(Press Release)
FORT COLLINS, CO— Since its founding in 2003, The Fort Collins Brewery (FCB) has been living the dream of all small breweries: making beer, supporting causes its staff believes in, and having no shortage of fun along the way. FCB’s Vice President of Operations, Jan Peters, refers to the last ten years as FCB’s early college career. “Most people don’t go into college knowing what they want to study, or if they do, most end up changing their minds. You have to explore all your options before you commit to something long term, and that’s what we’ve been doing: finding out what we like best about the beer business and what works.”
But with FCB’s ten-year anniversary approaching later this year, Peters says it’s time to grow up. “If we’re going to continue to grow, we realized that we needed to decide what our core values are (besides a commitment to making good beer) and make sure our fans and potential customers understand what we’re really about.”
To that end, FCB surveyed its entire staff to find out what they loved most about what they were currently doing, what they had done in the past, and what they wanted to see in the future. The answers they found are summed up in their new slogan: Create Share Savor.
CREATE embodies the brewers’ passion for experimentation with beer, whether that is trying variations of classic styles or developing completely original recipes, and the staff’s overall interest in seeing other creative endeavors in the community thrive. To take advantage of its staff’s passion for creativity, FCB will be installing a pilot brew system later this year to allow brewers more opportunity for experimentation, and FCB is getting very involved with the art community, focusing philanthropic donations on art-related organizations and founding the FCB Art Brewery.
SHARE represents the importance of beer’s social function to the FCB crew.
“We all love drinking beer for the beer itself, but even more important are the friends and family we do it with, and the memories it creates,” says Marketing Director Charles Stanley. “We make a few beers that appeal to a particular niche, but mostly we design our beers so that a fairly wide range of people can enjoy them, and thus can be enjoyed socially.”
SAVOR largely refers to the value the FCB staff puts on enjoying beer with food and beer’s ability to be food itself. To that end, FCB opened Gravity 1020 Modern Tavern inside its brewery in 2011. Gravity 1020’s menu has a wide and frequently changing menu meant to pair with FCB beers, and many recipes include beer as an ingredient. But that’s not the only way FCB shows its commitment to the combination of beer and food. Those attending FCB’s free brewery tours will now receive a beer-paired hors d’oeuvre along the way, and FCB recently added food pairing tips and recipes to the beer info pages on their website.
“Beer-paired dinners are nothing new to craft beer enthusiasts,” says Jan Peters, “but we want people to know that they can enjoy beer and food together outside of a restaurant setting; it’s something that can be easily done at home.”
FCB also plans to increase philanthropic partnerships with food-oriented organizations and events, and is working with local farmers to begin hosting a farmers’ market on the brewery grounds.
“We’re very excited about the Create Share Savor concept,” says Peters. “By focusing on the aspects of beer and beer culture that we love the most, we’ll be able to take much more advantage of the passion our team has.”
