Fat Tire Rolling Into DC Area

Until just a few years ago, New Belgium Brewing's beer wasn't available east of the Mississippi River. It's been creeping slowly towards Virginia for several years, but now New Belgium is making a big move, expanding into the entire DC region:

New Belgium Brewing, maker of Fat Tire Amber Ale, announced plans today to expand their market territory along the eastern seaboard. The Colorado brewer will open Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. in September of 2011. The added territory will bring the nation’s third-largest craft brewer to 29 states.

But New Belgium isn't just coming to DC to sell beer. It'll also be pushing for clean energy & climate action:

New Belgium Brewing, the nation’s third largest craft brewery, today announced it is joining the fast-growing Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy (BICEP) coalition, a group of major American businesses pushing for passage of comprehensive energy and climate legislation in the U.S.

“New Belgium has long strived to be a sustainable business role model, but we also recognize that legislative advocacy is vital to creating the conditions for widespread sustainable business practices,” said Jenn Orgolini, Sustainability Director at New Belgium. “We view BICEP as our ally in D.C., giving us the opportunity to join other business voices in advocating for aggressive energy and climate policies that address the tremendous challenges and opportunities facing our country.”

New Belgium Brewing, based in Fort Collins, CO, is considered a leader in sustainable business practices in the craft beer industry. In 1998, New Belgium became the first brewery in America to subscribe to wind energy for its electrical needs. The brewery currently produces 15 percent of its electricity onsite, by harvesting methane from its process water treatment facility to fire a co-generation engine. New Belgium recently installed the largest private solar array in Colorado at 200kW and boasts one of the lowest water-to-beer production rates in the industry.

New Belgium may not focus on using organic ingredients, but their clean energy leadership is far more critical. And don't discount the water factor out West, where the climate crisis is worsening droughts just as it is here in the Southeast.

The Green Miles has been rooting for New Belgium's Fat Tire to come to DC since he first tried a pint more than three years ago in California. It's as tasty as a craft brew, but drinkable enough that on a hot summer night you could have a couple and not feel like Mr. Creosote.

New & Noteworthy Links from Virginia and Beyond

Thought I'd highlight a few additions and updates from The Green Links:

• Not sure why Bacon's Rebellion wasn't on The Green Links already, but consider the oversight fixed. It mainly covers Virginia growth and transportation issues from a fiscally conservative slant but tends to avoid easy categorization, always a good thing.
  
  
• Based out of Cleveland, Black and Into Green looks at sustainability from an African-American perspective.
  
  
• Recently stumbled across Gaiam, a green lifestyle company offering eco-friendly products.
  
  
• Girasol, Arlington's bilingual dog blogger, survived the 4th reporting, "I’m still afraid of the fireworks but my hiding place is under the bed."
  
  
• New Belgium Brewing has launched a new blog called The Tinkerer.
  
  
• From the Prince William Conservation Alliance comes Your Piece of the Planet.
  
  
• Virescent details an Alexandria resident's efforts to live more sustainably.

And over at NBC4.com, Wendy Rieger's Green Room seemed to fade for a bit, but it's back and looks better than ever. Here's a recent tidbit about an attempt to use a green strategy to tackle her ant problem:

Last night I tried an “organic” solution. I sprinkled cinnamon along the window sill where they were marching in and bam! They stopped. It seemed to horrify them. They woudn’t go near it! They became quit distressed by the presence of this amber powder. Amazing.

I read that lemon peel and cayenne pepper have the same effect. This morning when I woke up the kitchen had a sweet smell of cinnamon and there weren’t any ants around. Problem apparently solved.

Although now I have a nagging desire for rice pudding. Or flan. French toast. Or maybe some pie. Or what’s that thing with the bananas in warmed butter with brown sugar and cinnamon? I could eat that right now. Snickerdoodles … mmmm.

Maybe I should go get some more Windex.

Any great websites and blogs that haven't made The Green Links? Post them in comments!

Beyond Organic: New Belgium's Sustainable Brewing

I was in a Red Sox bar, Fat Face Fenners's Fishack, in Los Angeles recently and asked about a beer on tap I'd never seen before, Fat Tire. I asked our waitress, "I've never seen that beer with the bicycle on the tap before, what's that like?"

"Umm, that's Fat Tire," she said.

Right name, lousy description. "Yes, what's it like?" I asked.

"Umm, it's brewed in Colorado," she continued, skillfully avoiding anything that might give away what the beer actually tasted like. "It's good."

With the possibility remaining open that Fat Tire could taste like anything from sewer rat to pumpkin pie, I just ordered whatever light beer was on draft.

But days later, I caught a mention of the beer in Outside Magazine's green issue. Turns out the brewery that makes Fat Tire Amber Ale, New Belgium Brewing, might be the greenest brewery in the country.

While New Belgium only brews one organic beer, Mothership Wit, it uses sustainable practices from the start of its brewing process (using far less water than most breweries) to the finish (using bottles made out of recycled glass and shipping on biodiesel trucks).

Here are some excerpts from New Belgium's other green efforts:

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction: In 1998, New Belgium took an employee vote and became the country's first brewery to subscribe to wind energy. ... Employee owners voted to dip into their bonus pool to help finance the conversion.

Healthy Watersheds: Through recapture and reuse, New Belgium uses less than four barrels of water to produce one barrel of beer, significantly less than the industry average.

Green Building: In 2002 we agreed to participate in the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) pilot program. From sun tubes and daylighting throughout the facility to reusing heat in the brewhouse, we continue to search out new ways to close loops and conserve resources.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: The three "R's" of being an environmental steward. Our reuse program includes heat for the brewing process, cleaning chemicals, water and much more. Recycling at New Belgium takes on many forms, from turning "waste" products into something new and useful (like spent grain to cattle feed), to supporting the recycling market in creative ways (like turning our keg caps into table surfaces). We also buy recycled whenever we can, from paper to office furniture. Reduction surrounds us, from motion sensors on the lights throughout the building to induction fans that pull in cool winter air to chill our beers. Offsetting our energy needs is the cornerstone to being environmentally efficient.

Living Sustainably: Having our own Sustainability Specialist, Nic Thiesen, has given us access to all sorts of great information. If you want to learn more about any of the programs to which New Belgium subscribes or maybe you’d like to have wind power at your home, check out these links.

Not that I don't love Wolaver's organic beer, but all that seems to blow Wolaver's sustainability page out of the water, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, New Belgium isn't sold east of the Mississippi. It's not even available at DC's vaunted Brickskeller, home to 300 or so beers. But if you're traveling out west (or God forbid someone out west has stumbled upon this blog) give it a try!