New Belgium revamps its portfolio in one broad stroke
New Belgium Brewing, the country’s number four craft brewer, has scrapped its entire line-up of India Pale Ales and will replace them with new varieties and different hop profiles in 2017.
It has been an interesting year for New Belgium. The Fort Collins, Colorado-based brewery just opened another location in Asheville, North Carolina. It is also building a barrel-fermentation facility at a hotel in Denver and a party deck at Colorado State University’s football stadium. Beyond that, its CEO Christine Perich departed the brewer in October 2016 after a little more than a year on the job which took everybody by surprise and left people wondering if there were plans to sell.
Reportedly, New Belgium’s beer production grew from 792,000 barrels in 2013 to 916,000 barrels in 2015, with sales revenue rising by more than 40 percent in that span. It now distributes beer in 45 states and cannot really afford to stagnate either creatively or financially. That may have motivated the brewmaster Peter Bouckaert to update core styles and expand the company’s barrel-fermentation programme.
Commentators say that New Belgium thus addresses changing tastes. Although the move is fairly abrupt and may annoy staunch lovers of the brands, it might help shore up sales of core brands at a time when sales of flagship craft beer brands like Sierra Nevada and Samuel Adams are flagging.
However, New Belgium is not bidding adieu to IPAs. After all, IPAs now represent one out of every four craft beers sold. If it’s hoping to sell more low alcohol brews that’s because “sessionable” beer styles have seen sales rise 33 percent in the past year.
