Business Lexington
Lexington, KY – New Belgium Brewing, makers of the popular beer Fat Tire, has confirmed to that it will begin distributing to Kentucky later this year.
“You are the first who’s called and I can confirm with almost no details beside the confirmation that we will be opening up Kentucky sometime in the spring,” said Bryan Simpson, New Belgium’s director of media relations.
A beer blog, mybeerbuzz.com, earlier today posted a proposed label for a Fat Tire bottle topped by the phrase “Biking into the Bluegrass State,” in keeping with New Belgium’s bicycle logo.
“What happens with those is you have to file with the TTB [the Alcohol and Tobacco Trade Bureau, part of the U.S. Department of Treasury] for those commemorative label approvals, and sometimes the story gets out ahead of us,” Simpson said. “Generally when we post that, it’s usually when we know who our distributing partners are going to be, and that’s usually four to six weeks out before we open a market.”
In December the company began distribution in Ohio and it has been available for some time in Tennessee and Indiana.
Typically, Simpson said, when the company comes into a market they release a limited selection of their products in 22 oz. bottles rather than full six and 12-pack bottles and cans.
“It gives people an opportunity to sample before we bring in the rest of the line, but then everything happens in pretty rapid succession after that,” he said.
The limited roll out usually lasts a month to six weeks and typically includes Fat Tire, a lager, their seasonal beer, Ranger, an IPA and 1554, a black lager.
The company is based out of Fort Collins, Colo. and is employee owned. It also boasts its environmentally friendly practices and has “Sustainability” as a prominent tag on the company’s website.
The company is in expansion mode as work has begun to open its second brewery. The planned brewery is expected to begin construction this spring in Asheville, NC.