In mid-August New Planet Beer journeyed to beautiful Telluride, Colorado to participate in the annual Telluride Festival of the Arts Grand Tasting. This event provided New Planet Beer the unique opportunity of sampling our beer to event attendees with refined palates who usually favor wine to beer. Although we participated in such an event with some trepidation, New Planet Beer is pleased to announce that Grand Tasting attendees gave us a warm-welcome and lots of positive feedback. Many people said they enjoyed the refreshing, fruit-forward taste of 3R Raspberry Ale. They also were pleased to learn more about New Planet Beer’s mission to do good things for the planet by donating a portion of proceeds to local environmental restoration and conservation programs. We will look forward to participating in future events in Telluride and are pleased to announce that New Planet Beer can be purchased in numerous locations in the southern part of Colorado. For more information on where to find us in Telluride and the surrounding area, check out the ‘Where to Find Us’ section on our website.
This summer has been a momentous one for New Planet Beer. After our initial success in bringing great-tasting gluten-free beer to our fans in Colorado early last year, we decided to start joining the fun by visiting beer festivals and other events throughout the state. In doing so, we’ve been able to enjoy a closer interaction with new and existing fans of New Planet Beer. We’ve had a lot of fun and learned some valuable lessons for future events in the process. So without further ado, we give you the top 10 things we learned in our first eventful summer!
The Good, The Bad, and the Funny: New Planet’s First Summer of Events
- Give them pretzels! Did you attend any of the numerous Colorado beer festivals this summer? If you did, we’re sure that you caught at least one glimpse of a gluten-free pretzel necklace-adorned New Planet Beer fans. That’s because we know that spending several hours in the summer heat tasting beer can stir up an appetite. At future events we’ll continue our practice of supplying gluten-free pretzel necklaces to gluten-free festival goers.
- We need more swag. Festival and event-goers love to pick up swag. While supplies lasted, we were happy to provide New Planet Beer bottle openers made from recycled materials to people who visited our booth. Next year we plan on expanding our offerings with stickers as well! Also, look for more great New Planet Beer t-shirt and hat designs, soon to be available for purchase on our website.
- Pretty decorations sometimes backfire. Not every event location is conducive to having a decorative set-up. Case in point: the Fort Collins Colorado Brewer’s Festival, where our beautiful 8-foot standing banner repeatedly toppled onto our interns in the wind. Moving forward, we’ll reserve top-heavy decor for indoor venues.
- New Planet Beer tastes like beer! Please allow us some lighthearted joking at the expense of our fans. It was quite entertaining when someone new (especially gluten-free folks) tasted Tread Lightly Ale and remarked, “Wow! This tastes just like beer!” Thank you. Though an obvious statement, we are delighted that our fans are recognizing the fact that New Planet Gluten-free Beer is, in fact, beer.
- Volunteers melt in the sun. In addition to making us more visible over the crowd of event-goers, having a tent next year will prevent our volunteers and interns from overheating, sunburning, or otherwise looking miserable in the Colorado summer.
- More S,M, and less XXL That’s right. New Planet Beer t-shirts were all the rage when we initially passed them out for free and started offering them for a nominal price at events. The only problem: we didn’t anticipate how many of you would want one! We’re sorry for the t-shirt shortage and we’re working on a solution that will allow us to have more sizes and colors available in the future.
- The possibilities are endless. We participated in 14 fantastic events this summer and had the opportunity to participate in many more. Doing so allowed us to offer samples of New Planet Beer to over 18,500 thirsty event-goers. Future event planning will include a wide variety of venues and types, with a focus on those that promote planet-friendly practices or donate to environmental programs we support, in keeping with the mission of New Planet Beer.
- We can’t read chicken-scratch. Having our email sign-up sheet at events allowed many of you to receive this monthly newsletter. Unfortunately, some folks are not reading this because we couldn’t read their handwriting. We are exploring the possibility of making our email sign-up sheet digital as an alternative to having our interns study ancient and lost languages.
- Kegs are heavy. Fortunately, volunteers and staff at other breweries were friendly and let us borrow their hand-trucks. Otherwise, our interns would have rolled away with our kegs on more than one occasion. Live and learn: hand-trucks are on our shopping list.
- We love our fans. The absolute best part about being at events was meeting you, hearing your stories, and enjoying some cold New Planet Beer as friends. Thanks for supporting us at events this year! We look forward to continuing to brew great tasting gluten-free beer for you!
