Friday, July 04, 2008

East Coast Fat Tire

Word on the street had New Belgium Brewing Company's President Kim Jordan recently in North Carolina pre-selling Fat Tire Amber Ale.

That's right. In a long-anticipated and long-desired move, New Belgium's beers may finally come to the East Coast ... in 2009.

New Belgium, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, is the third largest-producing craft brewery, after Boston Beer and Sierra Nevada, and the 8th largest US brewery overall. (Statistics from Brewers Association.) It is well-regarded for its Belgian-styled beers.

There's no information yet on what states other than NC (and Tennessee, where the beers have only just arrived). Or as to which beers other than Fat Tire.

La Folie, please!

UPDATE 2009.02.03. New Belgium has announced that Fat Tire, Mothership Wit, and dark lager 1554 will be available in selected markets in North Carolina, beginning in March 2009. More at BeerAdvocate.

4 comments:

  1. I suspected we 'd see Fat Tire in the East once they started canning it. Less expensive to ship and stores better. I guess we can only hope to see more of their beer get canned.

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  2. We were chatting with Pieter Bouckaert at Saveur. He had a few cans from a test run of the canning line. The cans said Fat Tire in a very colorful can, but there was something different in the can - La Folie! He said that they were working some bugs out of the canning line but would be greatly increasing distribution once that was done. But, no canned La Folie in distribution.

    Cheers, Rick

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  3. Honestly, I don't know what the damned fuss is about anymore. I spent three weeks in Arizona and saw Fat Tire EVERYWHERE. Every Mal-Wart, every grocery store, every convenience store I was in, next to the Redhook and Bridgeport IPA. I got some just to get an update; it's nothing like I remember it from its 22-oz. bomber days bottled at the Ft. Collins RR station in 1993. Seriously, Sam Adams makes better stuff. The other New Belgium stuff, when you can get it (mostly at better stores), ranges from pedestrian to terrific, but there are better options on the shelf. Call it the Yuengling of the West, if you will.

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  4. Sadly, I agree with the above.. every year I get a taste or two of Fat Tire and every year it is less and less appealing to my palete.

    Now, I feel silly for all the years that I mailed my clothes home and stuffed my suitcase full with the stuff.

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