louis and seeing what thecraft-brew industry has to offer, I realize that my beloved Yuengling is a really only a small step up from the BudLights of the world.A truly good session beer needs to have enough flavor to keep things interesting throughout the session, be itan afternoon watching a ballgame or a night at a pub.For me and, I suspect, most beer drinkers, I usually mix things up, trying a few different beers throughout asession. So if I’m going to stick with one brew, it should be balanced in its hops and malts, with a crisp, dryfinish that leaves me wanting another sip.The great beer writer Stan Hieronymus compares session beers to chameleons.“We want a little color and excitement, but it should spend most of its time blending in,” he says. “Somethingthere when you look, but otherwise in the background.”When I ask for his favorites, Hieronymus mentions Unfiltered Wheat from Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewing Co.,giving it points for its lower (4.6 percent) alcohol content, and Schlafly’s Kolsch. He says both are beers that“you can find something interesting in but don’t demand attention.”Ryan Heinz, a spokesman at University of Missouri-St. Louis, says that, like me, he prefers beers that are eitherhoppy and bitter or dark and heavy.“Naturally, that doesn’t lend to much of a long session before the ol’ taste buds start to fry,” he says.When he’s looking for a beer to keep things interesting over the course of a session, Heinz turns to MothershipWit, an organic wheat beer from Colorado’s New Belgium Brewing Inc., or O’Fallon Gold, a blond ale from oneof our backyard breweries.Session beers don’t have to be boring or mass-produced, and they don’t have to be limited to a particularstyle. You can find porters and stouts, brown ales and pale ales, and lambics and saisons that are sessionable.The important thing is that you find something that you like enough to keep going back to, and something thatisn’t so high in alcohol that you can’t read the label after the second bottle.So what’s been my session beer today?New Belgium’s 1554 Enlightened Black Ale. Here’s proof that dark doesn’t necessarily mean heavy when itcomes to beer. This Belgian dark ale is sessionable for sure. It’s my go-to beer when I’m watching football on anautumn Sunday.It toes the line of alcohol content for a session beer at 5.5 percent, but if you space it out and complementit with, say, pizza, 1554 gives just enough flavor to leave you wanting more, without making you reach for abottle of aspirin at the end of the night. page 12

Beer: From Colorado snowpack to sports bar | Douglas BrownNovember 19, 2009People from around the world come to Colorado to make beer. Not for the hops or the grain. They come forthe gorgeous water.The collision of Pacific-borne storms and towering mountains yields enormous reservoirs of pristine snow inthe state, much of which melts and submits to gravity, ending up in water-treatment facilities 5,000 feet lower and miles away along the Front Range. And, eventually, in your pint glass. Hops, barley, yeast and time transform millions of gallons of Colorado water every year into ale and lager. Colorado breweries (more than 100 of them) pump out more beer — 23,370,848 barrels in 2006 — than any other state. New Belgium in Fort Collins sits somewhere between brewing leviathan and microbrew startup. Hundreds of workers create an array of beers, from sour Belgian-style ales that cost $15 for a 22-ounce bottle to more-straightforward mugs of suds that sell for $4 at LoDo sports bars. What goes into that six-pack of bottled blizzard? It starts with snow, in the northern fringes of the aptly named Never Summer Range.A high-altitude birth“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” asked Clyde Greenwood, water supply supervisor with the city of Fort Collins waterproduction division and a Santa Claus look-alike. He nosed his pickup along a snow-covered dirt road besideMichigan Ditch, really a canal, near 10,276-foot Cameron Pass, about 70 miles west of Fort Collins.Ragged peaks, pine trees, cliffs and snow fill Greenwood’s workplace. The soundtrack: water gurgling in theditch, water snaking down the sides of mountains in rivulets, water escaping through clefts in rocks.It’s Greenwood’s job to lord over the chain of canals and contraptions that guide and hold the melting snow.In the summer, Greenwood lives with the water, in a log cabin built in the late 1800s. During the long winter,he zips around on a snowmobile, making sure the water is flowing as it should. Water is his life, and he is fluentin its role in the history of the West. page 12

“There have been more people killed over water rights than over gold,” saidGreenwood. And if water can compare to gold, than the water racing towardFort Collins would be 24 karat.“There’s no industry, no farmland, no mining” along Poudre Canyon,Greenwood said.Sometimes, especially in the winter, the water runs as merely as 3 cubic feetper second, which works out to about 22 gallons. During late spring it canreach 110 cubic feet, the water roaring and sloshing up over the edges ofMichigan Ditch, a skinny canal built in the 1800s “by hand, mules, dynamiteand a lot of hardy backs,” Greenwood said.The water carries flecks of granite and quartz, logs, leaves, dead ants, deadfish, bottles and much more as it travels for three days, from the ditch into thePoudre River, where some of the water is diverted into the Fort Collins water-treatment facility.Collecting the runoff The facility looms over the city near Horsetooth Reservoir, another source of water for Fort Collins residents and businesses. It’s built on high ground so gravity can help deliver the water. Poudre River and Horsetooth Reservoir water are mixed in a concrete building connected to the water treatment facility. Every drop that enters the structure is destined for the people and businesses of Fort Collins. First, though, the water needs cleaning.“Chlorine saved the world,” said Lisa Voytko, water production manager for Fort Collins. Voytko, a tall, angularwoman with an athletic laugh, spent most of her career working as a water-treatment-design engineer inPhoenix, where the water is hot — literally — and poor in quality. A few years ago the CSU grad returnedto Fort Collins, where the water arrives at the facility at about 40degrees.Voytko makes sure all of that melted snow is safe — no nastychemicals, no pathogens — before it gets distributed to peopleacross the city. Last summer, a truck carrying asphalt fell into thePoudre River, miles upstream from the water-treatment facility.Voytko learned about it “a minute after the spill.”Within moments, the city stopped drawing water from the PoudreRiver.The facility is a smattering of large brick buildings containing long, rectangular, 18-foot-deep pools called“flocculation basins.” The water gets piped into the basins, and the chemical compound alum is added tocoagulate and force particles to stick together, making them bigger and easier to remove.The water then is directed to deep tanks called sedimentation basins, where metal plates at the surface collect page 12

