By Photo: M. Doxtad, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
Jeff Lebesch got the idea after a bicycle trip through Belgium, where he tasted beers far different from American lagers. Back home in Fort Collins, he and Kim Jordan started brewing in their basement and founded New Belgium Brewing in 1991. Their first beers were Fat Tire, an amber ale named for the bike ride, and Abbey.
Fat Tire caught on across Colorado and then the country. The brewery moved into a former railroad depot and then built a large campus on Linden Street near the Poudre River, where it still operates.
Employee ownership
New Belgium became known for how it was run as much as its beer. Employees received ownership shares after a year, and in 2012 the company became fully employee-owned through an employee stock ownership plan. Workers got bicycles on their anniversaries and trips to Belgium after five years. Jordan served as CEO for much of that time.
In 2019, the employee owners agreed to sell the company to Lion, the Australian beverage subsidiary of Japan’s Kirin. Employees received payouts from the sale, and the company said the Fort Collins brewery would remain its base. It had already opened a second brewery in Asheville, North Carolina, in 2016.
Fort Collins as a beer town
New Belgium’s success helped draw others. Odell Brewing opened in 1989, and dozens of smaller breweries followed, plus Anheuser-Busch’s large plant on the north side of town. Beer tourism now brings visitors to Fort Collins year-round, and the city promotes its brewery trail as a draw alongside Colorado State University and Old Town.
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