It’s been a wild ride, from the vision of New Belgium’s founders Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch to the thousands of coworkers who helped build one of America’s most loved breweries.
To mark the occasion, we’re looking back on 35 moments that shaped New Belgium’s first 35 years.
The Basement Homebrewing Years (1985–1992)
Basement homebrewing (mid-1980s). Homebrewing had been legal in the United States for only a few years when Jeff started making beer in his Fort Collins basement, alongside his engineering day job. One recipe he kept dialing in was an amber ale he called Fat Tire, after the Colorado nickname for a thick-tired mountain bike. Jeff spent the next six years perfecting the recipe that would help redefine American beer.
A bike trip through Belgium (1988). In the 1980s, American beer was a sea of pale-yellow lager. A wave of homebrewers and early microbreweries were starting to experiment with European-inspired styles: pale ales, porters, and stouts. But Belgian beers were almost entirely overlooked.
In 1988, Jeff decided to travel across the Atlantic to explore where it all began. On his now-legendary solo bike ride across Belgium, he visited a tiny beer bar in Bruges called ‘t Brugs Beertje. The owner, Jan De Bruyne, poured not just beer but 90 minutes of brewing history and lore. Jeff came home inspired—and with live Belgian yeast cultures—to bring Belgian-style beer to America…