the particles and remove them. From there, all of the water goes to yet another series of deep pools, where itdrains through filters made from 30 inches of anthracite coal and a foot of sand.“We could probably take the Poudre water straight from here, because it’s so clean,” Voytko said. But forsafety, city workers add chlorine to the water to ensure pathogens are eliminated. In addition, the voters ofFort Collins — like most cities in the country — voted to add fluoride to the water, so city workers blend thewater with fluoride before shipping it off to customers.The plant, Voytko said, averages between 10 million and 55 million gallons a day, depending on the time of theyear.All of it runs through 500 miles of pipes managed by Fort Collins, said Jon Haukaas, water engineering andfield services manager. The pipes, ranging in diameter from 3/4-inch for a spur to a home to 60 inches for atransmission main, are generally about five feet beneath the surface, deep enough to avoid damage fromfreezing.Virtual brewingMillions of gallons of the cleaned and treated snowmelt heads to the New Belgium brewery, a sleek-rusticcampus — a barn aesthetic combined with exposed steel and polished concrete and other hallmarks ofindustrial chic.Here, the water sits in big green tanks just outside the brewhouse until a brewer touches an icon on acomputer screen that begins the beer- making process.Nearly everything in the brewery is automated, done not by people stirring pots and grinding malt by hand butby gleaming German machines. “It’s virtual brewing,” said brewer Andrew Hagdorn.Silos behind the brewery contain malts and grains, which are delivered every week by truck: There are oats,wheat and rye, but most of the grain is malted barley from Montana and Canada. Malted grains have beenpushed toward germination with water, and then dried.At 11 a.m. on a recent morning, Hagdorn — his business card says he’s with the brewery’s “Church ofFermentology” — pushed the button to begin the day’s sixth batch of Fat Tire Amber Ale, New Belgium’siconic, and most popular, beer. “Here we go.”It was the 28,137th batch of beer since New Belgium started brewing in 1991.Immediately, water from the green tanks was pumped into a machine called a mill that holds a load of maltedbarley. Rollers crushed the wet barley, and pipes carried the water and crushed barley to the mash tun, a big,copper kettle. Here, the beer’s backbone and heart — the mash — is stirred, causing enzymes in the barley tobreak down proteins and starches into fermentable sugars.“It looks like a big bowl of oatmeal now,” said Hagdorn, who sometimes, when he’s got a free minute, juststares at the mesmerizing swirl of water, grain and foam in the mash tun.Mash, wort and yeastFrom there, the mash heads to another tank, which separates the barley from the liquid (the 12,000 pounds of page 10

“used” barley goes to feed local livestock) and sends it to the brew kettle. The liquid now is called wort, and itis boiled in the brew kettle.While the wort was boiling, Hagdorn grabbed a sack of hop pellets grown in Oregon’s Willamette Valley andbegan lifting it above his head and slamming it on the floor to break-up the brick of hop- flower pellets insidethe sack. Hops add a bitterness to balance the sweet malt. Hagdorn poured 10 pounds into a machine thatsent them into the kettle, also called the “Merlin kettle.” Later, he added 40 more pounds of hops.With the hops brewing in the kettle of Fat Tire wort, only one main ingredient remained: yeast.New Belgium grows its own strains of yeast in a room of steel tanks in the brewery’s “cellar,” which is wherethe fermentation takes place. “This is where we make beer,” said Hagdorn, in the windowless undergroundteeming with bearded young guys listening to loud music broadcast throughout the cellar. “We make wort inthe brewhouse.”Different beers call for individual yeast strains. Pipes carry wort from the brewing kettle into this cellar, whereyeast is added in another big container, called a fermentation vessel.Nearly two weeks later, the batch of snowmelt, grains, hops and yeast is Fat Tire Amber Ale.Much of is packaged in bottles and shipped. The rest is pumped into kegs in the keg room, where machines fillabout 100 kegs an hour with different beers, destined for refrigerated trucks.A lot of beer flows into these barrels. In October, New Belgium filled 4,675 half-kegs a week — each holding 151/2 gallons — of Fat Tire.“We like beer”Next stop for the kegs? For the most part, they go to bars and restaurants, places like Jackson’s in LoDo, asports bar beside Coors Field.The long, brick-walled bar got a fresh shipment of Fat Tire kegs on a recent Saturday, just in time for theBroncos game against the Baltimore Ravens, set for 11 a.m. the next morning.And there they were the next morning, hundreds of people on stools at the bar, at tables, standing around: Allof them with one eye on a TV and, usually, drinking a beer.Marie O’Donnell, 48, a Kansas City government worker in Denver on business, sat down and said, “Can I get a$350 Fat Tire?” to the bartender.The $350 Fat Tire was an inside joke meant for the benefit of her son, Hans Lange, 28, sitting beside her. Oncewhen he was not yet 21, a police officer caught him with a Fat Tire and fined him $350.“Beer is cold, and we like beer,” she said, just after a sip. That slug of ale went down nearly as frigid as it started— as mountain snow. page 11