New Planet Beer is now being brewed in the new Fort Collins Brewery.
Fort Collins Brewery (FCB) just opened their new state-of-the-art brewery, restaurant and shops. This exciting facility is located on the northwest corner of Lemay and Vine in Fort Collins, CO. A visit is worth scheduling, as this is one of the most innovative brew houses today.
FCB moved its existing 15 barrel brew house over to the new digs, but will be supplementing greater production with the latest in automated 50 barrel systems in the near future. Since New Planet Beer will now be brewed in this larger capacity facility, we can ensure an endless supply of gluten-free beer. 
The new brewery also utilizes the most current thinking in sustainable, green technologies. FCB is most proud of their water waste system which is not connected to a public sewer, but rather recycles waste water on to farmlands. This is very much in-line with New Planet Beers efforts to strive to reduce environmental impact so we thankful that Fort Collins Brewery has taken extra steps in making this happen.
New Planet Beer will have the honor of being available in the new restaurant and on tap in the tasting room, so all of you who are eager to visit a brewery with a great tasting gluten-free beer, Fort Collins Brewery is the place to go.
Check out these videos and be one of the first to see the new Fort Collins Brewery and New Planet Beer coming of the production line…and soon to a store near you.
This year, New Planet Beer was able to attend the Denver Summer Brew Fest that benefited Swallow Hill Music Association. Swallow Hill serves a large community with instruction and performance of musical art forms such as folk, blues, bluegrass, Celtic, jazz, world, roots, and dance while focusing on preserving cultural roots and heritage in music. On July 23rd , the festival was held at the Mile High Station with over 35 plus craft breweries, 90 plus brews, and live music to satisfy over 1200 people. From brew festivals to wedding receptions, Mile High Station’s beautiful venue works for any event.
At the event, the New Planet Beer Booth featured two beers, our Tread Lightly Ale and our 3R Raspberry Ale. Festival attendees were excited to learn about New Planet Beer, as well as sample both of our beers. If you did not get a chance to make it to the Denver Brew Fest, keep an eye out for future New Planet events on our events page. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Great bands, crowds and gluten-free beer at the Breckenridge Beer Festival!
On Saturday, July 17th, New Planet Beer traveled up to Breckenridge for a weekend of music, food, and great beer at the Breckenridge Beer Festival. The event was a great success, drawing large crowds of beer lovers and a collection of great breweries such as Stone Brewing Company, Widmer Brewing Company, and Sam Adams Brewing Company, who are not seen at many Colorado beer festivals.
As with past festivals, New Planet Beer featured our Tread Lightly Ale and 3R Raspberry Ale at the Breckenridge Beer Festival. We are once again pleased to say that both styles of beer received much praise and were enjoyed as a refreshing summer treat by many. With fabulous bands, friendly crowds, and great craft beers, New Planet Beer recommends the Breckenridge Beer Festival to our friends and fans as a great opportunity to enjoy beautiful mountain views and some of the best brews around!
As members of the Colorado Brewer’s Guild, New Planet Beer had the pleasure of attending the 14th annual Colorado Brewer’s Rendezvous on July 10th in Salida. Organized by the Colorado Brewer’s Guild for member breweries and pubs only, the Rendezvous features only Colorado-made craft beers. With nearly 50 breweries and pubs in attendance and over 75 beers on tap, the Rendezvous featured a beer for every taste, and enough beer to satisfy every one of the festival’s 2500 guests!
New Planet Beer tapped a keg of our new 3R Raspberry Ale and served Tread Lightly Ale from bottles at the Brewer’s Rendezvous. People who sampled our beer commented on it’s drinkability and good taste. If you didn’t attend this year’s Colorado Brewer’s Rendezvous and want to make sure not to miss out on future events and tastings, check out our events page for opportunities to join in the fun with New Planet Beer.
On June 18th, New Planet Beer invited several of our gluten-free fans to Kakes Studios in Boulder for a tasting of some of the new styles that we’ve been working hard to perfect. To start things off, we offered tastes of Tread Lightly Ale, our flagship style. Still a favorite, our patrons enjoyed Tread Lightly Ale’s light and refreshing taste. Next we offered pours of our 3R Raspberry Ale; it was well received and perfect for the warm Boulder day– 3R Raspberry Ale is definitely going to be popular among New Planet Beer drinkers this summer.
