For New Belgium Brewing, environmental stewardship has been on the middle of its enterprise for the reason that starting. However as the necessity for local weather motion turns into extra urgent, it’s infusing that message into its flagship product, Fats Tire Ale.
The beer, brewed by the Fort Collins, Colo.-based brewery since 1991, has an up to date look, coloration, recipe and place. Launched this week with the tagline “top quality, low influence,” the brand new Fats Tire presents a “brighter, crisper” tackle the decades-old beer. Regardless of the modifications, brewmaster Christian Holbrook assures followers in a press release that longtime drinkers will “clearly acknowledge the unique Fats Tire taste.”
As extra manufacturers align their values with a climate-conscious shopper base, New Belgium’s Fats Tire Ale rebrand presents an instance of easy methods to construct that focus into the muse of a product. However it doesn’t come with out danger.
“We wouldn’t be doing this work with the model if we weren’t doing all of that [sustainability work] behind the scenes,” Katie Wallace, chief ESG officer at New Belgium Brewing, advised Adweek.
“If we weren’t saying the identical factor to our policymakers [and suppliers] that we’re saying to our clients … if we hadn’t seen a few of that progress and been very dedicated to it by way of and thru, we might not really feel okay about placing this so central in our new branding,” she added.
First, do the work
New Belgium is exclusive in that it’s a medium-sized firm with a legacy of prioritizing its folks and the planet, mentioned CEO Steve Fechheimer. Its measurement and construction lets it align all of its actions with the identical function that underpinned its founding.
“We are able to carry a loud voice due to the scale of our firms, however we’re not so massive that we’re being dealt with in a distinct place,” Fechheimer mentioned. “We’re this medium-sized enterprise telling an necessary story about the actual prices to our enterprise in authorities not addressing these main points.”
Although it was acquired by a Kirin Holdings subsidiary in 2019, it had been at the least partially beneath an worker inventory possession plan since 2000. Cofounder Kim Jordan and different stakeholders bought the whole lot of their shares into the ESOP by 2012.
Whereas it’s not impartial, the model retains the ethos of its founders. Jordan, a social employee, and cofounder Jim Lebesch began brewing Fats Tire Ale out of their basement in 1991. Because it grew, the corporate established a sustainability division in 2003, turned a Licensed B Corp and signed onto 1% for the Planet.
Then, design in your viewers
In 2020, Fats Tire Ale turned the primary licensed carbon-neutral beer in the marketplace. Now, that truth lives entrance and middle on the model’s packaging.
To replace the model design, New Belgium labored with Austin, Texas-based design studio and artistic consultancy LAND. The brand new brand and messaging draw inspiration from the pre-digital period during which Fats Tire Ale was first conceptualized, Wallace famous.
“All of that’s meant to harken again to the place we started on this area,” Wallace mentioned. “Hopefully in a means that grabs local weather advocates’ consideration … My staff can do the whole lot we are able to do, however we’re nonetheless a part of these larger programs.”
The model labored with company Remedy to develop 15- and 30-second spots to announce the brand new recipe and rebrand. These adverts will run throughout a number of the NFL playoff video games this weekend, Fechheimer mentioned. That’ll be supported by nationwide samplings, plus a mixture of out of doors, linked TV, native broadcast, digital and social media.
Preventing for ‘the one planet with beer’
Beforehand, the model’s climate-focused advertising and marketing has been primarily relegated to stunts like 2021’s Fats Tire Torched Earth Ale, when the corporate created a beer produced from elements it predicts will likely be left after local weather change ravages the barley fields and water sources that brewers depend on. That included smoke-tainted water, dandelions and drought-resistant grains.
With the rebrand, that mission is included into the beer’s on a regular basis messaging, too. Language across the launch highlights the significance of local weather motion to guard “the one planet with beer.”
Wallace famous that a number of the apocalyptic situations simulated for the Torched Earth Ale undertaking are already coming into play. “2021 was the worst 12 months on document for barley harvest,” she mentioned. “And due to the unrelenting warmth, we had record-breaking wildfires proper round our river that gives water for beer.”
The chance of change
Lightening up Fats Tire Ale tracks with the tastes of youthful drinkers, in response to Matt Simpson, proprietor of beer consultancy The Beer Sommelier. And reaching 21- to 29-year-olds is likely one of the targets of this shift, Fechheimer mentioned.
Regardless of its place as New Belgium’s flagship providing, Fats Tire’s gross sales had been down roughly 14% year-over-year in 2019 and 2020. Thanks partly to local weather advocacy campaigns, the corporate mentioned, that improved for 2021 and 2022—down simply 5% for every of these years. The corporate wouldn’t share gross sales volumes however did say that Voodoo Ranger, New Belgium’s line of IPAs, surpassed Fats Tire “considerably” in recent times.
Nonetheless, it’s dangerous to make modifications to a beer that’s been round for over 30 years. It was the sixteenth best-selling craft beer within the U.S. final 12 months, per New Belgium.
Altering the recipe isn’t one thing that Simpson would have completed, he mentioned, given the success that New Belgium has had with the brew. Nonetheless, he predicts the brand new recipe is one thing that its core fanbase will nonetheless take pleasure in, given the outline.
“Fats Tire is exclusive. I don’t know of another beers which can be similar to it,” Simpson mentioned. “It matches successfully the place American brown ale does, however a bit of bit lighter in coloration, and with Belgian yeast, which produces a distinct finish.”
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