Serious Beer Pairings for Thanksgiving | Maggie HoffmanNovember 19, 2009 If you want to eat like the Pilgrims this Thanksgiving, you should probably get busy hunting for deer and wild ducks. But if you want to drink Pilgrim-style, you just need to get yourself some beer! The colonists believed that beer was usually safer to drink than water and worried about drinking their barrels dry. After dithering too long over where to locate their settlement, the passengers of the Mayflower finally chose Plymouth just before a harsh winter began. William Bradford wrote, “We could not now take much time for further search [for an ideal destination,] our victuals being much spent, especially our beer.” They urged thenext boat of Separatists headed toward Plymouth to bring about 10,000 gallons of ale and some malt forhomebrewing.Historical accuracy aside, beer works with Thanksgiving food. Malty beer resonates with the caramelizedskin of a turkey and brings out the herbal flavors in stuffing. Beer’s carbonation and bitterness cleanses andrefreshes the palate between bites.But not just any beer will play nice with classic Thanksgiving dishes. Hoppy IPAs (and other beers on the bitterend of the scale) are out of sync with the sweet and earthy flavors of the Thanksgiving feast. But a wide varietyof styles pair beautifully with turkey, stuffing, and even sweet potatoes. We tasted 20 bottles of beer (over thecourse of three nights) with many plates of Thanksgiving food and came up with these eight stellar pairings tobe thankful for.Following Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster GarrettOliver’s recommendation, we started our Thanksgivingexperiments with a few examples of Bière de Garde. Thisearthy French-style farmhouse ale is a beautiful gold colorand sometimes comes in festive Champagne-style bottles.We particularly loved Southampton Brewery’s version,which had a nutty caramel flavor that matched up wellwith sweet potatoes. This beer is smooth but a littlefunky, with hints of sweet fermented apple. It’s a littlemusky and toasty—very nice with food. We also reallyenjoyed the Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale page 12

from Two Brothers Brewing in Illinois, which was a little fruitybut dry, with restrained bitterness and hints of apricot. The Recommended Thanksgiving Beerscaramel flavors in both of these beers were lovely with thecrisp skin from the turkey. • Bière de Garde (Southhampton Brewery)A slightly less musky option for Thanksgiving pairing is a good • French Style Country Ale (TwoAmerican amber. We liked how Caldera Brewing Company’s Brothers)Ashland Amber complemented the earthy flavors in the meal, • Ashland Amber (Caldera Brewing)particularly the mushrooms in the stuffing. • Singel Ale (Witkap Pater) • Kerberos Tripel (Flying Dog)Two other very successful pairings were Belgian (and Belgian- • 2° Below (New Belgium)inspired). The Singel Ale from Witkap Pater was bright and • Frambozen (New Belgium)yeasty with a pronounced pineapple-juice flavor. This hazy • Levitation Ale (Stone Brewing)golden beer had notes of thyme and sage (as well as hintsof banana) that worked well with both cranberry sauce and turkey (a difficult feat.) You could serve thisrefreshing, festive beer in champagne flutes, and even non-beer drinkers would probably enjoy it. TheKerberos Tripel from Flying Dog was another hit, complementing the stuffing with its rich buttery flavor andhint of sweetness.Two surprise hits were provided by New Belgium Brewing in Colorado. Their winter warmer, 2° Below, wasfestive and interesting. Walnut and maple syrup notes added another dimension to the stuffing. This beer isn’ta pushover, but it complemented the meal seamlessly. New Belgium’s Frambozen was rosy red and smelled likeraspberry jam, but it was more subtle than we expected, and not too sweet at all. The fruity flavor was fun totaste with the turkey and the stuffing—it was almost a stand-in for cranberry sauce without reminding us ofmelted Jolly Ranchers.While we’re not sure we’d recommend it to non-beerdrinkers, we think the Levitation Ale from Stone Brewingalso deserves a place at the Thanksgiving table. This intense brew has herbal, piney flavors and lingeringtoasted malt. A hint of cinnamon and peat make this earthy beer a good companion for turkey and stuffing.Not full yet? Don’t worry; we’ll have beer pairings for pie next week. page 1

