The Tour de Fat, or Why I Love New Belgium

The Tour de Fat is one of the reasons why the New Belgium Brewing Company is on my top five list of great companies. Some of the other reasons may be found here.

Basically, the New Belgium Brewing Company was created after the founder was inspired (divinely perhaps?) while on a bike trek through Belgium visiting some of the best breweries in the world. Upon returning to the US, he made it his mission to recreate the best of the Belgian beers right here in America. He named his new brewery New Belgium, and named its first official beer after the mountain bike with "fat tires" he had used to ride across the country of his inspiration.

Now that the name of both the brewery and its flagship beer are known from coast to coast, conventional wisdom states that the company should have sold out its original intentions and realized its full potential as a money making enterprise. Not so. Fortunately for everyone involved, while the company is making more money than a 32 year old dude on a bike trek across Belgium ever could have imagined, it is still 100% true to its roots. And that means bikes.

For instance, some of the great perks of being a New Belgium employee (in addition to all the fat tire you can drink) include a free geeked out cruiser bike after you've worked there for one full year, and a parking lot with almost as many spots for bikes as there are for cars. But the coolest thing us non-employees get to enjoy (in addition to all the paid for yet delicious beer we can drink) is the Tour de Fat.

The Tour de Fat is essentially a traveling carnival dedicated to bikes. It begins with a community ride around an area, similar to Critical Mass except that it is actually licensed by the city, and then ends at a fairground complete with a corral filled with awesome art bikes for everyone to enjoy and a giant stage where bands play, contests are held, and a mock New Orleans style funeral is held for car culture.

Now, this is all free. The only thing that isn't is the beer. And when it comes to beer sales, in each major city the tour goes to, it partners with a local bike friendly non-profit (in my fine city that is the SFBC) and gives a portion of all profits to that organization.

The moral of this story? New Belgium is awesome, and everyone reading this should go to a Tour de Fat event if one is taking place near them. To all my SF brothers and sisters, that event is tomorrow, Saturday the 25th of September at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park.

See ya there.

Images provided by New Belgium Brewing Co. and The Green Dude