New Belgium’s Katie Wallace Understands a Brewery’s Greatest Asset
Clean Water from a Healthy River
American Whitewater’s mission to protect and restore America’s whitewater rivers and to enhance opportunities to enjoy them safely isn’t just good for rivers and the paddlers who frequent them. Healthy and clean rivers also support a vibrant industry of river users and entire communities who rely on rivers for their fresh water supplies. At American Whitewater, we partner with industry leaders in an official capacity to further our mission and to benefit the companies that believe in our vision. We sat down recently with New Belgium Brewing Company’s Katie Wallace to discuss New Belgium’s long history of river advocacy and the brewery’s intimate and necessary connection to the river water that forms the basis of their product, delicious artisan beer. We hope you consider a company’s commitment to river stewardship when you make purchases.
American Whitewater: Hi Katie, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your personal relationship to rivers?
I grew up along the Missouri River and its endless tributaries with a family of water nerds. We’d chase the cleanest water in the state and set up camp, go on creek hikes, and play music around the campfire. We’d monitor river health with my Mom’s stream team, looking for mayflies and tadpoles. And we’d swim — Indian Creek near my Grandpa’s blueberry farm was the best — crystal clear, straight from the ground. When we had to stay close to home, my dad would take us on creek hikes around town instead of going to church. I guess it was our church. We’d just follow the streams and see where they led us, crouching through the occasional drainage tunnel (Goonies!). Sometimes we’d end up in a classmate or friend’s backyard. It was random and wonderful and occasionally awkwaaaaaaaaard.
I’ve traveled across the world since then and visited many rivers, from Belongil Creek (Australia) to the Amazon, always feeling much better when I’m near flowing water. I don’t think I could live more than a mile or so from a good river. Today the Wild and Scenic Poudre River is my backyard. It’s also a working river — it waters my garden and the farms that feed me. It also makes my beer and writes my paychecks, so I’m extra lucky for that.
AW: What’s your current role at New Belgium, how long have you been with the brewery, and how has your work evolved over time? I’m the Director of Social & Environmental Impact here at New Belgium Brewing. Been here nearly 16 years. Luckily, our founders always cared about the outdoors. And rivers give us our #1 ingredient for beer. It made it easy for us to get involved in local issues when they came up. Dealing with drought, wildfire, and enormous population growth over the last decade, I’ve personally learned a lot about all the complexities of Wild and Scenic working rivers in the West. Our approach to water stewardship is much more nuanced these days. We still stand strong for the flows of these rivers — our playgrounds, our life lines — and we know we need to take a collaborative approach to protecting that water.
AW: When did New Belgium become active in the protection of our water resources and what led to the decision to do so? Over 90% of beer is water. Our founders, Kim & Jeff, traveled up to the top of the watershed before they sold their first beer. They wrote their business purpose and core values sitting on the Continental Divide and included “Environmental Stewardship” in our foundational tenets. So it’s always been top of mind that we rely on healthy land and water to do our business. And since we use water to make beer, we have an added responsibility to invest in the health of our rivers. Over 10 years ago, a diversion project came to our attention, one that proposed to take quite a bit of water out of the Poudre River to fill two new reservoirs: Glade and Galeton. We felt the project hadn’t fully considered the environmental impacts and we also weren’t convinced that it was the cheapest, safest alternative to quench the thirst of population growth and keep agriculture in business. So we funded a local nonprofit that was pushing back on the project in order to improve attention toward the long-term health of the river. We brewed a beer called Skinny Dip and featured people skinny dipping for a cause in the river to help get the story out. We actually replicated that campaign for Skinny Dip to fund nonprofits protecting Trestles Break (CA), taking down the Condit Dam on the White Salmon, and numerous projects for the Colorado River.
AW: What are some of the successes of river/water protection you all have been involved in? Well, our greatest successes are in drastically reducing our water demand at the brewery and cleaning our water onsite. As for our philanthropic work, luckily we’ve seen good success in some of the projects we funded through the Skinny Dip campaign. Trestles was protected and thanks to the help of American Whitewater, the Condit Dam finally came down! In Fort Collins, Colorado, we’ve spent hundreds of thousands on river projects. We helped fund the removal of a small diversion in town that also helped to restore wetlands, we donated to instream flows on the Poudre, and also funded the feasibility study for the brand-new Whitewater Park by the brewery. We have this great river running through town and with few access points, it was hardly used. We like to fund projects that bring more people to love the river (also, I’m not too bummed about having some surf waves close by!).
When we built our brewery on a brownfield site in Asheville, North Carolina, we worked with the City and Equinox Environmental to daylight (restore to above ground state) Penland Creek and improve stormwater management practices. Today we help fund water quality monitoring in the area and are funding a take-out next to our brewery. We also give dollars to the local Waterkeeper’s canoe camping routes along the French Broad.