New Belgium crafts more than beer | Aaron BibleDecember 1, 2009 As seen in Kickstand Magazine • Issue #3 • www.kickstandmag.com M A G A Z I N E cruiser-friendly Mummers’ the word There are great parties and blow-out celebrations but the arrival of 2010 Philadelphia-style has no peer. There are the midnight fireworks in Rittenhouse Square and much reveling along South Street. Roll right through the night and experience the Mummers Parade on Market Street in South Philly on New Year’s morning. Older even than the US of A, the Mummers Parade features fantastic feathered costumes, floats and music that will erase any thought of a hangover. Jan. 1 - Market Street, Philadelphia, PA • phillymummers.com Laugh hard and prosper by Aaron Bible Get a jump start on some six-pack abs and laugh till it hurts at the Chicago Sketch Comedy Fest. Take in the brilliant wit and humor of comedians who will be the John Belushis and Gilda Radners New Belgium crafts more than beer of tomorrow. This is not improv; it is planned, scripted hilarity at its scathing best in the city where Second City was born. Jan. 7-14 - 1225 W. Bellmont Ave., Chicago, IL • Collaboration with Felt Bicycles creates 2010 employee bike chicagosketchfest.com A lot of people know that all New Belgium the brewery bikes have been custom branded Brewery employees are actually owners of since 1992. New Belgium has worked with Reely wrong the company. What you may not know is that several manufacturers including Schwinn, Just not into the posing scene ownership is inaugurated at the end of year one Electra, and currently Felt Bicycles. But these are of the big film festivals? Check of service—at which time you are awarded your not off-the-shelf cruisers. This year’s model by out the 14th annual Slamdance Film Festival and check your own personal, custom New Belgium-branded Felt—based on the Magno cruiser—includes a attitude at the door. What started as a counter-culture cruiser bike. Add to that the fact that the very custom chain ring, custom graphics, and custom nose-thumbing of the monstrously pretentious Sundance concept of New Belgium was conceived on handlebars built by Black Sheep Bikes. Film Festival, Slamdance has evolved into a decent event featuring excellent indie selections and future cult classics. a bicycle seat, its acclaim as the first wind- This year, the bikes are also coming with Jan. 21-28 - Park City, UT • slamdance.com powered brewery in the United States, and a front racks created by Orlando Baker of Carver policy of fiscal transparency within the company, Surf Racks. In this way they have also created a and you’ve got yourself a pretty damn good place phenomenon so that you know what year people Think snow and party to work. were inaugurated by which bike they have. Forget spring break, the time to cut loose and pay tribute to the Norse God Bikes are awarded with ownership at the According to New Belgium’s Bryan Simpson, of snow is at Breckenridge, Colorado’s company’s monthly all-staff meeting, at which it’s a way for the company to continue to connect annual Uller Festival. Ullympics, a point the proud new owners (of bike and beer) with people in a tangible manner that mirrors the wild dating game, tons of great live music, a bonfire and more. The locals make a short speech in front of the other 320 foundation of the company’s values. “We’re just know how to throw down and they some employees—definitely a day to remember. very fortunate to be able to live that lifestyle, that do so at Uller Fest with a vengeance. The tradition started in the early 1990’s, and dream, for the last 18 years.” Jan. 10-16 - Breckenridge, CO • tinyurl.com/yd8z37a Escape Clause If you laughed hard at the movie Bad Santa and have always wanted to show the world what Santa is really like, then you need to get your red on and hit your local Santacon celebration. The profane carols, misdemeanor behavior and decidedly un-PC counterculture events are fun for every disgruntled grownup in the family. The xmas Season - various locations • santacon.info 9 page 1

Artisan Breweries: New Belgium Brewing | Sean InmanDecember 3, 2009 One of the non-beer reasons why I enjoy the craft beer community, and why I write about it’s many facets, is that there are no “artisan corporations,” but there are “artisan breweries.” The difference, to me, is akin to the subtle change from the word house to home. One is four walls and a roof and the other is where you live. The craft beer world has many “homes.” Dogfish Head and Stone. Widmer and Sierra Nevada. Another “beer home” is New Belgium Brewing from Fort Collins, Colorado. Most will know New Belgium as the maker of the popular Fat Tire amber which is available in bottles and now cans but they also have a great variety of limited releases thatare extremely creative and much sought after. Currently you can pick up a six-pack of 2 Below, their winterseasonal, at most fine beer establishments.I had the chance, after Thanksgiving, to e-talk with Greg Owsley from New Belgium about their role in the craftbeer revolution, Lips of Faith, sour beers and what is on the horizon for their fans.How has New Belgium changed from inception to the major player in the craft beer industry? And is thatchange seen more in employees, the beer or customers?New Belgium is certainly no longer a 20-barrel brewery in the founders’ basement, but I’m not sure “changed”is the right verb. Maybe grown? Evolved? Matured in a good way? The core values and beliefs that Kim andJeff wrote down before they bottled the 1st New Belgium beers still anchor our company ethos. Something like90% of the original co-workers are still employee owners. We still make 4 of the original 5 recipes Jeff launchedwith. Yet, we’ve thrived, we think, by being a living, breathing, learning organization always looking for newpioneering opportunities. We’re not the biggest in craft volume, but I do think that forward thinking has placedNew Belgium at the forefront of the good beer revolution. It’s cool now to see all the American breweriesmaking Belgian style, sour and Bretta beers - stuff our Belgian-born brew jester, Peter Bouckaert, was pushingus to do in the ’90s. Sustainable practices too and how we’ve made those integral to our brewing businesssuccess. I guess as we accomplish one dream we start looking for another.What has been the consumer reaction to the Lips of Faith series and the La Folie beers?The number of followers of Lips of Faith is still cult sized and I can’t imagine that ever changing. Case in pointis you Sean: as not even somebody who mostly drinks craft beer is necessarily going to be seeking a brew withdandelion in it. The weird beer crowd is small enough to nearly be on a first name basis with each other and us page 1

