New Belgium Belgo

New Belgium Belgo

Score: Wolf Blanket (10 out of 10)

Style: Belgian Pale Ale

IBU: 70
Hops: Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo
Malts: Pale, C120, Honey malt
OG: 18.5
TG: 3

Why I want to take this beer to a carnival and win it a stuffed animal

What can I say? I love New Belgium. I have a Fat Tire Jersey and pint glass I purloined while working as a promotions manager for Bike Nashbar, say, back in '98? I've been to the brewery twice and wanted to die in a fire with those folks. When you cross cycling and beer, it's as special as having a magic wand that can disappear fast food joints and cut-off sweat pants. Everything about New Belgium is rad, and I want to offer the staff my last chunk of Grayson cheese and an organ-scrunching hug. Thank younze.

Now onto the beer, and my pleonastic prose on its stultifying qualities...

Straight up chuffed to bits on this one. In fact, I almost received a partial disembowelment from my perma-lady for stealing the last one. You see, I was deeper into a television show than I had been for years, a show all about meth addiction. Given the pathology streaming from the tube, I found myself rooting through the forbidden stash of killer 22's in the fridge, crying and laughing simultaneously as I embraced the icy vessel. I felt it was a benign move since it was I who was stuck at home eating rice while my baroness was schlepping brews at some October fest in Charlotte. But I was wrong.

Anyway, being the shrek in a frock from my vicarious tangle with the meth show, I poured out this blossoming beauty like I was tempting out the last bit of smack from my friend debbie's syringe (she's the bedraggled junky on TV - I bet she would enjoy some of my rice). Belgo is good from go, having almost a plantain-like taste, coupled with citrus and other beautiful things one can only find on distant planets made of happiness. A bumper crop of hops in this one, hosting my all time favorite and long-time friend, the Simcoe. Alight with joy, I found Belgo's color to be as beautiful as Debbie was beat, with a rich, copper tone that shimmered through its tattered lace. I found it to be quite a complex brew but completely session-able (until you run out of the one f$()$#ing 22 you have). Sort of a sweet bread-like finish at the end that just left you wanting more.

Since this blog is about both good beer and solid planetary stewardship, let's give a angelic-like high-five to New Belgium for it's pioneering efforts in both (Copy and Pasted straight from the their site - like a true internet pirate!):

1. Lovingly care for the planet that sustains us.
2. Honor natural resources by closing the loops between waste and input.
3. Minimize the environmental impact of shipping our beer.
4. Reduce our dependence on coal-fired electricity.
5. Protect our precious Rocky Mountain water resources.
6. Focus our efforts on conservation and efficiency.
7. Support innovative technology.
8. Model joyful environmentalism through our commitment to relationships, continuous improvement, and the camaraderie and cheer of beer

Our Alternatively Empowered efforts:

While there are many ways to be stewards of the earth, each company must determine which strengths they have to leverage. Here are some of ours:

1. Increased efficiencies in the brewing process

Our brew kettle, Steinecker's Merlin, was the second of its kind installed in the U.S. and is considered more efficient than standard brew kettles because it heats thin sheets of wort rather than the whole kettle at once.

During wort boil, the steam exits the kettle through a stack and into a heat exchanger which continually extracts heat from the steam vapor and holds it in our energy storage tank. During the next batch, the stored heat helps the wort to boil very quickly, allowing us to use very little primary energy.

2. Utilized green design throughout our building.

• Lighting. We take full advantage of the more than 360 days of sunshine in Fort Collins by using UV blocking windows, sun-tubes, and light shelves.
• HVAC. Using evaporative coolers, we can condition our 55,000 square foot packaging hall with no compressors, using much less energy.
• Materials. 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.

3. Implemented a process for treating our wastewater:
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.

4. On-site energy production
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. The co-gen allows us to offset those critical—and expensive—peak loads by creating electricity on-site from a renewable source—our process wastewater. When the co-gen is running full-time, it can supply 15% of our electrical needs.

5. Wind-powered electricity since 1999
In 1999, New Belgium became the largest private consumer of wind-power electricity at that time and the first wind-powered brewery. In 1998, when we were researching ways to lower our environmental impact, Fort Collins was launching the first city-sponsored wind program in Colorado. We made a 10-year commitment to buy all of our electricity through the program, which allowed them to install an additional turbine, in Medicine Bow, WY. Since the wind premium increased our total cost per kilowatt-hour by 57%, it impacted employee’s profit sharing pool. So, we asked employees: wind-power or not? They unanimously voted for clean energy, and the decision is a fabled moment in New Belgium history.

6. Employ a High Involvement Culture
An environment in which the full power of everyone’s hearts and minds are brought to bear on creating positive change. HIC is a 3-legged stool which stands on opening the books, employee ownership, and participative decision-making.

7. Sustainable Eventing

We try to minimize the environmental impact of our events at every turn. Our philanthropic bike festival, Tour de Fat, celebrates bicycling as a viable form of alternative transport. A solar-powered stage provides sound for the day, beer is served in compostable cups and our overall waste stream diversion rate is better than 85%

It's just awesome. I'm new at this verbosity-over-beer stuff, but I can tell you Belgo is a true drinker. And New Belgium Brewery - I want to be burned on a pyre in their parking lot when I pass.