AW: What are the main sources of New Belgium’s water supply? In Fort Collins, we source water from the City of Fort Collins, who pull about half their supply out of the Poudre River and the other half out of Horsetooth Reservoir, which is Colorado River water from the Colorado Big Thompson project. The City of Asheville sources its water straight out of the Black Mountains in eastern Buncombe County. At both breweries, we’re lucky enough to be the first users of the water as it comes straight out of the mountains.
AW: How much water, on average, does the brewery use in a day? How much for a single can of beer? It takes about four gallons of water to make one gallon of beer. A quarter of that water goes out in the beer, of course, another quarter goes out with the spent grain or evaporates, and about half that water goes back to the City who finishes cleaning it and puts it back in the river.
AW: New Belgium and American Whitewater have worked together before; can you tell us a little more about that early partnership?
Through our Skinny Dip campaign, we were lucky enough to link up with American Whitewater 10+ years ago. Most people thought we chose to work with AW because they were the most photogenic for the skinny dipping shots (which is clearly true) but we actually chose them because they were doing good collaborative work to take down the Condit Dam on the White Salmon. Last year we went back there to film Tyler Bradt and Leland Miyawaki for Fat Tire’s Finding Common Ground films, and it was a completely different place. It’s amazing how resilient rivers can be when we get out of their way. And it wouldn’t be possible without passionate and pragmatic people like those at American Whitewater.
AW: What are your current goals for river protection?
We’re focused on helping to articulate the business value of healthy, flowing rivers. In Fort Collins we helped to start up the River District, a group of businesses surrounding the river that stand to benefit from things like the new whitewater park. And we’ve helped the Brewers Association kick off a study that will help craft brewers across the nation get better connected to their water supplies. And close to home, we’re focusing on the security of our water supplies by lending our business voice to policy advocacy work and by financially supporting the NPOs like American Whitewater that are doing the critical work of protecting the flows and riparian systems of our rivers. We all have to see how we can uniquely contribute to the work, and then together leverage our strengths. We know how to make beer, you know how to protect rivers; we need healthy rivers to make good beer, and most river trips wouldn’t be good river trips without a tasty beer. It’s all connected.
AW: How do you see a partnership with AW being the
most successful? American Whitewater has a savvy crew that understands delicate local relationships, policy, and data. You all know your strengths and you focus in on them with a good amount of diligence. Even better, the team we’re working with in Colorado understands the value of cultivating common ground with diverse and dynamic interests, and collaborates well with stakeholders like the anglers, bird hunters, farmers, and businesses. Plus they
are a heck ton of fun, so we’re sure to have a good time working together. As a business, we see our strengths as (1) lending our business voice when it’s relevant to policy and stewardship initiatives (AW can help us to curate these opportunities), and then (2) funding the work AW knows how to do with proceeds from our beer sales (Fat Tire and Mountain Time are certified by 1% for the Planet, meaning 1% of our revenue goes to environmentallyfocused nonprofits like AW. The more beer you drink, the more $$$ we give!)
AW: How could other beer companies learn from your
water advocacy? A few ideas: (1) Start by getting to know the complexities of your water supplies. This isn’t just about sustainability; it’s also about business risk like avoiding the impacts of droughts, wildfires, algae blooms, etc. You don’t want these kinds of surprises. In some cases, breweries have had to cut back production because of events like these. Keep an eye out for the water risk report coming out from the Brewers Association in 2020. Meanwhile, enter your water data into the BA Benchmarking Tool to see if you’re using more or less water than most
breweries your size, and check out the water saving ideas in the BA manual. All of these resources have the potential to save you money in the near-term and long-term.
(2) Water risks can be completely different from one watershed to another. Start a learning cooperative with other local
breweries to learn more about your watershed. We co-founded BreWater in Fort Collins, and by organizing we were able to bring in better speakers from the utility, from the nonprofits, and from the water lords of the West. We meet quarterly to learn about water supply, water quality, watershed risk, etc., and then we tour the host brewery to share ideas around water conservation in brewing.
(3) Find one or two nonprofit partners that are doing excellent stewardship work on your water supplies, whether it’s a local Waterkeeper or a stellar national NPO like American Whitewater. Donate what you can — beer can help and money is even better!
(4) Finally, get to know your city council and your county commissioners and tell them that clean, healthy waterways matter to your business and the quality of your beers.
AW: What is your favorite New Belgium beer? Impossible to pick only one! Mural is the best summertime beer or day drinking beer, I’m having a renaissance appreciation for Fat Tire Amber Ale, and occasionally I treat myself to a Le Terrior sour beer. Oh and Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze is always in the rotation.
AW: What is your favorite river or river trip? Easy answer: my favorite river trip was obviously the Yampa trip with my AW friends, when it was nearly June and it snowed on us the entire time. My clothes still smell like sleet, campfire, and tequila. Never had so much fun with so many miserable people!