and that’s great. That’s perfect for Lips of Faith. Though next year we do want to get better about getting Lipsof Faith and La Folie into all the bars and bottle shops where these beers will be appreciated.Sour beers have really picked up steam as of late. Transatlantique Kriek and Tart Lychee are really good butare pushing the sour edge to the limit. What is the next step style wise for New Belgium?Funny, Transatlantique Kriek and Tart Lychee actually don’t push the sour as much as La Folie or our rareNB Love, but I agree they are not for everybody. Interestingly, our plan for sour next year includes a try atan approachable sour worthy of a six-pack, something that everyday craft beer drinkers can get into. Andsomething us beer geeks can pack in the cooler for after a soccer game. Your readers up in Seattle, where weare doing some collabeeration with Elysian, got a sneak preview of what we want to make with the beer calledTrip III.And here is something else for the hopheads to start salivating over…There’s some other Lips of Faith gems in the polishing stage, but I guess the big news from New Belgium landis that we’re (finally) launching an IPA next year. No less than 16 months in development as we figured if you’rethe last craft brewery in America to make one, you better make your IPA dang good. It’s called Ranger, namedin honor of our Beer Rangers (street reps) who have been begging for an IPA for years.December 6, 2009Roger Phillips: The sad demise of Ernie and dreaming of steelheadTime to clean out my mental closet about matters directly or obliquely related to the outdoors.ERNIE THE ELKBummer, dude. I am saddened - but sadly not surprised - by your apparent demise at the hands of a “hunter.”I had feared Ernie would be a target too tempting for some lazy hunter.Idaho Fish and Game officers suspect that a bull elk taken near Harris Ranch Nov. 1 was Ernie. According to Fishand Game, the shooting was legal.Legal, maybe, but I’m calling B.S.A respectful elk hunter wouldn’t hunt around Warm Springs Ave., which is where Ernie lived and was enjoyedby countless people, myself included.Someone apparently decided to shoot Ernie and figured out a way to do it without breaking any rules, exceptthose of common sense, common courtesy and hunting ethics.One hunter got a bull, and all hunters got a black eye. Thanks, pal. May your gun rust, your cartridges misfire,and your future tags forever go unfilled. page 1

STEELHEAD DREAMSThey keep trickling over Lower Granite Dam - 323,000 and counting, which is boosting this year’s already-record run for post-dam (since 1975) Idaho steelhead returns.The previous post-dam record was in 2001, which I remember, but I don’t remember the catch rates being asgood as they’ve been this fall.People are flat-out catching a lot of steelhead, especially in the Snake and Salmon rivers.It’s beyond cool to see (and experience) it. People are really excited about steelhead fishing, and we’re onlyhalfway through the season.Steelhead fishing tapers off during winter but will ramp up again in the spring.I have a feeling it’s going to be crazy on the upper Salmon and Little Salmon rivers, and the South Fork of theClearwater is bound to be its usual madhouse self.TOUR DE FATI am embarrassed to say I didn’t attend this year’s “Rolling Carnival of Creativity,” but I like to think I was therein spirit.It’s a beautiful bike festival spearheaded by the generous folks at New Belgium Brewing Company, makers ofFat Tire Ale.The August event raised $42,501 for the Southwest Idaho Mountain Biking Association and the Treasure ValleyCycling Alliance, according a recent press release from New Belgium.Not that it’s a competition (ahem), but the Boise event raised the third-highest amount among the 11 citieswhere New Belgium took its traveling bike-and-brew road show.I couldn’t help but notice Boise’s event raised more cash for local cycling programs than sleepy little burgs likeChicago, Seattle, Portland, Denver, San Francisco, San Diego and Austin, Texas.Last year’s Boise Tour de Fat raised $37,000, for an awesome and inspiring two-year total of $79,500 (andchange), which helps keep Boise a first-class place for cyclists.If other event organizers want a celebration that’s equally lighthearted and big-hearted, consider the Tour deFat your model.MOUNTAIN BIKE LICENSE PLATESpeaking of bikes, Boise mountain biker Geoff Baker is floating a pretty cool idea - a specialty license platefeaturing mountain biking.The plate would go on your bike hauler (car, SUV or pickup), not your bike, and be similar to the dozens ofother Idaho specialty plates that range from bluebirds to breast cancer awareness.The concept is simple and well established. Motorists pay extra for a license plate that supports their favoritecause, and a portion of the money goes to that cause.In this case, it would help build and maintain trails that are open to mountain bikes.Baker envisions the funds being available to agencies, clubs and groups that want to improve trails. page 1

You can read more details about the idea and see a prototype of the plate - which, by the way, looks really cool- at idmtbtrailassoc.blogspot.com.Establishing the plate would take legislative approval, which could be a rough road. But odds improve whenyou consider specialty plates are a voluntary fee, and lots of them have been successful.Legislators are bound to be in a cranky mood this session when they face a tough budget, but this could be afeel-good bill that will benefit trail users and further Idaho’s reputation as a recreation mecca.Five ski-themed beers to quench your mountain-induced thirst | Candace HorganDecember 7, 2009 Nothing hits the spot after a long day on the slopes like a good microbrew. It quenches your thirst and replaces all the carbs you burned ripping up the steep and deep at your favorite resort. As if you needed an excuse to have a good beer. As long as you are reaching for a beer though, why not go for one with a ski-theme in its name to keep the slopeside meme going? Head down to your local liquor store or woman up to the bar at your favorite pub and ask for one of these beers as you relive your favoriteruns of the day.1. Out of Bounds Stout, Avery BrewingIf rope-ducking and trying to avoid the ski patrol is your thing at theslopes, or you like to hunt down virgin powder in the back country,try an Out-of-Bounds Stout. It’s a hearty, dark stout beer, with hints of chocolate to it. To quote Terry Pratchett, “It will put a chest on your chest.” This tasty brew is 5.1 percent alcohol by volume, and the label has a skier frolicking in deep powder. 2. Avalanche, Breckenridge Brewery Hopefully you haven’t spent the day setting off avalanches or escaping from them while skiing in the back country. If you’re at Breck already, take a pull on an Avalanche while scarfing their Mountain Nachos.It’s a darker amber ale, with a 5.41 percent alcohol by volume. A good drinking beer in both winter andsummer. page 1