Next, we had our tasters enjoy and give us feedback on two styles in the works, an American-style Pale Ale and a European-style Pale Ale. Designed to deliver that hoppy scent and flavor of traditional APAs, our version of the American-style Pale Ale was well received, with the vast majority of our
tasters giving us raving reviews. The beer was described as “hoppy”, “delicious”, and “exactly like the APA’s I used to drink”. Our European-style Pale Ale also received some positive reviews and our tasters provided us with a lot of valuable feedback that will help us make improvements to our recipe.
We really value our fan’s feedback so we can continue to make improvements to our gluten-free beers. Keep checking our upcoming events page so you can also have the opportunity to sample New Planet Beer.
New Planet Beer was thrilled to be at Estes Park Brewery last Saturday for the Rocky Mountain Brewfest! Despite the chilly and wet weather, the event had a great turnout. The Rocky Mountain Brewfest featured beers from several Colorado breweries, live music, and great food. We were grateful for the opportunity to dispense samples of Tread Lightly Ale to festival attendees, which made many new fans of New Planet Beer.
Both gluten-free beer drinkers and regular beer drinkers alike showed up to sample New Planet Beer. Many people said that they were pleasantly surprised with the way that Tread Lightly Ale tastes so much like regular beer, despite the use of sorghum and corn instead of wheat. We are glad that our efforts to provide a delicious gluten-free beer are bringing enjoyment to beer drinkers in Colorado.
If you’re sad you missed us at the Rocky Mountain Brewfest, never fear. We will be at the Colorado Brewer’s Festival in Fort Collins on the 26th and 27th of June, sampling our Tread Lightly Ale and debuting our 3R Raspberry Ale. Please come and find us, say hello, and enjoy a cold one, compliments of New Planet Beer!
We are excited to be participating in many beer festivals and other events this summer, including the Rocky Mountain Brewfest, Colorado Brewer’s Festival, and Denver Summer Brewfest. With all of these fun opportunities to sample beers from New Planet Beer and other Colorado breweries, we thought we’d share some of our advice as tenured festival attendees and fellow beer-lovers. To get the most out of a beer festival, follow these simple tips to have an enjoyable beer fest experience:
- Eat before the event: satisfying your hunger before you get there will help to lessen the effects of the alcohol in the beers you will be sampling.
- Stay hydrated: staying hydrated will help to minimize the effects of the heat and sun. Plus, sipping water between tastings will help to cleanse your palate so you can savor the individual characteristics of each brew.
- Use sunscreen: in the spirit of outdoor events, remember to apply sunscreen before arriving. If you plan on staying more than four hours, you should reapply throughout the day.
- Visit your top brewery selections first: research the breweries attending and sample your top selections first. The more samples you taste, the more fatigued your palate will become and the less likely you’ll taste all of the complexities and differences that make each brew great.
- Learn about the beers and breweries: to get the most out of your attendance, make your tastings educational experiences. Ask the staff questions, learn how they brew their beer and what makes them different from everyone else.
Don’t be afraid to try new things: Beer festivals will often give you the opportunity to try beers you’ve never sampled before. So don’t be afraid to enjoy that smoked porter, farmhouse ale, hoppy IPA or our specialty– gluten-free beer. You never know when you’ll find a new favorite.
Check out our events section for the most up-to-date listing of fun festivals and events that New Planet Beer will be participating in. Come see us, say hello and try our gluten-free beer – Tread Lightly Ale and 3R Raspberry Ale.
Remember to be responsible and have fun!
New Planet Beer had the pleasure of serving samples and conversing with customers at Whole Foods in Denver, CO. The Tamarac Whole Foods is the only Colorado location that has the ability to sell alcohol, so tasting events take place every Saturday from 1-6pm. In addition to two premium wine options, Tread Lightly Ale flowed freely throughout the day. Enthusiastic patrons who bought a six pack during our visit also received a one-of-a-kind organic New Planet Beer t-shirt. In addition, everyone that came by our both received a bottle opener and an informational card describing the unique background of gluten-free beer. The talk of the day was centered around the forthcoming release of the New Planet 3R Raspberry Ale which should be hitting the shelves this summer. Be sure to keep an eye out for this Raspberry delight as it’s sure to be a hit. Special thanks to the kind team members of Whole Foods for supporting New Planet Beer and their assistance throughout the day. We look forward to many similar events this summer of which will be promoted through our website.
