OK, but here's the real story I'm getting around to here - the frosty beer I was drinking was a New Belgium Snow Day. A marvelous beverage. A bicycle on every beer cap, what more can you say. So several weeks before this I was - in a very similar manner as before - drinking a New Belgium beer thinking the exact same thing, and I thought to myself 'is there a way to invest in New Belgium, Inc.? Because these guys are sitting on a damned gold mine'! The answer to my question it seems is no, at least not in the publicly traded markets. Samuel Adams, yes. New Belgium, no.
But in my research I discover that New Belgium is so popular right now that they cannot make and ship their product fast enough to meet demand! They've actually had to reduce distribution of late to meet demand in their core markets in and around Colorado. That's a fantastic problem for a business to have. Their solution - which has been in the works for some time now apparently - is to add production. Specifically, build a new commercial sized brewery on the east coast. They put together plans for a new $175m LEED-certified facility and narrowed down their choice to bids from the cities of Philadelphia and Asheville, NC, and went with Asheville on account of the little town being a lot like the little town of Fort Collins, CO, the beer capital of the largest craft beer state in the country.
Asheville already had ten craft breweries before this announcement. Since the announcement it has landed the new east coast commercial expansion of Sierra Nevada. It also has a boat load of trails to go out and hammer on to work up a thirst for malt and hops. To sum up this little anecdote on beer I want to make it known that Asheville, NC - of all places - is now firmly on my list of places I have to visit, as it should be for any adventurous soul who likes to get out on the trails and recover later with a cold beverage and then tell cool stories. Simple pleasures my friends. The secret to life.
P.S. When I'm not drinking New Belgium I'm drinking local. Support your local breweries.
Asheville is interesting. It seems to be one of those oasis of progressive thinking, what with what you mention, and I know it for a long time has supported a Leftist community radio station (WPVM, Progressive Voice of the Mountains, which is off the air now for some kind of legal reasons and is broadcasting over the internet), which besides its programming does things like organizes busloads of people to go up to the capital and demonstrate and is bringing the internet to rural mountain people.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it when you hear somebody being interviewed on a national radio program about internet freedom it's often the director of the station's parent foundation, MAIN, Mountain Area Information Network. That fight is about keeping the internet from being privatized.
There's also something called the Black Mountain Center up there and the Highlander Center is in that area.
It is very pretty up there. And coming down from there either way, via I-40, are two of the most, let's say, exhilarating, rides in a semi you could ask for.
I see what it is now. The owner of the tower they rented space from wanted to lock them into a long term contract at a low wattage, which would have prevented them from increasing their listener base, so they are looking for somewhere else to broadcast from. FYI.
ReplyDeleteThat's beer related in a very esoteric and spiritual way.
Thank you Bubba for expanding on the uniqueness of Asheville. I imagine in the transport business you get to see just about all kinds out there. I've heard Boone, NC is nice too, but I haven't a clue how their beer situation is looking these days.
ReplyDelete