3. 2° Below, New Belgium BreweryThey are probably best know for their Fat Tire, one of the more popularamber ale microbrews in Colorado, but 2° Below started as a one-offbeer for the Al Johnson Uphill Downhill telemark ski race in CrestedButte. The beer is a seasonal brew, so you’ll only get it in winter. For awinter ale, it’s surprisingly hoppy. The label hints at cold winter nightsin the mountains. It’s also got a high 6.6 percent alcohol by volumecontent, so you can definitely get a nice hearty glow on with a fewbottles.4. Never Summer Ale , Boulder Brewery The name could refer to the Never Summer Mountains near Rocky Mountain National Park, but given the snowboarder on the label, it’s probably just wishful thinking for skiers and snowboarders who feel the warming that happens in the high country is anathema. It could also reflect those truly dedicated skiers and snowboarders who ski permanent snowfields in the high country in the summer. Regardless, the label is apt, as it’s a winter seasonal from Boulder Brewery with a 5.94 percent alcohol and a dark ruby color, suitable for packing on lots of calories to keep warm during the cold winter months.5. Telemark I.P.A., Back country BreweryIf the traffic on I-70 is giving you a migraine, get off in Frisco and hit the Back countryBrewery. They have a whole host of ski-themed beers. The Telemark I.P.A. is a hoppyEnglish-style ale that won a gold medal at the 2000 Great American Beer Festival, and ithas a 5.6 percent alcohol.December 8, 2009Tour de Fat Raises Money for Non-ProfitsTour de Fat, New Belgium Brewing’s traveling celebration of all things bicycle, raised more than $276,000 forbike advocacy groups during the 2009 season.Tour de Fat is a free event, but the money raised from the sale of New Belgium beers and merchandise helpslocal organizations continue their good work of bicycle advocacy and environmental stewardship. Last yearTour de Fat broke the $1 million mark, and with this year’s donations, the grand total now stands at more than$1.25 million.The 2009 Tour de Fat season rolled into 11 communities, including two new cities—San Diego andMinneapolis. Tour de Fat celebrates mankind’s greatest invention—the bike—with costumed parades, page 10

entertainment and the annual car-for-bike swapper program. To see videos from some of the 2009 tour stopsvisit http://www.tour-de-fat.com (click on link).“Tour de Fat is all about highlighting our good friend, the bike,” said Bryan Simpson, New Belgiumspokesperson. “But with the celebration of the bicycle we are also able to explore the benefits of livingsustainably, giving to others and enjoying a whimsical afternoon on two wheels.”Tour de Fat brought out more than 55,000 attendees, many decked out in costume, and about half of thecrowd brought their bike along for the parade. In addition to the parade, people took part in various contestsof bicycle skill and rode one-of-a-kind art bikes.For the third year in a row, Tour de Fat hosted the car-for-bike swapper program where someone in eachcity traded in their vehicle for a hand-built commuter bike and committed to living car-free for the next year.By pledging to bike instead of drive, the car-for-bike swappers agree to go to work, out to dinner and evenshopping all on a bike.“The car-for-bike swap is always a highlight because New Belgium is passionate about biking as an alternativeto driving,” Simpson said. “These volunteers are sharing our message in their communities and inspiring othersto bike more, as well.”To encourage cycling, even if it’s just one day a week, Tour de Fat’s Team Wonderlounge offered people a placeto sign up for Team Wonderbike (www.teamwonderbike.com), New Belgium’s bicycling commuter advocacyprogram. Team Wonderbikers pledge to commute by bike as often as possible. More than 5,000 cyclists joinedTeam Wonderbike during the 2009 season bringing the total enrollment to over 20,000.In addition to giving back to local communities, Tour de Fat tries to give back to the environment bycomposting and recycling waste. The waste diversion rate for this year was 94 percent. Other Tour de Fatsustainable initiatives included traveling with a solar-powered stage, using biofuel sourced from recycled wasteoils for trucks and transport, and having all vendors operate off the grid.“As another Tour de Fat season comes to a close we encourage everyone to pedal on until we meet again,”Simpson said.December 10, 2009New Belgium BrewingPlease see the DVD at the back of the clipbook for this complete video clip. page 11

