Hold Your Beer: New Belgium Brewing Co. is Brewing for Change
One of the most hard-hitting, yet lesser-known, consequences of climate change is how is it is reshaping the beer industry. Experts believe increasing temperatures and severe droughts could impact beer production by the end of the century — and it could even permanently alter its flavor to echo surrounding climate disasters. That’s why New Belgium Brewing Company prides itself at the forefront of environmental activism. Founded in 1991, the Colorado-based brewery commits itself, daily, to minimizing its global footprint — but its cutting-edge, and even risky, campaigns are the initiatives that elevate New Belgium Brewing Company to next-level activism. For instance, last year, the brewery went viral for its Torched Earth Ale beer, which the brand unveiled on Earth Day. The new flavor replaced fresh hops with hop extracts and dandelions, malt with various malt extracts, and purified water with smoke-tainted water to create its best prediction of beer’s flavor in a “climate-ravaged future.” With each sip, consumers would taste the potential new flavor of their favorite beverage, but also receive a subtle reminder of the blazing wildfires, deadly floods, melting icecaps, and 100plus-degree heat waves that occur around our world each day — now more powerfully and frequently than ever before. In an interview with CBS News, brewmaster Dave Glor — who took charge of the precarious task — said he initially hesitated when the owners requested the less-than-desirable flavor, fearing that consumers would poorly perceive the new product. But then he learned their reason. “It was an exercise in exploring the way we might have to make beer, not how we want to make beer,” brewmaster Dave Glor explained.