December 15, 2009Beer and Cheer: Frambozen from New BelgiumFrambozen is a classic Colorado holiday beer, one that has a fan club across thecountry and everyone who lives here should try at least once.A brown ale that pours a deep red/brown color, Frambozen is deliciously flavoredwith juicy raspberries that make it seem like it should be poured into an ice traywith toothpicks and frozen as a dessert.New Belgium Brewery’s primary winter seasonal is 2 Below, which I’ve never beena big fan of. But I keep plenty of Frambozen in the fridge -- and maybe the freezer.Seasonal ales spice up the holidays | Patrick ComiskeyDecember 23, 2009Believe it or not, there are some thirsty souls in this world who take in the strings of colored lights, thedangling snowflakes and overdressed fir trees and do not think of Christmas morning. They hear the strains of“Good King Wenceslas” or “The Wassail Song” and are not filled with good cheer.Instead, they are overcome by Pavlovian symptoms -- dilated pupils, wetted lips, excessive Homer-likesalivation. They gather snack bowls. They frost steins. They stand in the kitchen gazing expectantly atrefrigerators, fondling bottle openers with a discreet lasciviousness.December, after all, is the season of seasonal ales, when some of the richest, most enchanting bottlings of theyear reach the market, heady, potent, dark-malted brews laced with exotic spices. No, that’s not a sugar plumfairy dancing in that guy’s head, it’s a nut-brown, triple-hopped, pine-spiced pumpkin ale with a nice creamyhead in a chilled glass. page 12

From fairly modest beginnings, the seasonal ale movement is now a full-blown phenomenon among artisanal brewers. More than 100 U.S. breweries make a holiday beer or ale, and another 40 are imported annually, according to the website Realbeer.com. For lovers of the tall and frosty, few holiday seasons are complete without a sampling. Seasonal ales, of course, have been with us almost as long as seasons. In Europe, brewing was essentially a home activity through the Middle Ages, and beer was made according to the seasonal ingredients at hand. As breweries became quasi-commercial enterprises, in monasteries, convents and eventually conventional breweries, special brews were crafted in concert with the calendar, and monks, being monks, commemorated saints’ days and other religious holidays.Of course, few occasions were more special than Christmas, and the brews made in honor of the birth of Christwere appropriately lavish, employing imported spices like cinnamon from Sri Lanka, allspice from the Antilles,cloves and cassia from Indonesia, mace and nutmeg from the Moluccas, as well as such local flavorings asjuniper berries, bay laurel and pine.Wassail, the punch-like concoction that inspires such voluble door-to-door reveling, was often some version ofthese. It was customary to invite the carolers in for a cup of cheer -- as good a reason as any to sing your headoff in the street.In this country, seasonal brews traditionally were usually produced only for small regional distribution, speciallots from small breweries such as Walter’s in Eau Claire, Wis.; Ballantine’s in Newark, N.J.; and the FalstaffBrewery of St. Louis, a special brew that seems foreordained, since its namesake bore such a close physicalresemblance to a certain yuletide figure.Maytag’s methodThe modern artisanal Christmas ale is the invention of Fritz Maytag, the owner of Anchor Steam Breweryin San Francisco. Maytag started experimenting with small-lot brews in the mid-’70s during the off-brewingmonths when he had the tank capacity, eventually selling these special winter brews as the label’s Special Ale-- usually with a season’s greeting on the label and displaying a single tree, printed in green though not alwaysof the evergreen variety.Eventually Maytag started adding autumnal herbs and spices, fine-tuning the elements until a fully seasonalexpression became the standard -- warm, dark, with a robust flavor profile that never fails to signify theseason.Despite an ardent following, Anchor Steam has never divulged its recipe -- and it changes every year as Maytagand his staff tinker with the base ingredients, spices, alcohol strengths and the sources of its hops. To taste it,it’s easy to divine certain elements -- ginger, evergreen, nutmeg, perhaps mocha -- while others are elusive.Maytag does admit that the recipe has never involved clove, to its credit.Anchor also redesigns the label annually, based on a different living, actual tree. This year’s is a magnificentlyrotund cedar found at the east entrance of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, a tree that most city residents page 1

will recognize, if for no other reason than that it’s strung with lights each holiday season. It is the park’sChristmas tree.In the 34 years since, retail shelves have become quite crowded with seasonal beers. Indeed, they seemto proliferate like vodkas, except that with beer, the defining factor isn’t a flavor, it’s a season. It’s becomecommonplace for a brewery to create half a dozen seasonal brews year-round to complement its regularLike many modern brews, these are prone to particularly bad punning behavior and other shameful wordplay,owing in part to how easily the word “Happy” morphs into “Hoppy,” as in Marin Brewing Co.’s bottling, HoppyHolidaze. (Not to be outdone, the He’Brew Brewing Co., now in its bar mitzvah year, calls its date-flavoredHanukkah brew “Jew-balation.”)The season also inspires the annual creation of a league of misbehaving elves: the Mad Elf, the Bad Elf and theRude Elf Reserve are all causing mischief at a store near you.Christmas beers tend to be richer and heavier than your average brew, with a bigger mouth-feel and a hoppierfinish. They are often darker in color and usually employ more deeply roasted, caramelized malt preparations,which enhance the perceived sweetness of the ale. Strictly speaking, most winter brews are not thirst-quenchers but, like a lot of the holiday meals they accompany, are weighty, opulent and satisfying.Much beyond this, all bets are off. Setting aside lagers, seasonal brews are of every conceivable style, frombottlings. Every country, region and brewing tradition.There are dry, clean brews, like the fruity, almost pear-like delicacy of Goose Island’s Christmas Ale ordeceptively light Two Below from New Belgium (who bring you Fat Tire Ale). Sam Adams produces a Winter Alethat’s hoppy, clean, fairly dry and herbaceous, while Sierra Nevada’s perennial Celebration Ale has a slightlyricher mouth-feel than its classic ale, with a subtle pine finish. The Winter Solstice Ale from Anderson ValleyBrewing is an amber, but a rich one, with just a hint of cinnamon, while the aforementioned Hoppy Holidazefrom Marin Brewing has a satisfying malty core that gives it drive and power.Many more, however, are of the spiced variety, and despite proud assertions of their flavorings, I found mostof these brews to be wonderfully subtle and ephemeral.Pepper and potatoesI didn’t think, for example, that the Pumpkin Ale from Buffalo Bill was all that pumpkin-y, but it was plentysavory and satisfying. The 2009 Allagash Belgian-style “Fluxus,” from Maine, is flavored with sweet potatoesand black pepper. I won’t say I detected either, but with its citrusy nose, flavors of savory malt and comfortingweight, it was one of my favorites.And I was unprepared for the depth of flavor in the Jubilation Ale from the Japanese brewery Baird -- Japaneseales, after all, are often dry and light. But this one, flavored with figs and cinnamon, was uncommonly headyand powerful. Delirium’s Noël had a similar richness, with a malty tang accenting flavors of nutmeg and driedcocoa, while Corsendonk’s Christmas Ale seemed darker still, as if someone had dropped in a shot of espresso.This year, however, the darkest of all is Anchor Steam’s Special Holiday Ale, a brooding concoction displayingnotes of juniper, ginger and allspice, grounded by a fine savory note that reminded me of Mexican chocolate.It is the sort of beer to snatch up and savor, remembering that the seasonal ale season, just like Christmas,comes on quickly and is gone before you know it. page 1

Is Fat Tire Taking Over the World? Green Beer Goes Mainstream | Sami GroverDecember 27, 2009When I got stranded in the mountains of NorthCarolina last weekend, we checked into a motelto wait out the storm. Fancying a beer, I trudgedthrough the snow to the gas station. Sitting amongthe Bud Lites and the Millers was a large bottle ofNew Belgium’s Fat Tire. I was surprised (and a littleexcited). Not being used to finding a TreeHuggerfavorite in the gas station beer fridge, I figured thiswas a one off. But on arrival in Indiana—which asI mentioned earlier this week, involved steppingoutside our political comfort zone—we noticed thatFat Tire was everywhere here too. Conservative andliberal friends alike arrived brandishing the aforementioned brew, and more than one strip-mall bar had FatTire on tap. So what’s going on? And is this a good thing for green beer lovers?New Belgium Brewing Company has long been in our good books—from turning waste water into cash, towind-powered energy efficient beer brewing, to working to bike more—these guys are serious when it comesto sustainability.And it’s nice to see a company like this doing well in venues across the country that are not just frequentedby your traditional, environmentally-aware beer lover. Undoubtedly, the company’s success is due in part toa broader interest in sustainability. While most folks are unlikely to buy a beer because it was brewed usingwind-power, it is still an interesting point of differentiation from the competition. As my friend and colleagueJerry Stifelman said in a guest post some time back, just because it saves the world, that doesn’t make itpopular—but all else being equal, it does make it more interesting.Mostly, Fat Tire is just a really good beer. In that sense, New Belgium has joined a small but growing rankof mainstream brands that create popular, widely available product, and just happen to also be deeply andprofoundly mission driven. From Ben and Jerry’s to Patagonia to Clif Bar, there are plenty of brands out therethat appeal to mainstream consumers, many of whom don’t even realize they are buying green.And while shopping alone will not stop global warming, or reverse our unsustainable ways, as long as we livein a consumer culture, those consumers may as well be buying from organizations that promote renewableenergy, slash energy use, support sustainable agriculture, and encourage greener transportation.As this market segment grows, these brands also provide an increasingly vocal counterbalance to the dinosaur“business as usual” contingent, and inspiration for business leaders looking for a better way. As witnessed by page 1

the International Chamber of Commerce distancing itself from the US Chamber’s climate antics, businesseseverywhere are realizing that inaction on climate change is not an option. The success of brands like NewBelgium can only help hasten this transition.Of course it should be noted that the national availability of Fat Tire doesn’t mean it’s always the greenestoption out there. Given the availability of some great local beers here in Indiana, I’d usually choose a localmicrobrew over a case shipped from Colorado—wind-powered or not—but increasingly, as my experience atthe gas station shows, the choice is between the kind of beer that Monty Python described as “like makinglove in a canoe” (if you don’t get the reference, ask a Python fan. This is a family-friendly website...) or aflavorful, delicious beer from a mission driven company. I know which one I’ll be drinking to...December 28, 200920 Trailblazers and Trendsetters of 2009 They are the game changers and the innovators. They make their own rules and break the molds. They sought to either plug a hole in the market or create a better mousetrap. They are 20 of the small- business world’s premier innovators.Kim JordanFounder and CEO, New BelgiumKim Jordan started New Belgium 18 years ago in her basement. Nowthe Colorado-based microbrewery grosses nearly $100 million annually.Jordan believes the secret to New Belgium’s success is maintainingthe heart of a startup, a company culture centered on sustainability,collaboration and employees being emotionally vested. Based on a 13.4percent growth rate over the past five years, New Belgium’s strategy seems to be working and has made itarguably one of the biggest microbreweries in the U.S. page 1

New Belgium Brewing 2009 Clipbook

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New Belgium Brewing 2009 Clipbook Document Transcript